Common People

S7E1 - An Episode where we talk about the evil side of what happens when Desperation runs into Corporate Greed.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Podcast join host hoh as he discussed as the riveting
Netflix original series Black Mirror. Now here he is hoo
hoo there broadcasting from Weapini Soft Production Studio B. Welcome
to Black Mirror Podcast and as always I'm your host.

(00:34):
Ho Ho. So, how y'all's doing. I hope you don't good?
I really do, because today we are kicking off season
seven with episode one titled common People Now. This episode,
it had some it reminded me of a few things, right,
you know, there was a throwback to you know, season

(00:55):
three episode six titled Hated in the Nation. There was
possible throwback to season three episode four with san Junapiro
and it. You know, so there were some aspects in
this episode that very much reminded me about, you know,
cell phone coverage and plans back in the day whenever

(01:16):
that you know, cell phones were really first coming out.
And yes, yes, I'm older than smartphones, I'm older than Google,
I'm older than the Internet. I'm pretty sure I'm older
than the computer. Even maybe I don't know about that one.
I might not be older than the computer. And it

(01:37):
also reminded me about, you know, with with how streaming
services started off being and then what they kind of
progressed to all that good stuff. I mean, you know,
so there were some things that this this episode definitely
reminded me of. And the bottom line is this episode
is about what happens when desperation max head on into

(02:01):
corporate greed, very much so. And before we get into
all that spoiler alert, we are going to be talking
about the episode itself. So if you have yet to
watch Common People, head on over there, check out the episode,
and then come on back and we'll discuss it all. Right,
So let's go ahead and get into it now. The

(02:24):
show starts off like so many episodes, right. I mean,
you've got just your average everyday couple, you know, you're
just traditional people. You've got Mike, a welder, you know,
just just working his butt off, making ends meet, paying
for the house, paying for whatever else they need. You've

(02:46):
got Amanda. She is a school teacher, and I think
she's teaching elementary school. But at any rate, you know,
while she's teaching, and I believe this is like the
first thing that we hear her teaching about. Actually, they're
talking about these autonomous robotic bees that they used to
replace like actual bees that by this time has gone extinct,

(03:12):
and of which case, that is very much a throwback
to Hate It in the Nation very much, is you know,
which is interesting to me because you know, I believe
it was season four. Was it season four? Oh man,
now I'm going to have to look Dad Gummett. It
was the episode of Black Museum, and I gotta check

(03:35):
when that was Black Museum? Okay, so that was actually
season season four, Yes, Black Museum, you know, and we
learned in that episode that, you know, everything that's going
on on Black Mirror basically happens within the same extended universe,
the Black Mirror extended Universe, if you will, the b

(03:57):
m EU. We kind of learned that that everything is
kind of connected. So I thought it was neat that
they threw, you know, through that little easter egg in there,
you know, kind of explaining a little bit that possibly
may have been before the uh, you know, what happened
in Hated in the Nation, I don't know, I don't know,

(04:18):
but you know, definitely talks about them autonomous bees. Very
interesting stuff. And you know, while Amanda is teaching, she's
in front of the class and then all of a
sudden she passes out, completely loses consciousness. It's like, oh
my god, this is horrible, right, you know, And she's
taken to the hospital and you know, you see, you know,

(04:41):
Mike's standing there in front of the window, and the
doctor's talking to Mike, letting him know that, hey, you know,
she she has a brain tumor, and considering where the
tumor is located, there's just nothing we're going to be
able to do, unfortunately, and she may never regain consciousness, right,
I mean, this is just absolutely horrible news. I couldn't

(05:01):
even imagine news like this. I mean I really couldn't.
I mean, dude, just the heartbreak, the desperation that he has.
And then the doctor tells him about a new startup
tech company called Rivermind and suggests that he talked to
the rep that was in the hospital like a week

(05:23):
before that, I think something like that. So he goes,
he talks to the rep and the representative explains that,
you know, that is what they can do is remove
the tumor. And Mike's like, well, isn't that dangerous And
she goes, well, normally yes, but as what we do
is we replace what we remove with a synthetic type

(05:46):
of a brain tissue. That is connected to the cloud,
you know, because they take a backup of her consciousness
and save it on their heart. And then is what
they do is they upload and just stream her consciousness
like into that brain tissue that they replace in the

