Black Museum (Revisited)

S4E6- In this episode we explore immortality through technology. With the advances we have seen in technology already, it isn’t a question of “if” but a question of “when”. How close are we to bridging the gap to biological computing?

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Thank you podcast joint host Hoho ashe discusses the rimting Netflix original series Black
Mirror. Now Here he is broadcastingfrom the kind of studio. Welcome to

(00:30):
Black Mirror Podcast, and as alwaysI'm your host, he say, Hey,
y'all's doing. I hope you've beengood? I really do. Today
we are revisiting season four, episodesix, titled Black Museum. And as
always spoiler alert, if you havenot watched this episode yet, go ahead
and tune in. You will notbe disappointed. Even if you've already watched

(00:56):
it, watch it again. It'sa good one. But you know,
this one not as much of aspoiler alert as usual, expecial in the
last episode. But we are goingto be touching based on some things.
But the majority of this episode isgoing to be spent exploring, you know,

(01:17):
just the stuff. You know,the technology. You know, that's
more or less what we're going tobe exploring on this one. You know
the implications, you know, justhow close are we to some of this
crap? And I'll tell you whatwe're dangerously close to, you know,
bridging the gap if you will dangerouslyclose, I mean, holy coward,

(01:40):
dangerously close. Now whenever I firstseen the title of this one, I
was not skeptical, you know,I kind of figured, you know,
that this would be an episode thatwould you know, tie in some things,
you know, just not introduced,but it would it would link to

(02:02):
other episodes. And I was right, you know, I mean it did.
In the first minute where the protagonistgoes into the Black Museum, you
see referenced, you know, throughyou know, objects that you see like
four maybe five different episodes, likeright there. But you know, just

(02:22):
the the allure of this episode isin all the easter riggs that are strung
out within the Black Museum itself.I mean, there's several episodes you know
that are referenced in you know,objects and you know some of the display
pieces and whatnot. And of course, you know, the technology that they're

(02:42):
utilizing in this episode is technology thatwe have seen in various forms and stages
throughout the series. You know,the several different episodes you know that dealing
with the same thing that they're dealingwith here, you know, not just
in episodisodes that we have already seen, but in episodes that are yet to

(03:02):
come in season five, you know, and obviously I haven't watched season six
yet can't wait to you know,watch season six. I'm excited about it,
I really am. You know,just so many episodes that are that
are referencing here now this one isno different from all the rest of them
because, you know, one ofthe things that I that I like about

(03:25):
Black Mirror is that each episode isits own story. You know, you
don't have to watch each individual,you know, episode in you know,
in series, you know, inin episodic order, in order to understand
what's going on. You don't needto do that, and that I think

(03:47):
is pretty awesome about the series inall honesty, you know, but I
gotta be you know, I hatehow they how they do it, you
know. I mean you go intothe episodes and I mean it's just like
it's backwards ordered. Everything is backwardsor it's ridiculous, you know, I

(04:09):
mean, it's why they do itthat way. I have absolutely no idea.
You know, Normally, you gotyou know, one all the way
down, you know, the firstone down to the last one, and
you just hit play and it'll justkeep on going and there you go.
But this one is like the lastones first, you know, and it's
like it's it's reversed ordered kind ofa thing. I mean, it's you

(04:30):
know, I mean, you gotto go to the top of this season,
and then once you get done withthat one, then you got to
go to the top of season two, go down, don't go back into
season one, and then you gotto go to the top of season three
and then go down. I justI hate how they you know, how
they arrange the episodes in the seasonsin this series. That's I mean that
that's my biggest pet peeve with thisone. But you know, whatever,

(04:54):
whatever, let's get into it.Let's get into it now. This one
is isn't in sreaking storyline. Imean, it really is references different technologies,
different things that they've done, andyou know, it's just it's it's
neat. I mean, it's interesting, you know. And in a matter
of speaking, I see two sidesof you know, both sides to this

(05:17):
argument, you know, because Imean, I don't know how you view
things as far as the afterlife goes, you know, I mean, I
personally do believe in a life afterdeath, you know, and that this
is something that you know, isn'tjust a spiritual thing, which I'm not,
you know, navigating that aspect ofthis. But this is a scientific

(05:38):
point of view as well, youknow, because Albert Einstein. You know,
once energy is created, it can'tbe destroyed. It can only you
know, dissipate, you know.So I mean that very much leans you
know, to a sort of lifeafter death. What exists on the other
side. Does your consciousness survived,you know, within your soul or you

