What 'Black Mirror' gets wrong about tomorrow's tech
What's the story
Black Mirror is an excellent series that delves into the dark side of tech and its potential influence on society. It is interesting to watch, but often, it paints a dystopian picture that is not what we imagine our future to be. The show usually tends to go to extremes, overshadowing the balanced, positive role of tech in our future. Here's what Black Mirror might be getting wrong about our techy future.
Privacy concerns
Overemphasis on surveillance
The series often emphasizes surveillance as an unavoidable outcome of technological advancement. However, that mindset ignores work in progress to strengthen privacy safeguards and create user-focused, consent-first, secure-by-design technologies. Many tech companies are investing in encryption and other privacy-preserving technologies to keep the user data safe.
Benefits ignored
Neglecting positive impacts
While Black Mirror has been all about the bad stuff, it often disregards the good that technology can do for us. Innovations in healthcare, education, communication have greatly enhanced the quality of life of a large number of people across the globe. These advancements show how we can use technology for good instead of making it a subject of fear.
Resilience factor
Underestimating human adaptability
Often, the show has humans appear as passive victims of technology's evolution. However, history has proven otherwise. Humans have adapted skillfully to technological changes. Society has evolved regulations, ethical guidelines, and educational programs to handle these changes responsibly. This proves our resilience and proactive approach in integrating new technologies into our lives, ensuring they serve us rather than dominate.
AI realities
Misrepresentation of AI capabilities
In Black Mirror, we either see AI as having god-like capabilities or evil designs. This depiction, however, is far from the reality of today's world where AI is still largely task-oriented and human-monitored. While the technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, it is still far from being generally intelligent or autonomous without any human intervention.