(06:11):
in her brain with the you know, with the tumor
that they removed. That that's that's what they do. It's like,
you know, and and she even goes further to explain that,
you know, we pay for the surgery. You don't have to,
you know, there's no cost to you for the surgery whatsoever.
And he's like, you know, what about the cost? What
about the cost? What about the cost? And she, you know,
she she very strategically ignores that question until she completely

(06:36):
has him hooked. And that's when she unleashes the bombshell
of what it's going to cost. Three hundred dollars a month.
Holy crap. I mean, dude, that's like a car payment, right,
you know. And I mean here's the thing. I mean,
you know, Mike and Amanda, they're just common, average, every

(06:57):
day middle class people, that's what they are, just like me,
And an additional payment like that would be that'd be hard, right.
I Mean, there's so many people out there today are
living you know, basically paycheck to paycheck, and even if
they do have, you know, money in the bank, I mean,
having to pay that kind of expense on top of

(07:21):
everything else they're already paying for holy crap, you know.
And and he's like, Okay, you know, we'll you know,
I can I can swing this. You know, I can
definitely do that. And you know what she goes and
she explains to Mike is that, you know, we are
a small startup company. We're still building out our network,

(07:42):
but right now things are kind of limited, so you're
going to be restricted to you know, your your area.
But we are expanding things. Shortly, we will be you know,
they'll be coverage nationwide and then we are going to
be expanding to global. And of which case, that's when
the real magic is going to happen, right, I mean
that's she sells him on the dream, right, that's what

(08:06):
she does. She sells them on the dream. I mean
in this type of a situation, how many of you
out there would jump on that deal? You know personally?
I mean if I was in that situation, I would,
I mean, dude, I would, I would have to. I mean,

(08:27):
I would definitely have that mentality that I would have
to do that. You know, I would have to do
something because otherwise what you're talking about is completely basically
saying goodbye to your wife. I mean, I don't think
I can do that with with that type of an option.

(08:50):
Price be damned, right. I mean maybe that's just me,
But in that situation, I could easily see how I
would do the same thing. What would you do? Would
you do the same thing or would you not? Would

(09:11):
the price be too high? Mind? You? You know, she
just got done selling Mike the dream, right, a dream
of having his wife back, of being able to go
back to normal. And the only downside that he talked
that she talks about, you know, outside of having a

(09:32):
limited coverage, was she's going to be sleeping a couple
extra hours a night, so instead of sleeping eight hours
a night, she's going to be sleeping ten. Big whoop
that he freaking do? Right, you know, I'll take that
deal half a heartbeat, right. Well, the next year later,
you know, he well, Okay, so she gets the surgery,

(09:53):
everything's fine, she's completely normal, back to her same self.
And then a year later they're going on their anniversary
and they're going to a like a hotel called the
Juniper I think, or the Junipero. I think it was
the Juniper. And in which case, that kind of reminded

(10:14):
me of the episode San Junapio, you know, I mean,
that's definitely what it reminded me of. What was that
season three episode four. I don't know if the two
were related in some way, shape or form. I don't know.
I just of all the names they could have picked,
they picked one so close to a previous episode just

(10:36):
kind of made me wonder. I mean, they don't really
explain anything into that at all, but it definitely made
me wonder. So anyway, they're going on vacation and you know,
they get into a little bit of an argument. I
mean it's not a bad argument, but they get into
a little bit of an argument. And as soon as

(10:57):
as soon as they cross the county line, do do
do do? She powers off, She loses consciousness. She is
down for the count right. She passes out again. Mike
understandably so is freaking out. He's like, oh my god,

(11:18):
I got to turn her out. We got to go back.
I'm taking you to the hospital. This is not right,
this is not normal. What the heck's going on. And
as soon as he you know, after he cuts the
U turn right there on the highway, as soon as
he crosses back into their own county, she comes to again.

(11:41):
Now he's thinking there's some kind of an issue, right,
I mean, of course there's there's got to be some
kind of an issue. Come to find out, because they
go back to the you know, they go back to Rivermine.
They talk to their their salesperson, the representative again and
and she's like, oh no, well, I mean, you know
it's it's a coverage And Mike's confused. He's like, what

(12:03):
are you talking about coverage? I checked the coverage map.
You know there was you know, there's supposed to be
coverage over there, and and the the rep was like, well, yeah,
there is, but you're not. That's not part of your plan.