(06:00):
know what have you? I mean, these are you know, just questions
that we have that we explore.And you know, this one, like
you know, several other episodes aswell, you know, kind of touches
based on this, you know,especially San Junipiro. You know, what
is your belief system on this?You know, But the most intriguing part

(06:24):
of it, though, is it'sit's bridging the gap. You know I
referenced you know, I made thisreference earlier, you know, bridging the
gap. Bridging what gap? Bridgingthe gap between a computer and your brain.
You know, it's being able toyou know, let me think about

(06:45):
it. You know, your yourbrain is a hard drive of sorts,
you know it is, it's abiological computer, bridging the gap between and
a typical computer or you know,however you want to call it, you

(07:06):
know, a mechanical computer and abiological computer. That's what we're talking about
here, because that's that's the partabout this that is intriguing, amazing and
terrifying, if you will. Imean I've watched, you know, gotten

(07:26):
some my hands on some information justearlier in the week talking about you know,
how am I forget the technical termof it, but basically measure you
know, looking at your your brainactivity and whatnot, and you know,
whether an AI can basically translate whatyou are seeing and make an image off

(07:55):
of it. And surprisingly and scarilyand terrifyingly enough, it didn't do a
horrible job. Like it got thegist of what it was that you were
looking at and then also using AIto type out your inner monologue, I

(08:20):
mean, holy cow, And itwasn't bad, you know. I mean
like it did a pretty stinking goodjob of translating your inner monologue. Like
like, I mean, this isn'ttext the speech. I mean, this
is like, you know, usingyour brain to actually just communicate to it,

(08:41):
Like, holy crap. Can youlike the implications of this technology is
amazing. I mean think about it. People that you know, just you
know, are mute can't talk peoplethat are you know, I mean various
levels of comatose I guess you cansay, but I mean like people that
are just locked inside with in theirown mind. Actually being able to communicate

(09:03):
with people using this kind of technology. That's amazing. I mean, holy
crap, you know. But theterrifying aspect of this is what if the
government got its hands on it,you know, and no longer using things
like or at least not just youknow, a lie detector, like actually

(09:24):
using this and interpreting what it isyou're actually I'm like, dude, I
mean, think about it. Imean, and this is I mean,
this is scary, terrifying, holycrap, you know, at least this
aspect of it. But it's like, you know, I mean, you
can use all kinds of mind gameson people with I mean, not with
using this kind of thing, butI mean, you know, you don't

(09:45):
want to think about something, andthe more you focus on trying not to
think about it, holy crap,you're thinking about it. You know,
you want somebody not to think aboutor if you want somebody to think about
a purple elephant, what do youtell them? Don't think about a purple
elephant? Now what are they thinkingabout the purple freaking Elephant, you know,
I mean it's just one of thetype of mind games. Yeah.
And I mean, of course,this is technology that once it comes out,

(10:11):
you know, the best of intention. Sure, the and and the
road to Hell is bathed with it, you know, isn't that what the
saying says. And it's only amatter of time before it's misused. But
I mean this is something that youknow, with artificial intelligence and you know,
what have you these this is theexistential crisis that we're having, right

(10:31):
and this is something that even ElonMusk talked about, you know, with
the development of computers and AI.I mean, it's it's going to come
a point that you know, it'sthe problems are going to arise, you
know. I mean, this isthe thing that they talk about in so
many different movies, you know,from a robot determinator to you know,

(10:54):
just a myriad of other ones andand even you know throughout the Black Black
Mirror series. I mean, thisis something that's talked about, you know,
but it's the you know, thething that they the thing that they
say is that you need to starttaking these things into consideration now because by

(11:20):
the time you understand or that yousee that it's a problem, it's going
to be too late. By thenit's going to be a huge problem.
You know, And this is oneof them aspects of you know, who
who are we dealing with here?Whenever it comes to this technology, you
know, are are we dealing withsomebody whom is so focused on can we
do it? And not focusing onshould we do it? You know,

(11:43):
that type of you know argument,And depending on which way you lean on,
that determines how many safeguards you're goingto put into the technology in the
first place. You know, it'sjust wow. But we're getting to a
point in our understanding of the brainand how it works and other things.

