BLACK MIRROR, ENHANCEMENT AND THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF FORGETTING

Miša Đurković

Abstract

Modern cognitive and experimental science is increasingly working to explore the meaning and importance of forgetting. Forgetting happens to be one of the most important mental functions on an individual level, but also on social and national ones, since it enables healing, purification of thoughts from difficult memories, prevents obsession with problems, and eliminates the possibility of psychosomatic illnesses.

The famous British TV series Black Mirror, which has become a symbol of the challenges that modern and futuristic technology brings to man, in a number of episodes deals with the problems that arise due to the obsession of gadget culture with abolishing of forgetting through technological enhancement. Several episodes are based on gadgets that expand memory and make it constantly available to a whole range of other subjects to whom data from people’s history is available. In a dialogue with Brooker’s ideas, the author re-examines the problems spawned by this future society without forgetting and searches for a possible solution.

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