Abstract

Black Mirror seemingly presents viewers with relentless condemnation of both technology and viewer complicity in allowing technology to gradually consume every facet of their lives. This is probably how the majority of people who watch – or have just heard about – the show view it, and it is easy to see why. But this is not the only way to understand the themes at play under the hood of the series. Another possibility is that Black Mirror is less a show about the dangers of technology and more an exploration of the darker side of human nature: the awful traits, behaviors, and dispositions that the prism of technology reveals and maybe even invites out of people. In this chapter, both options will be considered. The positions of various philosophers who have dealt meaningfully with technology will be used to tease out the degree to which Black Mirror’s target is technology or its human users. These thinkers and topics range from contemporary notions about existential risk and transhumanism to Frankfurt School social theorists and distinctions in ancient philosophy between the natural and artificial.