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Black Mirror for the local train

 Black Mirror is the poison I look forward to consuming. The ideas of humanity in the increased scope of technology are sometimes so well-portrayed that the mark of philosophical deadlock stays on one’s mind for long.



With these expectations, I was bit disappointed with the first two episodes of the latest season (released in June 2023). First one was fine, though utterly predictable for those with long association with series. The second one is not even a Blank Mirror episode. By just being a psychological thriller, it doesn’t even the fit to the theme Black Mirror has explored.

Finally, it hit home with the third one. There it is, a question, who we are, staring in our face as the story unfolds.

The episode reminded me of a cynical imagination I have nursed for long. While commuting in suburban local trains of Mumbai, I have always wondered about it when I have felt crushed right at the start of the day by a giant wave of increasingly homogenous human existence. What if two individuals, with similar nuclear family backgrounds, similar careers, similar attires, similar phones, and similar lifestyle are swapped and sent to each other’s households? How long before families realize that it is someone different?

While watching the third episode, my cynical imagination became sharper. Obviously, families will recognise the instant they see the different face. But suppose we swap that invisible core of what we call ‘self’ and keep face the same? Then how long before other family members come to know, or will they even come to know?

When two individuals are working in firms with similar work profiles, from schools which are largely similar, with lifestyle which are largely similar, with homes, gadgets, and vehicles largely similar, where is the scope for differentiation? What is that unique self which is distinguishable from every other? I will not ponder this line further. But please think about these things, when you observe the pool of homogeneity at any place like metro, railway, mall, holiday destination.

I end up watching many human faces due to my livelihood as an instructor. My hypothesis is there are few broad structures of human appearance. So essentially, many students are part of same class of appearance. And with brands which are increasingly becoming norms of lives, there are fewer points to distinguish them unless you have a deeper conversation with them. Otherwise, it is just a whole batch of nearly identical existence playing out its set of possibilities.

Think about lead male and female characters from soap operas. Aren’t they just from same mould, their physiques so eerily similar to each other and their roles as well?

I know ridiculousness of my cynical imagination. But let’s play it out more like the Black Mirror.

Suppose we are given a product as follows. A replica, just like us, will do unpleasant stuff like commuting for us. So, I just sleep in the pod, my replica hobbles through metro and what not, then it works connecting to my brain from my pod, and then returns home where I park it and become myself again. Or why even have the commute? Let the replica be at home or office. Maybe it is my replica which drops my son when I have important meeting. And now imagine, a cross-connection! May be sometime soon, Black Mirror will have its India version, like other shows are having. Or perhaps we already are in one episode, how do we know? 

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