this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2025
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Technology

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69
Black Mirror’s pessimism porn won’t lead us to a better future | Louis Anslow (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 days ago by Womble@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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A new progressivism, one that embraces construction over obstruction, must find new allegories to think about technology and the future

Black Mirror fails to consistently explore the duality of technology and our reactions to it. It is a critical deficit. The show mimics the folly of Icarus and Daedalus – the original tech bros – and the hubris of Jurassic Park’s Dr Hammond. Missing are the lessons of the Prometheus myth, which shows fire as a boon for humanity, not doom, though its democratization angered benevolent gods. Absent is the plot twist of Pandora’s box that made it philosophically useful: the box also contained hope and opportunity that new knowledge brings. While Black Mirror explores how humans react to technology, it too often does so in service of a dystopian narrative, ignoring Isaac Asimov’s observation: that humans are prone to irrationally fear or resist technology.

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[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Honestly I'm with black mirror. These days when a new tech appears, the mind immediately wonders how this will be abused it obstructed by other parties. That's not the show's fault but of what keeps happening in real life.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I don't think that way. Only when it comes from billionaires do I think that, but FOSS doesn't elicit the same feelings, nor does the advent of a new telescope or life-saving laparoscopic robot.

The problem isn't technology, it's the billionaires, and we collectively groan only because they've been allowed to abuse humanity for too long. Black Mirror is only correct insomuch as we allow that to keep happening, and we're far from powerless.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 6 points 2 days ago

Popular media doesn't really investigate other ways of organizing society. It's always the standard job, shop and money with only rare exceptions. It just swaps dollars with credits, uses hovercars instead of normal cars and calls it a day. Hell, they were shoveling coal into a reactor in Rebel Moon to power their space ship. I don't expect that much from entertainment and can live with the black mirror doom porn. Maybe I give writing my own stuff another try, but I'm not a good writer.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 2 points 2 days ago

Same here. There have been tons of technologies coming out recently where my main reaction is "awesome, I can't wait to use the heck out of that." If anything my biggest sigh comes from "but I bet the comment threads are going to be littered with tedious doomers moaning about how it's going to enable the awful stuff they're imagining instead."