By Mike Marquiss
This week saw the return of Charlie Brooker’s splendid Black Mirror series and following in the footsteps of season one, the impact of technology and social media on society seems to be a central theme once again. Due to some fortuitous TV scheduling and cold/flu season decimating any sort of better plans, I was able to watch the first episode on Valentine’s Day. Although brilliant by all accounts, moving throughout and very funny in places, it served as yet another stark reminder of technology’s grip on romance and love. Whether you think it’s brilliant, sad or even frightening, it’s hard to escape the fact that nowhere is love more visible these days than online. Whether it’s online dating, relationship apps or just the status updates of an excessively affectionate couple on social media, you can’t escape the digital spectre of love.
In case you didn’t catch the first instalment, Black Mirror episode one proposes that technology’s impact on love could one day extend beyond even death. In this nightmarish future, you can program your deceased partner’s digital existence into a voice simulator or physical avatar – it’s essentially just Jurassic Park but instead of DNA samples preserved in amber, it’s your Twitter feed, personal emails and Instagram account.
The plot is always bordering on the ridiculous but if you’re willing to make the stretch, it could be considered as an interesting illustration of big data analytics’ potential real life applications, both the romantic and less so. As we store more and more personal data online, it begs the question of ‘how much of what make you you, can be found online?’ I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’re at the cloning stage just yet (God forbid!), but just using Joe Bloggs’ LinkedIn, Facebook and email accounts, you could blag your way through a pretty tough cross-examination from even their closest contacts and fool them into thinking you’re him. Who’s to say how much further this could go in the future, but regardless to say it’s certainly an exciting prospect, if not an absolutely terrifying one.
Comments