(12:26):
That's not part of the tier, the usage tier that
you're using. You guys are on the common tier. If
you want to be able to expand where you go,
you've got to upgrade to a plus tier that'll give
you the ability to do that. And but that's okay,

(12:47):
I'm gonna go. If you want to travel, if you
want to do that kind of stuff. That's amazing. Yeah,
you can do that if you upgrade to the tier.
It's just going to cost you a measly five hundred
dollars on top of what you're already paying, bringing the
grand total to eight hundred dollars. Are you kidding me?
Holy crap, that's like a mortgage payment. Holy cow, that's

(13:12):
rent from most places. And this right there, this very
much reminded me of, you know, like how cell phone
plans were back in the day, right because back in
the day. Okay, now, you youngsters out there, you got
no idea. All right, I'm gen X. We lived in this,

(13:35):
all right. This is how things were back in the day,
you know, because you didn't just get unlimited everything. And
the only thing that you really paid any additional money
for was data. No, no, no, no. Back in the day,
you paid for minutes. You know, there was such a

(13:55):
thing as as peak time and off peak time. You know,
peak time being from like seven am to seven pm
on there you had to pay you know, full price
on minutes, but nights and weekends seven pm to seven
am and weekends you had like basically unlimited minutes. But
before that you didn't you know, if you wanted to

(14:17):
send a text message, you know, it was like you
got to charge like half a minute. Talking on the
phone was a minute. And then there was this thing
called roaming because you just didn't have service wherever you went.
You were restricted to your area, your zip code, your

(14:40):
town whatever. I mean, you were restricting and where you
could where you can be and have a normal coverage.
If you go outside of your coverage area, and if
you didn't have you know, roaming, then you were unable
to use your phone, right, I mean that's how things
were back then. You know, we've come a long way

(15:00):
from how we used to be whenever it came to
cell phone plans and coverage. Now it's a night and
day difference, it really is, but back then it was different. Now,
shortly after this happened, okay, because obviously they're like, no,
we don't we're not going to pay you know, we're

(15:23):
not going to pay that much more money. You know,
I ain't got it. I can't do it. We're not
going to pay for that. We're already paying three hundred
dollars a month. We're not going to the plus tier.
You know, that's just ridiculous. This is not what we
were sold. This is not the dream you sold me
whenever you did all this stuff. You know. But it's
not like you can back out of the deal though, right,

(15:46):
I mean, he has his wife back and an extra
two hours a night. You know, it's it's a he'll
pay that, right, you know, it's he's got his wife back.
But shortly thereafter, she starts speaking ads. She starts just

(16:10):
speaking commercials, and she doesn't even know what's going on.
You know, she was having a you know, teaching about
this and the next thing, you know, this ad comes
out of her mouth and she isn't even aware of
a couple of things. You know, this happens a few
other times. You know. Then finally his you know, Mike
realizes what the heck's going on and is like, this

(16:31):
is kind of this is kind of weird, right, you know,
And she ends up talking an ad in a very
bad at a very bad time. You know. She's talking
to one of her students and spouts off about I

(16:53):
don't know, some type of some type of a religious thing.
I forget exactly what it was, but some type of
religious things like, hey, if you're having a hard time,
get counseling from here yaha yahdah blah blah. The kid
goes home tells his mom. Mom's outrage is like, dude,
you can't do this kind of stuff. So now these
ads are threatening a man's job, right, And you know,

(17:18):
I was reminded about how streaming services were back in
the day, you know, because I remember whenever Netflix was
a DVD thing, you know that you you would go
on their website and you would you know, I mean
this was before you know, this was before like really broadbanding.

(17:39):
I mean, this was back in the in the early
days when you had you know, dial up was still
like the main way people got on the web, and
this was, you know, like right around the same timeframe
where broadband was really getting out there with you know,
with cable and with what DSL. You know. I mean
that this is whenever broadband was just coming out and

(18:01):
streaming services weren't a thing yet. But you could go
on to you know, Netflix dot com and you could
say I want I want to watch these different movies
and whatnot, and they would send you, based off of
your tier, so many DVDs. Whenever you watch them, you
send it, you know, they you send it back to

(18:22):
them and they send you the next one down on
your list. That's how it was. Back then, it was
all done by DVDs and then streaming service. You know,
this was the nail in the coffin really to you know,
Network TV and cable, you know, because they they went
from doing the DVD service to online on demand streaming

