The Black Mirror
Talking about Walter Benjamin’s Art in the Age of Mechanical Reporudction and many of Jaron Lanier’s critique about open access has me thinking about the BBC series Black Mirror. Particularly the episode 15 Million Merits.
Heres a link to the Wikipedia synopsis of the episode (warning! Spoilers):
In 15 Million Merits, people are depicted bicycling to generate power in exchange for “merits.” The merits allow them to purchase virtual items. While they bike, they have to watch advertisements and shows. To pass on these advertisements/shows, the cyclists need to spend their merits. if they don’t have merits, they must watch. (Like the advertisements on Words with Friends Free version!) If they close or avert their eyes an alarm sounds.
This episode of Black Mirror captures the fear of a virtual world where people exist just to consume images on a screen, where no real product is created because products are continually devalued by their costliness. This result is of course a natural consequence of electronic products becoming “free.” The people who exist in this reality buy things for their avatars, but live without accouterments. Their existence is automated and limited. The flickering lights they bicycle to power are the harness that keeps them seated and staring at the black mirror. the episode asks “what is more radical than just..stopping?”
We have a fear of technology that has been pervasive through time. The problem present within free apps isn’t the technology, but rather the economics behind the technology. Expediency is boosted by technology, which enables companies to reduce their costs by employing people less and making fewer tangible products. So the price of things shifts ever further away from the labor it takes to make tangible objects. This is late capitalism, we are purchasing nothing lasting. to entertain ourselves.