(12:13):
I mean, we're getting to thatpoint to where, you know, being
able to map out somebody's consciousness andyou know, realistically and you know,
at least somewhat accurately, being ableto translate somebody's inner modelogue. It's like,
holy cow. That to me wheneverI found that out, you know,

(12:39):
I wasn't surprised, but I wasstill I'm like, because I know,
with technology, I mean, wehave no idea what they're working.
I mean, let's face it,you know, scientifically speaking, we have
no idea what you know, whatkind of stuff they're working with, what
they're actually able to do. Andyou know, even in robotics, I
mean robotics has gone, has jumpedleaps and bounds, you know, like

(13:03):
and actually having humanoid type robots notjust four legged but too legged, and
being able to do things and makingit, you know, making them more
human, humanistic, humanoid, Iguess you can say, you know,
more accurate to the human body ofwhat we are accustomed to looking at,
and you know, AI putting thatin there and making them more and more

(13:24):
lifelike and believable. And you know, I mean, holy cow, you
know, how how far we haveadvanced in this technology is just it blows
your mind, you know, Imean it really does, you know.
But bridging the gap between mechanical intelligence, artificial intelligence, if you will,

(13:46):
you know, or just being ableto download somebody's consciousness to a hard drive
like what they talk about on thisepisode and numerous episodes besides that, I'm
that is just wow, intriguing,amaze, fascinating, terrifying, you know,

(14:11):
I mean wow, So yeah,where do I go from me?
You know, this one kind ofwent off the rails kind of quick,
you know what I'm saying, Akind of did, because I mean the
mind just goes in so many differentdirections trying to you know, just just
looking at this whole thing. Andit was one of them things. Watching

(14:33):
this episode. There was no linearnessto it. You know. It wasn't
an A in a B in ain a C and a D. I
mean, it wasn't. I mean, it was quantum, like just the
whole thing was just boom. Youknow, my mind was thinking several things
at once. It's like holy cow. You know, it's like wow.
Because you know, one of thethings that they talk about in this episode

(14:54):
is you know, taking somebody's consciousness, somebody that was I mean more or
less. I mean, I guessshe was. She was comatose, but
she was still completely aware of hersurroundings and you know, being able to
integrate, you know, using ayes and to know, to be able
to simply communicate, and then transferringher consciousness into the consciousness of her husband,

(15:22):
you know, that had a child, and then you know, being
able to feel you know, andthat's actually something that I thought was was
interesting. You know, I verymuch did you know, the premise of
this was, you know, youonly use like sixty percent or not sixty
percent, only using like excuse me, like forty percent of your brain,

(15:43):
and you have sixty percent that's unused, and you can basically pack somebody else
into your brain and have them asa you know, more or less a
somebody who's there who can feel everythingthat's going on, and somebody whom couldn't
interact with the outside world but couldor at least not communicate with the outside

(16:07):
world, but could communicate with you. You know. But one of the
questions I had on this was,you know, how would you know you
know, I mean it would therereally be that type of limitation on there?
I mean, if you actually wasable to put you know, somebody
else, you know, two peopleto inhabit the same mind, you know,
assuming that you know that type ofthing is even possible, you know,

(16:33):
how would you ensure that that otherperson didn't have control, bodily control,
verbal control, you know, whatever. How would you know? You
know? I remember back and thenI want to give you know, a
little bit away on how old Iam. I am aware of that I
don't care and I don't remember whatthe name of the movie is. But
it had Steve Martinet it, youknow, and he's like walking down a

(16:57):
sidewalk minding his own business, andan urn falls out of a window and
I don't I don't remember if itjust hit the ground right next to him
or hit him. I don't.I don't remember that it actually hit him.
I think it hit the ground rightnext to him. And then basically

(17:22):
it was that person was locked insidehim, you know. And obviously with
it being Steve Martin, it wasa comedic type of a movie, you
know, and it was it wasa good movie, and it was you
know, two people inhabiting one bodyarguing on who was going to be in

(17:45):
control, you know. And Imean you would almost think that that would
be what would happen, you know. That just seems I don't, I
can't BlimE, I'm going to putit like this. I mean, that
just seems more realistic to me,you know, in an obvious problem that
could arise. I guess, Sohow would you ensure something like them?

