论文总字数：66319字

摘 要

本论文立足于充斥着电子屏幕的传媒生态，对黑科技带来的异化进行批判。本文主论点围绕异化概念在数字媒体世界的三大维度，即科技资本主义，技术政治和后人类。为了赋予以上抽象理论具象化的意义，本论文将其置入反乌托邦科幻系列剧《黑镜》的具体文本之中分析。通过《黑镜》对黑科技的大胆探讨为当代媒体文化研究和人与科技的关系提供批判性思考。

在论文开篇笔者首先建立了一个全面的理论框架，重新审视并发展了卡尔·马克思在工业资本主义时代提出的异化观念，指出异化概念在数字传媒时代的延伸与拓展。从科技资本主义，技术政治和后人类三个层面，笔者讨论了黑科技下异化的种种表现特征以及其如何影响人类运用媒介科技。以《黑镜》作为一个有效案例，本论文综合分析了科技资本主义层面上科技拜物主义和科技享乐主义带来的异化，技术政治层面上技术监视和社会分层带来的异化，以及后人类层面上赛博格和仿真机器人带来的异化。

本论文采用跨学科和比较研究方法，探索数字时代下新兴且多变的媒介生态下异化意义的发展。通过批判性学术研究，本论文将科幻系列剧《黑镜》对媒体文化的批判与现实科技发展结合对照。基于现实科技发展现状的同时，本论文将目光放眼于数字媒体文化的未来趋势，探讨数字传媒新时代黑科技引发的异化的深层意蕴。

关键词： 异化，黑镜，科技资本主义，技术政治，后人类

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements i

English Abstract ii

Chinese Abstract iii

Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………………..iv

List of Figures vi

Introduction 1

1. Background………………………………………………………………………………....1

2. Black Mirror………………………………………………………………………………..2

3. Significance of Study…………………………………………………………………….....3

4.Overview of Study…………………………………………………………………………..4

Chapter One Theoretical Framework: Dark Technology Generates Alienation 6

1.1 Alienation in the Traditional Sense 6

1.2 Dark Technology Generated Alienation 6

1.2.1 Technocapitalism 8

1.2.1.1 Gadget Fetishism……………………………………………………………9

1.2.1.2 Hedonism………………………………………………………………… 10

1.2.2 Technopolitics: Surveillance and Social Power Hierarchy 11

1.2.2.1 Surveillance………………………………………………………………..11

1.2.2.2 Social Stratification………………………………………………………..12

1.2.3 Posthuman: Cyborg and Humanoid Robots 12

Chapter Two Alienation in the Sense of Technocapitalism 14

2.1 Technocapitalism in Black Mirror: Alienation of Fetishists and Hedonists 14

2.1.1 Alienation of Social Media Fetishists 14

2.1.2 Alienation of Hedonists and Screen Addicts 15

2.2 The Alienation of Commodity Fetishists in Technocapitalism 16

2.2.1 Fall Prey to Meaninglessness and Powerlessness 16

Chapter Three Alienation in the Sense of Technopolitics 19

3.1 Technopolitics in Black Mirror: Alienation Under Surveillance and Social Hierarchy 19

3.2 Alienation Under Surveillance 19

3.2.1 Alienation of Interpersonal Relationship: Sense of Insecurity and Lost Trust 19

3.2.2 Self-alienation: Attention Seekers under Surveillance 21

3.3 Alienation under Social Stratification 22

3.3.1 Labor Alienation: The 99% Being Manipulated by the 1% 22

3.3.2 Identity Alienation: Social Hierarchy System 23

Chapter Four Alienation in the Sense of Posthuman 24

4.1 Posthuman in Black Mirror: Alienation in Disrupted Sensory Perception and Faculties 24

4.1.1 Memory Outsourcing 24

4.1.2 Blind to One’s Blindness 25

4.1.3 Separation of Psyche and Soma 26

4.2 Alienation in the Absence of Humanity of Humanoid Robots 27

4.3 Alienation of Humanness in human-machine Interactions 28

Chapter Five Conclusion and Prospection 30

References 32

Filmography: 34

Episodes： 35

List of Figures

Figure 1: The five-star rating system……………………………………………….15

Figure 2: The “like” button on Facebook…………………………………………...15

Figure 3: Bing lives in a cell-like place surrounded by digital mirrors……………..16

Figure 4: The police can access individuals’ memory recording……………………20

Figure 5: The omnipresent “telescreen” that monitors everything in 1984………….20

Figure 6: the “Mass” system distorts people’s cognitive behavior…………………..25

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
– Albert Einstein

Introduction

1. Background

Marshall McLuhan wrote in Understanding Media:

Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned. Rapidly, we approach the final phase of the extensions of man-the technological simulation of consciousness…we have already extended our senses and our nerves by the various media. Whether the extension of consciousness…will be “a good thing” is a question that admits of a wide solution.

With the advent of information revolution in the mid-20^th century, the global social, economic and political landscape is undergoing drastic transformation. Throughout the history of human civilization, as the form of culture exchange transformed from oral expression to written words, from traditional printmaking to digital media, the way people perceive the world and themselves has changed fundamentally. Today, screen-saturated life has become the norm, and “our central nervous system is technologically extended to whole of mankind and to incorporate the whole of mankind in us,” which in turn “affects the whole psychic and social complex” (McLuhan 1964: 4). However, as our “love affair with technology” (Brooker 2011) intensifies, the dark side of media technology gradually reveals itself, and the consequent alienation of humanity has been a focus of academic concern among scholars since the end of 20^th century.

The era of media technology is often dubbed the digital age, or more graphically, the era of screens. The pervasive screens of various digital gadgets in our daily life are like the digital mirrors in the “pseudo-environment” (Lippmann 1922), which refers to the tech-generated information environment where human lives are based on the information beyond their immediate real experience. However, the digital mirror, as the physical mirror, sometimes has the potential to distort reality and manipulate its users. The English word “mirror” originates from the Latin word “mirari”, namely “to wonder.” Because of its mysterious and illusive metaphorical implication, the image of “mirror” is widely used in literary works, paintings and films. Moreover, mirrors are also mediums that extend the humans eyes and “typify an essential libidinal relationship with the body image” (Lacan 1953). Later in the post-industrial era, the concept of “mirror” expanded to include physical limitations towards the digital mirror, i.e. screen. By providing us with channels to share information and interact with each other in the cyberspace, the screens of digital devices have fundamentally reshaped the way we think and live, sometimes in a corrosive way. In the metaphorical sense, digital screens are also like cold mirrors, reflecting the numbness, addiction and confusion of alienated humanity.

In recent years, criticism towards the impact of technology on screen-saturated life has been the major theme of many popular films and TV dramas, such as American television anthology The Twilight Zone, sci-fi film The Matrix and British sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror. Produced by Charlie Brooker, a British broadcaster and satirist, Black Mirror aims to reflect the dark reality of digital life and shed light on human-technology relationship. Set in a remote high-tech future, Black Mirror utilizes “black mirror” as a metaphor in a dystopian fictional setting to manifest how dark technology generates human alienation in the digital era. This thesis will take Black Mirror as an example to analyze our love/hate relationship with media technology in light of the contemporary media culture and probe deep into new forms of alienation in the screen-saturated “media ecology” (Fuller 2005).

1. Black Mirror

Black Mirror is a dystopian, science-fiction TV anthology drama that explores the phenomenon of alienation generated and reinforced by an overdose of dark technology in the digital era. Ever since its debut on the British Channel 4 in 2011, Black Mirror has been well received in European countries and during recent years it has gradually accumulated a fan base in China. Broadcasted in over 90 countries, Black Mirror won the Best TV Movie/Miniseries at the International Emmy Awards in 2012. The style of Black Mirror is characterized by satirical pessimism and dark humor, for which its producer Charlie Brooker is known.

Black Mirror draws important parallels between “mirror”, “screen” and dark technology. “Mirror” not only reflects reality, but also creates a world with a life of its own. And when reality is returned to us through media technology in the form of “screen”, it is “invariably altered and distorted” (Salem 2015). The “mirror” of this title, as Brooker claims, is “the one you’ll find on every wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the cold, shiny screen of a TV, a monitor, a smartphone” (Brooker 2011). And “black mirror” indicates that the screen is turned off. “Black mirror” carries a cold and terrifying implication when the warped image of the digital world is gone and gives way to “black void” (Salem, 2015). When the users see their own colourless images reflected in the black screen, they are reminded that something essential is estranged from them and they have sunk deeply into the whirlpool of alienation. Arguably, media technology is neither good nor bad per se, but Brooker’s Black Mirror casts aside the positive part and focuses on “the dark side of our love affair with technology” (Brooker 2011).

