TV vs Reality: Black Mirror and China's Social Credit System

04/05/18

"We can't stop here. This is bat country!""

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Rolling Stone, November 11, 1971.

It would seem we are truly in bat country.  Undefined menaces, possibly totally imagined, possibly very real, are swooping and diving at our heads. And, we cannot stop here, we must, as a nation and a culture, keep moving. To survive, we must move beyond our current quagmire.  Otherwise, the nuisance will become a menace, the menace an incontrovertible barrier to solutions, and the barrier an opportunity for fuckery by the government. 

Today’s most popular TV shows, be they network, cable or streaming options, have exploded into the extreme.  Lost, Breaking Bad, and others such as Mr. Robot have propelled the viewing opportunities into the truly bizarre story line, themes which take true talent in the contorted to pull off.  By the ratings, these shows have succeeded in spades.

Most recently, two anthology series have grabbed headlines:  Black Mirror and, to a lesser extent, Electric Dreams.  These shows are unconnected episode to episode, but thematically woven into whole cloth by their twisted story lines which have frighteningly accurate social commentary, some episodes more than others. I want to take these, respectively, into the Bat Country perspective. 

Black Mirror, begun as a BBC experiment in the absurd, strikes very close to reality on many attempts.  Themes include technology, from video gaming to comprehensive technology which records every minute of one’s life, to modern politics.  One episode in particular takes a very critical, but accurate, take on social media.

 “Nose Dive” has seen more direct media attention than any other.  This episode focuses on the implications of a pervasive social media which ultimately determines the opportunities of the individual regarding commerce, lifestyle, and their general reputation.  Every social interaction is run through the ratings of those encountered.

Imagine your housing, purchases, and every choice you make is governed by the “likes” and comments from others you had on Facebook.  In the world of the heroine, all encounters are rated on the cell phone.  Buying a cup of coffee, the barista is rated on a scale of one to five.  Not only are you rating your service, or simply the person on the other side of the counter, they are rating you.  Smiling and acknowledging a passing jogger could merit a bump in your ratings, versus a hit if you don’t.

All access to things like a desirable apartment, connection on a flight, or a rental car which is up to snuff is determined by one’s overall rating.  Here, an invitation to a wedding attended by highly rated folks is guaranteed to raise your personal rating.

But, lose your cool with an airline ticketing agent, and you could be penalized an entire 20% of your status.  This will ensure you continue to get upset, further upsetting those around you, who give you a negative rating.

Note, all of these encounters are registered on a cell phone.  Point it at someone and their rating, and your ability to rate them, appears on the screen.  The positives and negatives have cascading and exponential effects.  Ultimately, our heroine’s rating soars and plummets. 

Flash forward to the real world, where likes have an impact, and social media critiques have an impact.  China, since 2014, has been finessing a system by which one is subject to such a system.  From health care to plane seats, one’s social rating is a governor of access.

Granted, the communist state system has long depended on the individual’s fealty to the system as a regulating factor to access to services and condemnation.  The frightening link to reality is that this system is being programmed, allowing for a cumulative score be given to an individual which determines multiple aspects of that individual’s life.  Strikes against one could include criminal offenses to the treatment of elderly family members.  All aspects of life are put into an algorithm which ranks the value of the individual to the community.

As this Orwellian analysis of one’s worth is digested into computer code, it is made transferable.  It would be unfathomable for such a technology, developed by a world player aching for supremacy, to not be converted into commercial benefit.  We are only now realizing the impact of foreign influence on our nation utilizing social media, much less the power of such data sinks as Cambridge Analytica.  Imagine if your social media footprint was funneled into some ranking system which determined your every opportunity.

Then, there is the less reviewed first season of Electric Dreams.  These stories were derived from the decades old writer Phillip K. Dick.  Among them, one story quickly rises to the surface, and has frightening correlations to our current situation in the United States.

In the episode “Kill All Others”, the hero gives a double take when the (only) candidate for national leadership offers this in an offhand manner as a firm plank in her platform.  The society in this performance is far beyond ours as far as fascism in its exercise and acceptance.  The hero’s notice of this comment is at first seen as a possible misunderstanding, then a possible conflict in interpretation, and finally as a fatal reality – for reasons of disagreement with the status quo, the world turns against the hero.

Because he found fault with the prevailing mentality, the newspeak of his world, our hero is first chastised, then scrutinized, then killed.  He is no more guilty of sedition than being shocked at the fact that “Others” are so loosely defined and so actively pursued.  Concerned about what he sees in daily life, he asks questions.  His coworkers, pared down to government minimums, dismiss him.  His concerns float to the notice of his supervisor, at which point he is monitored and questioned by the authorities.

The episode is complex in its development, so watch it for yourself.  The bottom line is the chronical of a man’s concern for diversity from the party line being lifted to cause for assassination to suppress the least discernment of alternative thinking.  It’s pretty powerful stuff.

So, can you fathom one’s social score stretching beyond limiting access to requiring elimination?  Too much contrary posting might just result in a disappearing. 

I can only imagine Dr. Thompson’s ire as he would put it into words.