(18:10):
Like, I got no idea,you know, but that's something that you
would think could be an issue.I guess you can say, I don't
know, you know, it's justit's it's weird. You know, it's
weird. But one of the thingsthat they do touch base on and talk
about on this episode is you know, like the and other episodes to boot,

(18:36):
but you know, putting somebody's consciousnessinto a you know, like what
happened in this episode was putting somebodywell actually it was. It was the
same story that I was just talkingabout, because they ended up putting because
of obvious problems, they ended upputting her consciousness into a Teddy bear and

(18:59):
that bear, you know, havingyou know, external receptors to where you
know, she could still feel getyou know, physical feedback from what was
going onto this bear. But asfar as being able to communicate with the
outside world, that was something thatwas way more restricted, you know,

(19:26):
and in a matter of speaking,I mean like it was almost surprising right
on how restrictive it truly was.I mean, like you think about things
in today's day and age, Imean, how would you you know,
I mean, how could you eventhink it would be okay to put somebody's
consciousness that would give them a levelof immortality as long as that you know

(19:49):
device, whatever you had them intowas still you know, had power was
able to function. I mean youit would give you a you know,
a semblance of immort reality. Howcould you think it okay to basically only
being able to communicate two different emotions, you know? And the museum director

(20:17):
had you know, said that thatnow you know, at the time that
they this was taking place in thatthat was illegal. You couldn't do that
anymore. You had to have atleast five different emotional responses that you can
do. And this one, inall honesty, is like the base level
of technology that we're talking about,because in several other ones of these episodes

(20:40):
where the same type of technology asbeing used. I mean you've got,
you know, just full on communicationthat could be had you know, a
speaker that you know and microphone thatyou can fully communicate, not just with
a yes and a know, ahappier sad, you know, a green
light, red light whatever. Imean, it was a full on you
can communicate openly outward whole nine yards, you know, and you would kind

(21:07):
of expect that, I mean,this is going to be a technology that
you're using. If you got thetechnology to put somebody's consciousness into in inanimate
object, why would you limit responseslike that it didn't make much sense to
me, you know, but atany rate, you know, it's neither

(21:30):
here nor there. It doesn't matter, you know. Point is, yeah,
you know, it's it's scary amazing, and just what are they going
to come up with next? Asfar as where we are now with technology,
you know, I mean, we'vegone so far, you know,

(21:53):
and I really wouldn't be surprised ifwe do have, at least in some
way, shape or form, theability to transfer human consciousness. I mean
I really wouldn't be surprised. Imean, especially with what I found out
earlier this week. I mean,like truly being able to you know,

(22:15):
like for a an AI to beable to duplicate what you're looking at,
to be able to, you know, transcribe your inner monologue. I mean,
how amazing and terrifying is that?To an accuracy that is is terrifying,

(22:41):
you know, Just so, Imean like I really don't have much
doubt that at least in some way, shape or form, maybe you know,
rudimental and you know, some oneof them things that we got work
to do obviously, but I wouldn'tbe surprised if we've actually been able to

(23:03):
do it. You know, andhow long ago? I mean, holy
cow, I have no idea,but it really wouldn't surprise me if those
are the things that we can donow, and I mean I would assume
we've been able to do it forat least some time, especially considering that
it's coming out that they can doit. How further have they advanced this

(23:27):
technology? You know? How closeare we and how have we already done
it? That's my question? Howfar have you know? Have they actually
been able to do it? Havethey actually been able to put one person's
consciousness into a computer downloaded, beable to interact with it, you know?

(23:51):
And what would it look like,you know, to you you know,
I mean if you were the consciousnessto God put into whatever, you
know, what would that type ofan existence look like? You know?
I mean in the series, inthe episode I Gotta Take a Drink,

(24:14):
you know, in the episode it'sum you know, the the gal,
well, numerous gals and guy.You know. They were like in a
a big empty room and what youwould think would be a comfortable looking chair,
you know, and in one ofthe cases it had your you know,

(24:38):
your happy face and your sad face, and that's what that's what it
was, you know, but considering, you know, would that type of
an existence look like that to theyou know, to the person that is
inhabiting you know, let's say,in this case with with the Teddy barriers,

(25:00):
at what it would look like orwould it almost be like in the
movie, you know, a ChappieGood movie. By the way, I
definitely recommend you know, checking itout, you know, I mean,
it's not exactly an action pack someof us kind of ridiculous, but at
the same time, it's you know, it talks about that this kind of

(25:22):
thing, you know, transferring consciousnessin a matter it's thinking I didn't like
how they utilized it, but youknow how to you know how sound is
the technology that they're talking about.But anyway, you know, anyway,
you know, what would it beyou're sitting in this empty space viewing it

(25:44):
through a big screen TV, youknow, the world around you, or
considering we are used to inhabiting aphysical body that you know, you're you
know, you're you're feelings, theyou know, the touch reciprocal things that
they had on that Teddy Bear.Would you instead of a physical body be

(26:11):
a bare stuffed animal body? Imean is that what your existence would more
or less equate to. And thatto me makes more sense than how they
you know, did it in inthe show. And I mean, of
course, you know, I guessit would be a little bit different,
difficult to adequately, you know,give the impression of what was going on.