With the dark twists and thrills in its dystopian narrative, each episode of Black Mirror varies from each other in its cast, setting, and even in its reality (Brooker 2011). But all the above elements are based on the real issue of screen addiction and sheds light on Brooker’s all-important question “If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side-effects” (Brooker 2011) ?

1. Significance of the Study

The dark, erosive effects of technology development has long sparkled heated debate among scholars. Following this venue of literature, Suarez-Villa and Edwards liken technology development and Marxian concept of alienation. There is only sporadic literature on alienation in the “media ecology,” but not a comprehensive, all-round examination as to what alienation means in the emerging and rapidly shifting context. As alienation speaks to deep-seated human fear and is an unavoidable topic in the examination of human conditions, in this thesis I intend to build a more comprehensive theoretical framework as to what dimensions alienation involves in a screen-saturated life.

Furthermore, this thesis will revisit the concept of alienation in the detailed context of Black Mirror. Black Mirror as a viral, widely-consumed TV drama series, could be a “polysemie” media text consumed in multiple ways. It could be received as a cultural icon generated in a western “core” country, for its language, the images, the music, etc. Its more obscure purpose, as a critical examination of screen-saturated life-which inevitably includes itself-could easily be lost or missed out. Therefore, the audience needs to be “educated” and understand what Black Mirror intends to convey.

1. Overview of the Study

The thesis consists of five chapters. Following this introductory chapter, chapter one presents the overall theoretical framework of dark technology, alienation and the intersection between the two terms. Chapter two focuses on the dark technology in the form of materialistic mirror and discusses features of alienation in technocapitalism. This chapter illustrates the behavior pattern of screen addicts and addresses issues of technocapitalism in light of fetishism, hedonism and consumerism. Chapter three is mainly about dark technology in the form of monitoring mirror and extends its power into the domain of technopolitics. Surveillance technology, as a typical manifestation of technology, alienates people from others by suppressing free will and generating distrust. This chapter also sheds lights on the strict social power hierarchy in technopolitics to deal with the alienation of personal identity and man-made products. Chapter four centers around dark technology in the form of mimic mirror, which reconfigures human body into Cyborgs and introduces smart humanoid robots. This chapter discusses how people’s sensory perception is being reshaped and manipulated by the dark side of technology and estranges themselves from others and their humanity. In the last part, Chapter five will conclude the features of dark technology generated human alienation in light of technocapitalism, technopolitics and posthumanism, illustrates the problems facing human-technology relationships today and look into the future of digital media culture.

Chapter One Theoretical Framework: Dark Technology Generates Alienation

• 1. Alienation in the Traditional Sense

The term “alienation”, according to Karl Marx in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, is “the process through which capitalism” leads to the estrangement (Ger. Entfremdung) of people from “the objects they create, their labor, their species-being, and to other people” (Marx 1844).

In the industrial age, social relations are tied closely with productive forces, and theoretically speaking people can achieve self-realization through the products they produce with their labor. However, Marx claims that capitalism transformed factory production and separates people’s intellectual life from their physical activities, which causes them to be alienated from themselves. The monotonous routine work on the assembly line stifles people’s critical thinking and reduces them to soulless machinery that is unaware of the value of their products. In a capitalist economy, even though the workers can produce products efficiently, they fail to achieve a sense of fulfillment from their work. Working around the clock on the factory floor, the workers alienate from each other because of a lack of social interactions and are being exploited by the capitalists.

