Every so often, you watch something that makes you reel back, enstranged, and forces you to really look at the world around you, to really see what is happening that has become so familiar. Black Mirror, a Charlie Brooker psychological-thriller series, looks at the impact technology has and could make on our future society. Each episode is self-contained and assesses a different technological development or invention that bends the possibilities of the future, stretches human capabilities and tests human morals. Every episode is startlingly creative, presenting the technological modern audience with everything and anything that could go wrong.
One episode in particular, "Fifteen Million Merits" (S1E2) hit me significantly hard. The narrative tells the story of a future universe where humans live in futuristic, black-boxed rooms, riding on stationary bicycles day-in-day-out to generate power. Each person must ride everyday to receive "merits", a kind of electronic currency that they need in order to purchase everything from toothpaste to new clothes for their online avatars. This universe is bleak, but simultaneously bright with the light from the screens implanted in every wall.