(26:34):
I guess with the people if that'show they did it. But at
the same time, you know,it's like, what what would that type
of an existence look like from theinside, you know how huh h,
I don't know, another one ofthose that's interesting, that's intriguing. I

(27:00):
wonder what would that type of existencelook like? So here we go.
Here's what we're at right now,half hour into it, and I think
we've pretty uncovered what I've wanted totalk about on this one, because it's
just it's the technology that just amazesme. I mean, it really does.
So here's my questions for this episode. Okay, how I mean realistically,

(27:27):
realistically, you know, how closedo you think we are to being
able to And I know this isa question that I've asked numerous times,
but how how close do you thinkwe are to being able to actually transfer
somebody's consciousness, you know, intoa computer into you know, even somebody

(27:52):
else, I guess, you know, just to be able to truly transfer
somebody's anxiousness, like the whole thing. You know, your memory, your
you know, your knowledge, youknow who and what you are. I
mean, how how close do youthink we are to truly being able to

(28:12):
do that? You know? AndI mean there's been several movies about this,
you know, Sarah Gate I thinkwas one of them, Bruce Willis
movie, you know, I mean, just with the whole exploring immortality in

(28:33):
this kind of a way, youknow, I mean transferring consciousness. I
mean it truly is something that justI mean, like the implications alone is
just just wow type of a thing. You know. Altered carbon is something
that actually kind of you know,having an empty shell of a body just

(28:57):
waiting for somebody else's anxiousness to gointo it. I mean, holy cow,
how would that work? Wouldn't thatbe possible? Could you use this
type of technology to accomplish that?I mean? Wow? Yeah? Excellent

(29:19):
episode, Highly recommend watching it,checking it out, you know. And
a fun thing to do in thisone is look, I mean really look
at and you really got to lookat this is something that you really can't
watch, especially the first half ofthis. You can't watch just once.
You really can, you know,because part of the things that I find

(29:42):
interesting in this one is all theEaster eggs and all the different ones that
you can tie in and you know, see and okay, this ties back
to this episode, This ties tothat episode and be able to do that.
That's one of the things that Ifound fun this time watching this episode
was looking for all the Easter eggsinside the Black Museum. That was to

(30:04):
me pretty stinking fun. And therewas many. All right. So the
next episode we are going to goto the interactive film Bandersnatch. Now,
guys, I'll tell you what.This movie was absolutely amazing. I mean

(30:25):
it really was, in a matterof speaking, whenever I first watched it,
because I didn't just you know,I mean, I was anal retentive
whenever I watched this, you know, I mean I had a notebook in
front of me, you know,I wrote down the question and the possible
choices, and like I navigated thewhole thing. I mean, I don't

(30:48):
want to say I did it methodically, you know. I mean it wasn't
like always choose option A and thenalways choose option B and then just go
through different things. No no,no, no, that I mean I
didn't go through that methodically with it, but I definitely kept track of what
I did, what the results were, and you know, and I changed

(31:11):
things here and there. I'm like, I spent like I probably watched the
thing like in a matter of speaking, three different freaking times, just because
of just a sheer number of optionsthat are in that thing. Holy crap.
So we are going to be revisitingBandersnatch next time around before we get
into season five, and I believeseason five, like I'm definitely doing episode

(31:33):
one Striking Vipers. Oh yeah,smithereens. I know, I don't really
care, but I am interested inRachel, Jack and Ashley two. But
I don't know if I'm actually goingto do that one before I go into
season six. So next episode isgoing to be Bandersnatch. Going to be

(31:56):
watching that one, having fun withthat episode because that one really is not
episode but movie. That one's atreat. So you know, that's all
I got for you guys on thisepisode. Y'alls have yourself a great one
and I will see you next time. Thank you for listening to the Black

(32:21):
Mirror Podcast. If you would liketo join the conversation, you can comment
on this episode a spreaker dot com, or go to the hohoshow dot com,
forward, slash form, and thediscussion board for this s