1.2 Dark Technology Generated Alienation

In today’s screen-saturated media ecology, the concept of “alienation” has developed beyond its meaning in the Marxian sense and “involves estrangement from the larger social world or oneself”, which implies “powerlessness, self-estrangement, normlessness, isolation (or cultural estrangement), and meaninglessness” (Rey 2012: 401). And it should be pointed out that the fundamental difference between the “alienation” in the Marxian sense and the “alienation” in the 21st century digital world is that the former focuses on the coerced alienation of factory workers brought by capitalism, but media technology does not coerce the users into alienated humans. According to McLuhan, “Our letting-go of ourselves, self-alienations, as it were, in order to amplify or increase the power of various functions, Baudelaire considered to be flowers of growths of evil. The city as amplification of human lusts and sensual striving had for him an entire organic and psychic unity” (McLuhan 1994: 139). In other words, people are not suppressed or coerced by any exterior force, but instead they succumb to their interior desire triggered by media technology and march down the path of self-alienation.

At a more detailed level, many media scholars also coined various terms to examine the representative features of alienated humans. Japanese media scholar Maki Nakano brings up the concept of “container people” to compare modern people to enclosed containers, which illustrates their self-isolation, loneliness and unwillingness to open up to others in interpersonal interaction. Despite the convenience of communication brought by media technology, those who grow up in the digital age usually cannot probe deep into the innermost world of each other and establish sincere long-term relationships. Though the space and time distance is being significantly narrowed by media technology, ironically the distance between heart and heart is being widened. Herbert Marcuse’s idea of “one-dimensional man” (Marcuse 1991) further illustrates the traits of alienated people, whose critical thinking is withering away, and thereby they readily get controlled by one-sided ideology, blindly feel content with their status quo and eventually lose their individuality and identity.

1.2 Dark Technology Generated Alienation

Media technology is facilitating every facet our lives since the late 20th century, as the Canadian media guru McLuhan stated, the extension of human body in modern social technology and invention “sets up a new equilibrium” among natural senses and faculties and reshapes people’s outlooks and attitudes in various areas (McLuhan 1994: 141). However, the emergence of dark technology in the past few decades is not to be taken lightly, which refers to the dark side of media technology as well as media technology designed to serve dark sinister purpose. The implications of dark technology addressed in this thesis are triple-layered: technocapitalism, technopolitics and posthuman. From the perspective of technocapitalism, dark technology can numb the users into screen addicts who indulge in gadget fetishism and hedonism in virtuality and make them succumb to consumerism and materialism. From the perspective of technopolitics, dark technology generates “technostruggles” (Fiske 1987) through surveillance and reinforced social hierarchy. From the perspective of posthuman, dark technology blurs human-machine boundaries with the construction of “Cyborg” (Haraway 1987) and humanoid robots.

1.2.1 Technocapitalism

Technocapitalism is a new version of capitalism in the high tech-oriented economy that exploits intangibles such as new knowledge and information (Suarez-Villa 2009). In the condition of technocapitalism, fetishism and hedonism prevail.

In the digital economy, social media becomes the chief interface through which Internet users’ activities can be “valorized” (Rey 2012) in their pursuit of the desires produced by capital, as claimed by Marx. Social media, like factory, is also the product of capitalism and therefore is modified to serve its essential purposes——“expropriating value created by others” in culture production (Rey 2012). When the Internet users elicit communication or post digital information on media platforms, they are unaware of the culture value they produce and their separation from it. Such user-generated information, unlike the material products in the factory, “needs to be produced only once, and then can be infinitely reproduced at low costs and distributed at high speed” (Fuchs 2010). The flows of information on social media platforms demonstrate the “social” part of social media, that is, the users produce information to share with others and consume others’ information production. The ubiquitous information consumption and sharing through social media shapes a society characterized by hyper consumerism and materialism. However, when the cyberspace activities of users turn into sheer productive activities, the social media platforms are transformed into a “factory without walls” (Negri 1989) that traps the unwitting information laborers.

1.2.1.1. Marxian Concept of Fetishism and Gadget Fetishism

Karl Marx observed that in capitalist society the relations between people take on the form of relations between things:

The relationships between the producers…take on the form of a social relation between the products of labour…There the products of the human brain appear as autonomous figures endowed with a life of their own, which enter into relations both with each other and with the human race. So it is in the world of commodities with the products of men’s hands.