(18:45):
and it was that was like, dude, that was the thing.
No longer were you restricted watching your favorite show when
a network told you it would be available if you
miss an episode, Holy crap, you're screwed. You missed it.
You gotta wait for the reruns. But now all that
went away with on demand streaming services. Then competition came about,

(19:11):
and the next thing, you know, they were doing different well,
the next thing, you know, the same type of thing
of what was going on with rivermind. They started playing ads.
But then they said, hey, you know, if you don't
want the ads, then you could always pay extra for
an ad free experience. You know, I mean, advertisers are

(19:33):
still out there, they're still wanting to you know, advertisers
still want advertise, and so that's what you had was
different tiers of your subscription in order to get out
of things like ads. It's very much what this reminded
me of. You know, so, I mean, you know, what

(19:55):
did you think about how you know? I mean, were
you around whenever streaming services first really became a thing.
You seen the competition come in, and you know, things
just started to slowly change and then not slow not
so slowly change. I mean it was it was kind
of wow type of thing, right, so oh oops, so yeah,

(20:26):
I mean it was just it was just crazy back then,
very much so. And that's whenever they ended up going
back to rivermind, whenever these ads were playing, because you know,

(20:49):
she was basically told, Amanda was basically told by the
principals like, look, we can't, we can't have this. You
can't be a teacher if you're just going to random
start speaking commercials and advertisements. You can't. You can't do this.
And by then, Mike was introduced by one of his

(21:12):
co workers to a an online streaming site called Dumb Dummies.
And on this streaming site, you know, you could watch
people do just stupid, humiliating, painful things, right like you know,
one guy pulled out a tooth, he you know, drank

(21:34):
his own urine. I mean, dude, you know, and it
was just just stupid, humiliating, painful things, and as a viewer,
you could pay money, and it was like, you know,
if I get you know, if if we get this
much money, then I'll do this thing, you know, And
that's how it was done. And I gotta be honest
with you, you know, with with different streaming sites and

(21:58):
with things like you know, like OnlyFans, I'm i gotta
be honest with you. I'm I'm kind of surprised that
a website like this isn't actually out right. I mean,
I don't think something like this is out Maybe it
is on the dark web. Hell, I have no idea,
but I'm actually kind of surprised at something like this

(22:20):
isn't a thing right, that people can do these things
for money, that you, as a viewer, could give money
to somebody to do something stupid, yank out of his own tooth,
do whatever, all kinds of humiliating things, right. I mean, dude,

(22:41):
I am though, I gotta admit, I'm actually kind of
surprised at something like this isn't already out there, I mean,
is it? And I mean if something like this was
out there, would you watch it? Would you actually partake?

(23:02):
I mean, I don't know, man. I mean, like as
far as watching goes, okay, fine, I mean I would
I would probably watch something like that. I probably wouldn't.
I mean, granted, I could only assume that, you know,
to watch your you're probably paying some type of a
subscription just to get in the door and watch somebody's videos, right,

(23:23):
you know, I mean I could only assume that. I
don't know, that isn't something that they really talk about.
It's nothing that's really explained, you know, It's just a
site that's there and you can do this. So I mean,
if there was a site like this that was out there,
if this was something that was actually going on, would
you watch? Would you participate? Would you throw somebody some

(23:46):
money to do something stupid, humiliating or painful? Better yet,
it is some If there was a site out there
like this, would you be a content creator? Sure? I
don't know, man, I mean that's one way to earn money,

(24:11):
I guess. But I mean, you know, it's like okay,
pulling out teeth. I only got so many teeth, right,
you only got so many you know what? Like you
know what? In one instance? No, never mind, never mind,
I can't I can't talk about that yet, But would
you be willing to do that to be a content

(24:33):
creator on one of on that type of a site,
would you, I mean desperate times calls for desperate measures.
I don't know that would be that would be rough
to watch it? Oh? Sure, I mean I would do that.

