So the other night I was watching an episode of Black Mirror *Spoiler Alert to follow!!!* called "San Junipero." In the episode, we meet Yorkie, who seems just to be a young college kid travelling to a party town (San Junipero) to have some fun even though she seems very out of place. Yorkie meets Kelly and the two of them quickly fall for each other. But something doesn't seem right, and one of the other characters talks about Yorkie being able to find Kelly "in another time" and then we see what we think is Yorkie travelling in time.
In actuality, San Junipero is a sort of fake place, kind of like the matrix where people in the real world basically plug in and go visit. They can make themselves look differently and they can live there in any time they wish, basically making it perfect for them. This episode really made me think of The Experience Machine that we talked about in class and we talked about how when people were asked about whether they would choose to be a part of it or not they said no because they wanted their accomplishments to be real.
But in the show, people readily go to San Junipero, and it is actually made to be a sort of afterlife. You can chance heaven existing or you can choose to kind of have your mind permanently put into San Junipero. I thought that was an interesting take on it, having the Experience Machine be a sort of afterlife.
This is a very interesting way to approach the experience machine and what it represents. When asked, a majority of people said they would not plug into an experience machine. What makes people in San Junipero so ready to go? Would these people not fear losing what they have in both experience and relationships? This idea seems very scary to me. Why would you choose to permanently be in this perfect place? I can understand the occasional vacation to a place as serene as San Junipero, but the idea of it being permanent and taking away possibility for growth is not something I think many would be up for.
ReplyDeleteI love this episode of Black Mirror! It's a really interesting idea to think about what we would choose. I think if its like the experience machine in results many people would choose to die and accept whatever fate instead of staying in a fake world for the rest of eternity. Personally I think I would choose to stay in this fake world and experience love and life all over again. At the same time after 100 "years" in this fake world wouldn't it get a little repetitive and boring?
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