Memory
Recorded lives, split selves and replayable pasts: what happens when nothing is forgotten.
4 pieces on Nearfi: 4 reviews. Across their 16 tracked predictions, 9 have arrived, 3 are arriving, 4 are near, 0 are far off and 0 went another way. The average P(n) is 77%. Closest to now: After Yang at 86%. Furthest: Severance at 65%.
- ARRIVING A general-purpose humanoid robot lives in the family home as a member of the household. After Yang
- ARRIVING Ordinary people wear a device that continuously records what they hear and see, so their day can be replayed later. Black Mirror: The Entire History of You
- ARRIVED A companion robot bought for a child stops working because its manufacturer has gone out of business, leaving the family to grieve it. After Yang · 2024
- ARRIVED A household device secretly records intimate moments, and the footage or audio is retained in ways owners were never told about. After Yang · 2019
- ARRIVED People can search and replay a complete record of their own recent past instead of relying on memory. Black Mirror: The Entire History of You · 2025
- ARRIVING Workers' brain activity is measured with neurotechnology and the data is collected at work. Severance · est. 2032
- NEAR A small implant behind the ear records everything a person sees and hears and plays it back into their eyes. Black Mirror: The Entire History of You · est. 2050
- NEAR A brain implant can divide a person's memories into separate work and non-work selves. Severance · est. 2060
- NEAR A device records a person's full sensory experience straight from the brain and plays it back into someone else's. Strange Days · est. 2065
- NEAR Human clones live ordinary lives among us. After Yang · est. 2070
Rewind Is Not a Cure
Jesse Armstrong's 44-minute marriage autopsy is the best thing in Black Mirror's first series, and its gadget is now a feature you can switch on in Windows settings.
A Few Seconds, Chosen With Love
Kogonada's gentle film about a broken android son is the least sensational AI story of its decade, and the first one that knew what the real heartbreak would be.
No Escape Key
Apple's office horror is the most beautiful thing ever made about a cubicle, and its sharpest prophecy has nothing to do with the chip in Mark's head.
Real Time Costs Extra
Kathryn Bigelow's millennium-eve thriller invented a machine that records memories, then accidentally predicted the far more important device in every bystander's pocket.
More themes: AI and machine minds · Surveillance and scoring · Space · Climate and scarcity · Pandemics and collapse · Borders and migration · Clones and genetics · Grief and technology · Work