(24:53):
I mean I did. I'm just being honest with you,
you know. I mean I've watched some stupid say stuff
on you know, on the on the interwebs, you know,
disturbing things, you know, people doing stupid stuff, people getting hurt,
you know. I mean we've all watched those kind of
kind of videos whenever there's that disclaimer that you know,
this person was okay, you know, they lived, they survived,

(25:17):
you know. I mean we've all seen those kind of
kinds of videos. So I mean, would you actually participate
in something like this? Would you watch? Would you pay
somebody to do something stupid, something painful, something humiliating. I
don't know. I'm not kind of like my money. But
at the same time, I I kind of you know,
I I think I I think i'd join in. I think, well,

(25:38):
not join in, I think i'd watch. I really do,
I think i'd watch. So a year later, okay, like
they're they're on their next anniversary and oh wait, no
I already already talked about that part, didn't I yes,
I did so somewhere in in this timeframe, you know,

(26:06):
after he's learned about dumb dummies, after he's you know,
he went and talked about you know, already talked about
the uh, the the plus tier. She noticed that she
was sleeping even more and not having you know, RESTful sleep.

(26:29):
And they get told about a new tier called lux
and this new tier cost an additional thousand dollars on

(26:53):
top of the you know, the eight hundred I could
only assume, you know, on top of the eight hundreds.
I mean, you're talking eighteen hundred dollars a month for
the Luxury tear. Now. I mean, here's the thing though,
The Luxury tear sounds kind of nice though, right because
it integrates with you know, using an app on your phone.
It integrates with like all of your senses, all of

(27:17):
your senses, enhanced hearing, enhanced vision, enhanced sight, taste, smell,
even has different abilities thrown in the here. I mean,
you watched the commercial where the ladies like park or
you know, and it's you watch that right. But it

(27:43):
goes beyond that though, because it's even there's even a
place in there where you can tie these things to
your emotions. You can get additional pleasure, happiness. I mean,

(28:05):
you want to talk about a combat against depression, anxiety, fear.
I mean, you name the mental illness on here, and
now you have, using this technology access to be able

(28:32):
to change that. I mean, I wonder how many different
ways it could be used. I mean they don't really
talk or I mean you find out some about what
it can do, but I mean how far really could
it go? I mean, dude, I mean if this was
an option for you to be able to, you know,

(28:53):
give extra stimulation to whatever, to be able to feel
this instead of that, to be able to change everything,
you know, artificially change your dopamine levels. I mean, that's
what we're talking about, isn't it. Is this something that
you would do? I mean, would you if you had

(29:14):
that opportunity, would you do that? I mean good grief?
I mean you'd think the rivermind, in a matter of speaking,
would just want to sell that. I mean that component
right there without having the drain damage attached to it.
You would think that everybody would be interested in this, right, dude?

(29:40):
I mean, if the option was there, would you want
to do that? I mean, how far away do you
think we are from that kind of technology in general?
I mean, dude, I mean just think about how it
could be used and then how could it be a
be used. So somewhere in this uh you know, in

(30:07):
this in this time frame, they are going on yet
another anniversary, going back to the Juniper, and Mike for
this trip is what he buys because they offer with
with the Luxury tear, they offer a you know, certain

(30:27):
you know, like what they call lux passes where you
could buy time frames of a lux pass, and Mike
buys Amanda a twelve hour lux pass, and you know,
they this is where things get kind of entertaining. I mean,
it really does. It gets it gets pretty entertaining. You know.

(30:48):
She's like, I forget what exactly what settings she did?
You know what, you know, how she altered it? I
don't quite remember. But they're eating and this like, oh
holy crap, right, you know, I mean, she just she
is loving this burger, and I mean she is loving
this burger. She's listening to the couple that are performing

(31:09):
on stage, and she is just loving the performance, right,
and then they're in their hotel room in boy, howdie
is she ever loving that? I mean, it just goes
off the rails. That cracked me up. I was laughing,
you know, again, another huge bonus for something like that.
I mean, abs of freako lutely. It just I thought

(31:34):
it was hilarious now in this timeframe, okay, in order
to pay for this plus service, because that's the type
of that, that's the tear that Amanda is on, right,
because they were forced to, you know, because of Amanda's job.