In classic Maxist theories, fetishism means commodity fetishism, the concept of which emphasizes the mighty power of man-made products in controlling humans and in transforming social relations. The fetishism of commodities will “obscures the social foundation” of the products of labour, and thereby causing an “alienating split between people and the products of their labour” (Hornborg 2014).

Technocapitalism relates “the omnipresence of information and communication technologies (ICT)” (Hernández-Santaolalla, 2016) with the evolution of capitalism and extends the Marxian concept of fetishism to human fetishism with digital gadgets. The gadget fetishism is also called machine fetishism, which endows technology with mysterious magical power to shape social relations and facilitates people’s daily life.

1.2.1.2 Hedonism

Fetishism usually comes hand in hand with hedonism, which is a school of thought that puts pleasure seeking as the primary life goal. In a traditional Karl Marx sense, hedonism means the endless pursuit of material goods and ensuing pleasure. Hedonism in the digital culture typically manifests people’s utilization of gadgets for entertainment and amusement. Indulging in a love affair with their devices, people grow obsessed with digital devices and have a high level of screen time on a daily basis, therefore they are dubbed as “screen addicts.” Screen addicts “embrace standardized escapist entertainment” generated by dark technology, which alienates them from themselves and others by keeping them “deceived, distracted, and powerless” (Kalekin-Fishman amp; Langman 2015: 919).

With the continuous advances in media technology comes a surging use of digital gadgets since the beginning of the 21^st century, as data from Bucksch’s cross-national study of screen addicts shows “an increasingly high level of screen time” across 30 countries from 2002 to 2010 (Bucksch et al. 2016). The prevalence of screens in ordinary people’s daily life makes many become obsessed with their digital devices, which in some cases develops into gadget fetishism. Typically, some young adults are spellbound by the fantasy created in the cyberspace and withdraw from reality, as Baudrillard asserts, the world depicted by media technology “is more real than reality that we can experience” (Baudrillard 1994). When people are unable to tell the difference between reality and fantasy, they “engage with the fantasy without realizing what it really is and seek happiness and fulfillment through the simulacra of reality, e.g. media and avoid the contact/interaction with the real world” (Baudrillard 1994). It has also been observed that the prevalence of “compulsive media use” and “Internet Addiction” (IA) leads to “Dysfunctional Attitudes” (DA) with psychopathological symptoms such as depression, anxiety, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and even schizophrenia (Taymur et al. 2016). To be fair, the addiction to media technology shares the main features of substance addiction, such as “excessive use, tolerance, withdrawal and negative repercussions from use” (Hormes et al. 2013: 109). Succumbing to the temptation of media technology-based hedonism, people will therefore be reduced to slaves of their own products and eventually “amuse themselves to death” (Postman 1981).

1.2.2 Technopolitics: Surveillance and Social Power Hierarchy

Technopolitics is defined as “hybrids of technical systems and political practices that produce new forms of power and agency” (Edwards amp; Hecht 2010). Dark technology reinforces the impact of political power on people’s daily life in that it not only reflects the fact of people being monitored and manipulated, it could also serve as a tool to achieve these purposes, such as all-pervasive surveillance and social stratification control. Such abuse of dark technology gives rise to “technostruggles”, which is first brought up by Fiske to describe the “hierarchical social power struggles” in the digital era (Salem 2015).

1.2.2.1 Surveillance

Surveillance, as Lyon observes, “has spilled out of its old nation-state containers to become a feature of everyday life, at work, at home, at play and on the move” (Lyon 2003). The ubiquitous ICT (information and communication technologies) for citizen surveillance have become a norm in modern society to serve the purpose of crime hunting and criminal locating, which is reflected in popular television dramas like The Wire (HBO, 2002-2008) and Person of Interest (CBS, 2011-2016).

Admittedly, surveillance protects the common public from potential crimes to some extent and brings justice to the wrongdoers. Nonetheless, the gaze of the police also disturbs the innocent public, invade their private domain and even suppress people’s free will.

Apart from that, the accessible sophisticated ICT technology may also fall into wrong hands, which makes it possible for some elusive social groups or individuals to conduct surveillance for unspeakable sinister purposes. In this case, surveillance becomes a powerful tool to threaten and blackmail the innocent public and throw them in danger.

