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I bought a copy on launch and working my way through. There's some really excellent stuff in here, fiction is a great way to analyse and get thinking about how

I bought a copy on launch and working my way through. There's some really excellent stuff in here, fiction is a great way to analyse and get thinking about how the near-ish future could look, and that's what the theme of this collection is.

dylan604 11mo ago
That's what makes Black Mirror so compelling. It's not flights of fancy with things like FTL traveling through space. It's taking slight twists to the darker side of where our tech leaders are taking us. At least someone is thinking these things through to the end even if our teach leaders are only thinking through to the $$$$. Too bad these stories are never enough to slow things down and used as "oooh, let's not let our tech come to that".
- asacrowflies 11mo ago
  Yeah a lot like older sci Fi works I think we won't take the warnings. Glad we aren't completely blind to it tho. Remind me of the "1984 was not a manual" memes
  - jandrese 11mo ago
    The meme about the Torment Nexus continues to be worryingly relevant in the modern world.
- fragmede 11mo ago
  OH that's the fantasy that people like watching that show under! I hate that show's premise because reality is depressing enough, my mind easily conjures up shit going wrong, and (as an adult) I don't need a TV show giving me more nightmare fuel. Plus, that one episode where we all wear glasses that let you delete people by not seeing them seems like a instruction manual to tech giants working on AR glasses. Apple airpod noise cancellation already does this for audio, Apple Vision or Meta glasses doing that for visual pollution seems not that far behind. It would be nice to walk around the neighborhood and not see any billboards. Not seeing people that wrote wrong things on Twitter seems like it's just a GitHub repo away.
  - pbhjpbhj 11mo ago
    Maybe one could hack it to block out adverts? There would be a sudden impulse towards "moral conscience" meaning the feature had to be removed. Creating a World without adverts might be a route to utopia.
    - fragmede 11mo ago
      You're absolutely right! let me get back to you after these messages from Coca cola! I'm not an absolutist. How would you find out about new products in a world without advertising? There are ads I could do without, sure, but some do perform a useful function.
      - pbhjpbhj 11mo ago
        Information and adverts are different. I feel HN is probably not conducive to an extended conversation about where the line lies. But, ... I'd loved to have an extended database of well structured factual information about products.
  - dylan604 11mo ago
    Meta would never block ads. If anything, they would detect things like billboards and have the AR system replace them with ads bought through Meta's ad system. But blocking them completely so the user has an ad free life experience? Never.
    - fragmede 11mo ago
      Meta wouldn't just not block ads, they'd use the eye tracking system in the apple goggles to charge advertisers for time you spent actually looking at the ads, and then also the ad countdown timer would only count down while you were actually watching the ad. Look away from the ad and the ad stops playing! (See? No black mirror necessary for my brain to dredge out some dystopian ass shit)
      - ad_hockey 11mo ago

dylan604 11mo ago

That's what makes Black Mirror so compelling. It's not flights of fancy with things like FTL traveling through space. It's taking slight twists to the darker side of where our tech leaders are taking us. At least someone is thinking these things through to the end even if our teach leaders are only thinking through to the $$$$. Too bad these stories are never enough to slow things down and used as "oooh, let's not let our tech come to that".

asacrowflies 11mo ago
Yeah a lot like older sci Fi works I think we won't take the warnings. Glad we aren't completely blind to it tho. Remind me of the "1984 was not a manual" memes
- jandrese 11mo ago
  The meme about the Torment Nexus continues to be worryingly relevant in the modern world.
fragmede 11mo ago
OH that's the fantasy that people like watching that show under! I hate that show's premise because reality is depressing enough, my mind easily conjures up shit going wrong, and (as an adult) I don't need a TV show giving me more nightmare fuel. Plus, that one episode where we all wear glasses that let you delete people by not seeing them seems like a instruction manual to tech giants working on AR glasses. Apple airpod noise cancellation already does this for audio, Apple Vision or Meta glasses doing that for visual pollution seems not that far behind. It would be nice to walk around the neighborhood and not see any billboards. Not seeing people that wrote wrong things on Twitter seems like it's just a GitHub repo away.
- pbhjpbhj 11mo ago
  Maybe one could hack it to block out adverts? There would be a sudden impulse towards "moral conscience" meaning the feature had to be removed. Creating a World without adverts might be a route to utopia.
  - fragmede 11mo ago
    You're absolutely right! let me get back to you after these messages from Coca cola! I'm not an absolutist. How would you find out about new products in a world without advertising? There are ads I could do without, sure, but some do perform a useful function.
    - pbhjpbhj 11mo ago
      Information and adverts are different. I feel HN is probably not conducive to an extended conversation about where the line lies. But, ... I'd loved to have an extended database of well structured factual information about products.
- dylan604 11mo ago
  Meta would never block ads. If anything, they would detect things like billboards and have the AR system replace them with ads bought through Meta's ad system. But blocking them completely so the user has an ad free life experience? Never.
  - fragmede 11mo ago
    Meta wouldn't just not block ads, they'd use the eye tracking system in the apple goggles to charge advertisers for time you spent actually looking at the ads, and then also the ad countdown timer would only count down while you were actually watching the ad. Look away from the ad and the ad stops playing! (See? No black mirror necessary for my brain to dredge out some dystopian ass shit)
    - ad_hockey 11mo ago