(31:58):
In order to keep their job or keep her teaching job,
they had to go on the plus tier. That was
the only way they can do it. And you know,
Mike started, you know, he started working more and more overtime,
more and more overtime, extra shifts. I mean he was
running himself ragged. And by now he had already learned

(32:21):
about you know, the Dumb Dummies website, and he decided,
you know what, I'm struggling. I mean, he just gets home.
He is so run down. I mean, he is just
working himself ragged and he gets the idea that you know,
I can maybe supplement some of my income by going

(32:43):
on this website and do some stuff. And he and
at first, you know, he's he's hiding his identity, right,
and it's helping, you know, he's actually gaining some money.
And then stupid happens. You know, he gets told by guy,
you know, one of his viewers, that hey, I'll give
you five bucks if you take off your mask and

(33:05):
we can see who you are. Well, Mike gives in,
and I mean, I assume that it's like the next
day at work. You know that the same guy who
introduced Mike to Dumb Dummies, he's seen Mike on the
streaming service. So now Mike is ousted that he's on

(33:30):
this service. He's done this, he's done that, he's done
the other He's done these humiliating things, and now he's
called out. A picture of him is posted, like in
the breakroom or whatever, and Mike goes off. I mean,
holy cow, he goes off. I mean, can you blame

(33:51):
him though? You know, I mean here he's doing this,
he's trying to do it under the radar, right, He's
trying to bring in some extra money to help him
out while paying for his wife's service premium tier or
well plus tier. And he gets ousted online and he

(34:16):
just goes off on it, basically the guy who ousted him.
And I mean, I can I mean, dude, can you
really blame the guy though? I mean, can you blame
him on going off? Now? Unfortunately you know him and
this guy, I have no idea what his name is,
I don't remember. But you know, they they get they

(34:38):
basically get into a fight, a little bit of a
little bit of a scot They tussle. Is that the
word I'm looking for. Yeah, they tussle, and he gets hurt,
he gets injured, he gets injured bad. I mean, dude,
I was very much questioning whether he was actually going

(35:00):
to survive this. I mean, we can only assume that
he did, but I mean, I don't know. But anyway,
because of this fight, Mike completely loses his job. And
you know, Mike gets the idea that, hey, you know,
we'll just go back to Riverbind. You know, we'll just

(35:21):
we'll just go back to him. And we've been loyal
customers for years. We've never missed a payment, we've never
been late, We've always you know, done this, We've done that,
We've we've always done this, you know, and you need
to keep your jobs. We need to keep our plus tier.
So we'll go and we'll talk to him. And in

(35:45):
the process of talking to him, you know, it's like,
you know, it comes out that, hey, you know, we're
trying to get pregnant, we're trying to have a kid,
and they learned that, Oh, well, you know, if you
actually it's like, you're not pregnant right now, are you?
Because if you get pregnant, you know, the pregnancy, it
changes your brain to the point to where it causes
you know, it costs more. I mean, if you actually

(36:07):
do end up getting pregnant, you're going to have to
pay additional money because it alters your brain chemistry, and
we have to counter that. And basically, the representative, you know,
whatever her name is, I don't remember, it doesn't matter,
but she's like, no, we're unwilling to work with you.

(36:30):
We don't care that you've been a loyal customer for years.
We don't care that you lost your job. And the
only way for your wife, Amanda, whom received this treatment,
to continue to work is to be on the tier
that you're at. We don't care your personal situation doesn't

(36:59):
change the fact that you need to pay for this service,
and they leave, and Mike goes completely all in on
this website, being a content creator on Dumb Dummies. He

(37:21):
goes all in. You know, he's already been ousted, he's
already been struggling to find another job. Amanda lost her
teaching job. They're back on the common tier. And then

(37:45):
another year rolls around. They you know, they've already given
up having a kid, and instead of being able to
go to the same location on their anniversary, they're stuck.
They're stuck at home. He's able to get a thirty

(38:07):
minute pass and Amanda kicks up the serenity. You know,
there's a saying from back in the day, a prayer,
if you will, God, grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change, the courage to change the
things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

(38:32):
And in this moment, in this time of serenity, Amanda
looks at looks at her husband, and she's like, it's time.
It's time. Do it when I'm not here, you know,

(38:53):
do it whenever she goes in sleep mode, right and
that night, as the timer's taken down and as soon
as it reaches zero, here she is playing another ad
speaking another commercial, more advertisements, and he deletes her with

(39:20):
a pillow. And if that isn't bad enough, it ends
with him walking into a studio with a box cutter
in his hand. And I mean, dude, this episode, I

(39:42):
don't know if this episode for you was like it
was for me. I mean this episode for me, I mean,
ERMI ger it hit kind of hard, right, especially that ending,
I mean, it was it just, you know, it was
bad enough what they went through throughout the episode. You know,