1.2.2.2 Social Stratification

Social stratification has been well established in human society since ancient Roman times, but in the digital era the disparity of different classes in the hierarchical system is growing wider. Empowered by sophisticated media technology, the few elites can manipulate the lower class and construct social hierarchy in the digital era. On the one hand, automated technological machines are reshaping the way the lower class work and alienate them from their labor and their products; on the other hand, people who are preoccupied with mind-numbing social media ranking system take identity category for granted and fail to question any class divide.

1.2.3 Posthuman: Cyborg and Humanoid Robots

Dark technology generates alienation in the construction of “posthuman” (Hayles 1999), the state of being beyond human, by extending people’s sensory perception through intelligent machines and introducing humanoid robots into people’s life. Today the interaction between human and media technology becomes closer and more frequent to such a point that intelligent machine literally becomes part of human body and blurs the boundary between human and machine. In 1985, Haraway developed McLuhan’s idea of human extension and brought up the concept of “Cyborg” (cybernetic organism) (Haraway 1987). Cyborg refers to an organism that physically integrates artificial technology, which takes the form of half human and half machine. The idea of technology working on human body has sparked an explosion of debates among scholars and makes people reflect on the danger of dark technology. As the organic body eventually gives way to “posthuman” body (Haraway 1987), human beings are configured to seamlessly articulate “cybernetic mechanism and biological organism” (Hayles 1999). When the human fabric is fundamentally being reshaped in this way, from the philosophical perspective the psyche of one’s nature self is being detached from one’s soma in the age of virtuality, which generates a lost sense of physical existence and personal identity.

Artificial intelligence is advancing unprecedentedly during the past few years, which has triggered great controversy in terms of whether the humanoid robot is a friend or a foe to humankind. The dark side of technology reveals that an alienation of humanity might emerge in human-robot interactions.

When human becomes machine-like, machines are becoming human-like. With the cutting edge artificial intelligence today, the resemblance between humanoid robots and human goes beyond physical appearance into deeper levels. According to the theory of Uncanny Valley, the more robots resemble humans, the more uncomfortable people will be. The phenomenon of robots displaying humanness is particularly disrupting and confusing for young children who grow up in screen-saturated modern society where interaction with humanoid robots are a common sight in their households. Moreover, the increasingly smart humanoid robots are overshadowing humans in multiple tasks, bringing about convenience and efficiency while also unsettling humans. Therefore, if by any chance the immense power of sophisticated artificial intelligence spiral out of control, the miraculous narrative in science fiction literature and dramas might come into reality, and a modern version of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” (Shelley 1978) will gradually come into being and pose a threat to its human creators.

Chapter Two Alienation in the Sense of Technocapitalism

2.1 Technocapitalism in Black Mirror: Alienation of Fetishists and Hedonists

Set in the futuristic society dominated by technocapitalism, Black Mirror portrays a comprehensive picture of the behavior pattern of gadget fetishists and hedonists. This chapter will address dark technology generated alienation in the following episodes of Black Mirror: Nosedive (TX 21^th October 2016), Fifteen Million Merits (TX 11^th December 2011) and San Junipero (TX 21^th October 2016).

2.1.1 Alienation of Social Media Fetishists

In the rosy virtual world of Nosedive, the gadget fetishists are typically preoccupied with social media. Obsessed with the five-star rating system of social media, people have their eyes glued to screens all day long, posting information and sharing every trivial moments of their life on media platforms. In order to score higher in the rating system, which can create a positive image in the public and maintain their social status, people put on “social media-induced plastic smiles” (Cooke 2016) to cater to their neighbours and colleagues. Such obsession with social media undermines people’s interpersonal relationships in real life, as everyone just put on a mask of happiness and keeps their real feelings hidden. When people suppress their nature and cannot voice their true opinions or do what they genuinely want to do, they are not true to themselves and are on the highway towards self-alienation.

The story of Nosedive is based on the present social media culture and is a vivid manifestation of “the drastic increase in use of online social networking (OSN) sites” (Hormes et al. 2014: 2080) in the past decade. For example, netizens are obsessed with the “followers” and “likes” they can get on social media platforms such as Facebook. In some cases people “experience social anxiety when they perceive they are not making desired impressions” (Aladwani amp; Almarzouq 2016: 577). The dark side of such media technology is that when people rely their self-esteem on others’ comments or “likes”, their self-image and identity are estranged from their self.

