Reading Group
I didn’t have a reading group up until later in the week. Therefore once I knew which group I’m in, I immediately joined the group chat and we went through the reading list together via What’s app. Each of us got assigned a book to read by choice. I chose to read the article ‘Enacting Reflection Through Sci-fi’, Black Mirror and Philosophy by Sergio Urueña which talks about the Netflix’s series Black Mirror and the philosophy behind it. The article is about page long. Personally , I have been a fan of the Netflix series “Black Mirror” since forever as the show really reflects the world we are living in and it also portrays a direction of how the “future world” is going to be. This show really keeps the audience enagaged and got me thinking along.
Sergio Urueña outlines how some Black Mirror stories—the ones that seem to have a certain dose of reality wrapped in halos of fantasy—not only tell something about our social realities but could also shape reality itself.
https://andphilosophy.com/2019/12/16/enacting-reflection-through-sci-fi/
This was what written in The Editor’s Note. I had me thinking about the future. What will our world look like in 100 years ahead? Will it be similar to the series? Will technology develop to be that advance? Will we be working from home? Will we get social ratings? Will there be camera’s everwhere? Will we be monitored all the time? We will live in the world where authorities can look into what we see each day? Will there still be privacy? Will we be consumed into technolgy that we don’t really care about how we used to live without them?
The title of the series itself is a good metaphor to express it in other words. Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror, said that the title of the series evokes the following:
“Because any TV, any LCD, any iPhone, any iPad – something like that – if you just stare at it, it looks like a black mirror, and there’s something cold and horrifying about that, and it was such a fitting title for the show.”
(source)
I have never questioned why or really look into the name of the series and have never knew the true meaning behind it. After reading this quote, my reaction was like “woahh”. The name of the series is actually deep.
After the disscussion I had with some friends on this article and gave our thoughts on it. We agreed that Black Mirror is one of the most realistic sci-fi stories, which is why it can be scary for some people. Many other sci-fi movies are just too far from reality, which makes them less useful for getting people to come up with new ideas. Black Mirror tells stories that we can all relate to and uses tools that we all agree with. It makes us think more seriously about technology.We also emphasised that all people are already aware of what is happening with technology, but no one really tries to make a change. On the other side, we understood that many individuals may feel helpless. The group used the iPhone as an example of how Apple manipulates us into always purchasing new products by making our current phones slower and weaker in terms of battery life. This is an excellent illustration of how the system governs us. People in influential positions inside these corporations sell us future hopes that motivate us to purchase their products. In addition, we realise that technology gives us the belief that it would make our lives easier, but in reality, it keeps us busier and more stressed, as it sells a belief but not a reality.
Project Group – Lemon Group
We met for the first time to discuss the first layer of our project. We looked into the brief to identify the keypoints to the project to make sure we cover them all as well as disscussing the possible directions/ ideas to the future of work.
We brainstormed a few ideas including:
- Re-transforming labor from something negative to positive
- Social experience, work historically being a place to build social connections and structures / hunt together gather together
- A workplace that can work in both capitalist and socialist systems
- Other ways to discuss labor/ways to work without the post-work concept
- SEVERANCE TV show – biotechnology corporation, Lumon Industries, uses a mindwipe medical procedure called “severance” to separate the consciousness of their employees between their lives at work and outside of it
- Importance of working conditions, Office culture, flexibility, Agency/Freedom
- Self-expression/The need and importance of having individuality within a collective labor body
We noticed that the conversation about technological development and workplace values was the most common, so we agreed to research in that area.
In conclusion, we want to do our project on an organization/institution.
Our organization’s values:
- Self-expression/The need and importance of having individuality within a collective labor body
- Collective labor
- Relational
- Our product is made for the benefit and needs of the community and the employers (brings value to the city – Ibn Khaldun economic theory)