(40:04):
it was bad enough with the struggle, you know, just
common average everyday people, you know, struggling just to lead
their best life. You know, I don't know, as if
they were barely making ends meet, but you kind of
get the idea. I mean, they're definitely not well off,

(40:28):
but they don't really seem to be struggling either. They're
able to make ends meet, They're able to, you know,
work a little harder to get a little bit of
what they want. And then tragedy and then it just
they end up getting exploited, right, more exploitation, more exploitation,
you know, and by the time they realized that this

(40:50):
is a bad idea, it's too late. I mean, I
can't even imagine the struggle that these two went through.
And I mean if they would have known, if either

(41:12):
one of them, if Mike and Amanda would have known
what was going to happen, do you think they would
have went through with it? With the struggle, with the

(41:32):
with being smacked in the face multiple times by corporate greed,
do you think they would have done it again? I mean, granted,
Mike got his wife back for a couple of years, right,
I mean, some people would say that that's priceless, and

(41:54):
I mean I would go as far as to agree
with that. I mean, to have someone you loved that
was prematurely ripped from your hands in a freak accident,
you know, a health tragedy. Some people would call that priceless.

(42:15):
But you look at what they had to give up
and what it ended up costing them. You know, would
you be able to do something like that or would
you take what happened in this episode as a hint

(42:35):
a little bit of forward thinking may end up going
a long way. Would you do it or would you not?
That's the question for you today. If you had that
opportunity to do something like this, to get an implant,

(43:00):
to get your to get the time back with somebody
you loved. Maybe it's a wife, maybe it's a husband,
maybe it's a parent, maybe it's a kid, one of
your own children, brother, sister, whatever, would you be able

(43:26):
to would you do that? Would you make that sacrifice
and basically do whatever it is you needed to do
to make that dream a reality. I want to hear
your thoughts. I really do, because this one I wow,
Like I said, it hit hard, It really intrigued me.

(43:51):
So I want to know how far would you go?
Would you do it? Given the opportunity, would you do it?
And here's another question, actually, how far away do you
think some technology like this could go from science fiction

(44:17):
to science fact? I mean I read an article a
while back ago and it was talking about, you know,
basically downloading somebody's consciousness. They're working on that kind of
stuff right now, and I mean I wanting to say
that this was an article that I read several months

(44:39):
ago actually, So I mean we're working on that kind
of thing, and with quantum computing, with crystal storage devices,
with all kinds of other things that we're doing. You know,
this type of thing is well within our it really is.

(45:03):
I mean It's terrifying, true, but fascinating all the same.
How far away do you think we are to something
like that, to that kind of technology actually being a reality,
to alter somebody's moods, to download their consciousness, to live

(45:25):
stream it into synthetic brain tissue. I mean, wow. Let
me know. If you're over there on spreaker, you can
let me know down in the comments below. If you
are listening on one of the other myriad of podcast places,
podcast hosting, well, podcast platforms, Holy crap. If you're an

(45:48):
any one of those other places, then definitely send me
an email ho ho at Black Mirror podcast dot com.
Let me know. I'm intrigued by this one, and I
want to hear your thoughts. I want. I want to know.
I really do, And I know this episode very much
ended on a you know that common people have very

(46:10):
much ended on a very bad place. I know it did,
and I know depression is real. I really do. And
I may not know what you're going through personally, but
I know pain. I've been around for a little while.
I've seen some stuff, I've experienced some stuff. I get pain,

(46:31):
I really do, but there are people out there who care.
I know it may not seem like it all the time,
but there is. And I want to invite you to
reach out to me if you're struggling, if you're in
a bad place, if you just need somebody to talk to,

(46:52):
somebody to vent to. Everything's confidential. You can stay anonymous,
but reach out if you need to reach out. Ho
Ho at Black Mirror podcast dot com. I'm here for you,

(47:13):
I really am. Anyway, I greatly appreciate y'all stopping by.
I really do. I can't wait to see what the
next what the next episode has in store. I can't
wait for the rest of this season. I really can't.
This one is going to be a doozy. I can already.
This season is starting off strong. It really is. It

(47:34):
is awesome. I'm excited. Y'alls have yourself a great one
and I will see you in the next one. Thank
you for listening to the Black Mirror Podcast. If you
would like to join the conversation, you can comment on
this episode a spreaker dot com or go to the

(47:55):
Ho Ho Show dot com forward slash form in the
discussion board for this wh