Figure 1: The five-star rating system Figure 2: The “like” button on Facebook

2.1.2 Alienation of Hedonists and Screen Addicts

In Fifteen Million Merits, hedonists are screen addicts who are obsessed with entertainment television programmes such as reality TV shows. Heavily fed with the vulgar culture of such programmes, the general public in Fifteen Million Merits is a typical case of human alienation as they are numb, lacking in critical thinking, easily swayed by the crowd and cannot properly interact with each other face-to-face. Governed by a mind-numbing entertainment culture, the hedonists in Fifteen Million Merits represented by the virtual images on the screen are dehumanized.

Since the end of the 19^th century, the invention of televisions brought about the era of entertainment (Postman 2005). When television stands at the core of the dissemination of modern culture, public discourse begins to be void of its accuracy, seriousness and value. According to Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, the future of people in would be gloomy indeed if the pleasure-seeking hedonism culture takes over their critical thinking and estrange human emotions from their reason.

Figure 3: Bing lives in a cell-like place surrounded by digital mirrors

In San Junipero, alienated hedonists indulge themselves in sensational pleasure and cannot feel pain or other negative feelings. The artificial paradise of San Junipero makes it possible for those who are trapped in a sick, aging or broken body to pursue a wonderfully healthy and carefree life. Moreover, young people who are disappointed by harsh reality can also escape their dilemma and throw wild parties day and night. As the plot reveals, the problem begins to emerge: when people rely on artificial technology to seek pleasure in the virtual space and withdraw from the reality, it will eventually lead to the fall of human nature and even an estrangement from one’s sense of existence.

2.2 The Alienation of Commodity Fetishists in Technocapitalism

In the world dominated by technocapitalism, information overtakes material products and grows into major commodities that create mind-blowing market value. Dark technology urges people to develop strong drive of consuming and active participation of producing, thereby turning them into commodity fetishists and alienating them from man-made products.

2.2.1 Fall Prey to Meaninglessness and Powerlessness

The screens in Black Mirror not only transform information into commodities, but also reshapes people’s relationship with commodities. The episodes under discussion in this section include: Fifteen Million Merits (TX 11^th December 2011) and Nosedive (TX 21^th October 2016). When everything is put on a price tag, the real value of information will be lost, and people are constantly consuming meaningless commodities and are imprisoned by the mainstream consumption culture. Eventually people are transformed into “active, consenting participants in their own alienation by consumer society” (Reveley 2013: 87).

2.2.1.1 Meaningless: Virtual Commodities for Virtual Images

With the overwhelming consumerism in Fifteen Million Merits, the alienated people are obsessed with buying virtual goods for their virtual looks on the screens. As the name of this episode suggests, the currency people use is also virtual and is represented by the letter “M”—“Merits”, which resembles the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Since the word “merit” initially refers to “worthwhile quality”, it suggests Brooker’s hidden sarcasm towards the worthlessness of consumer goods in the world of Fifteen Million Merits. Moreover, the wide varieties of virtual goods like virtual clothing, hairstyle and gifts are in sharp contrast with the limited options of physical goods. Though people polish their look on the screen, they wear the prison-like grey uniforms and live in a prison-like narrow cell. The seemingly abundance of virtual commodities alienates people by offering people an illusion and estrange their consumption behavior from their essential needs or practical usage.

According to Comor, consumption is turning into an alienating activity in the digital age as man-made commodities “are infused with qualities and capacities that have little or nothing to do with their utilitarian attributes” (Comor 2010), which generates a sense of meaninglessness. Today the digital payment system has facilitated the consumption of virtual goods. Especially for those who are into video games, the fancy outfit of their virtual image in the game boosts their confidence and encourages them to consume even more. However, an obsession of virtual commodities declines their capability to distinguish the superficial price and the real value of the commodity. In the long run, people pour money into the endless hole of virtual goods without being aware of the practical meaning of it.

2.2.1.2 Powerless: Conform to Mainstream Consumption

The rampant materialism manifested in Nosedive creates a world where personal identity is decided by their rating in the five-star rating system. And the rating in turn tells the types of commodities one is qualified to consume. Since the mainstream culture regards commodities as a sign of one’s consumption power and social state, the majority of the public is in a tireless pursuit of fancy cuisine, clothing and housing. Heavily influenced by prevalent materialism, people are alienated in that they are losing their individualistic taste and conform to socially acceptable consumption behavior.

The protagonist of Nosedive Lacie Pound (Bryce Dallas Howard), a middle-class young lady, endeavors to achieve “a four-and-a-half-star rating to qualify for a discount on her rent” (Cooke 2016) of an upper-class department. However, on her way to achieve a higher rating she confronts many twists and turns, and her finally gets tired of her hypocritical mask. When she makes her appearance in a ragged and dirty manner with a rating below two-star at her friend’s fancy wedding ceremony, she terrifies the well-dressed four-and-a-half-star people. The fact that when Lacie’s rating takes a nosedive she finds herself “persona non grata” (Cooke 2016) demonstrates the fact that cold number becomes the representation of individuality, renders them powerless and alienates them from their personal identity.

Chapter Three Alienation in the Sense of Technopolitics

3.1 Technopolitics in Black Mirror: Alienation Under Surveillance and Social Hierarchy

Set in a world deeply entrenched in technopolitics, Black Mirror illustrates how dark technology generates alienation through ubiquitous surveillance and rigid social hierarchy power. The episodes of Black Mirror under discussion in this chapter are as follows: The Entire History of You (TX 11th December 2011), Fifteen Million Merits (TX 11^th December 2011) and Nosedive (TX 21^th October 2016).

3.2 Alienation Under Surveillance

3.2.1 Alienation of Interpersonal Relationship: Sense of Insecurity and Lost Trust

Being monitored by some unknown group behind the screen gives one a sense of insecurity. For fear of that one’s unconscious behavior might bring oneself in trouble, one suffers from a disturbing sense of insecurity and become suspicious of others. Since a certain amount of distance and privacy is necessary in healthy interpersonal relationship, monitoring and being monitored will eventually undermine people’s relationship with each other, which is manifested in The Entire History of You (TX 11th December 2011).

The “fantasy scenario” (Brooker 2011) proposed in The Entire History of You centers on a smart memory chip called “Grain”, which is “a kind of Sky Plus system for your head, so you could rewind and replay memories at will” (Brooker 2011) and share them with others. The protagonist of this episode is a lawyer named Liam (Toby Kebbell), who suspects that his wife Ffion (Jodie Whittaker) is involved in a love affair with her old friend. To prove Ffion’s Infidelity, Liam forces Ffion to show her memory record to him and searches for even the slightest evidence to confirm his suspicion. Liam’s probing into Ffion’s private domain gives Ffion a sense of insecurity and undermines their mutual trust, which eventually leads to the break up of the family.

Further, the recording device of “Grain” also allows the authorities, say, policemen, to be entitled to get access to “the personal information stored in the internal memory of any individual, as happens to the protagonist at the airport” (Hernández-Santaolalla 2016).

Figure 4: The police can access individuals’ memory recording

Figure 5: The omnipresent “telescreen” that monitors everything in 1984

Upon further reflection, the monitoring function of the memory-recording device “Grain” also draws important parallels with the “telescreens” in George Orwell’s 1984. 1984 offers “a bleak and soulless view of humanity” (Scaliger 2007: 30) through the pervasive telescreens on the walls of every household. Under the surveillance of telescreens, people should not only behave properly, but also control their facial expression and even their mind, because otherwise they have a high risk of being condemned guilty of “facecrime” or “thoughtcrime” (Orwell 1961). Therefore the ordinary people in 1984 are constantly suspicious of each other and live in the daunting horror of being found guilty of crimes. In comparison, “telescreens” are one-way monitoring mechanisms, but “screens” are interactive two-way medium that allows the users to watch and be watched at the same time. More importantly, if people in the world of 1984 may still seek a place to hide from the telescreens, those who live in the world of The Entire History of You can never have a break because the monitoring mirror of “Grain” is embedded inside human body, which thereby reinforcing the implications of technopolitics and alienating their interpersonal relationship.

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