The other day I was browsing through Tik Tok and a video came on. It was a commercial for a new hardware startup called Friend.com
Harvard dropout, Avi Schiffmann, spent $1.8 million USD on this domain name. And nope this isn’t Facebook 2.0, well, maybe it might be…but the product isn’t a marketplace for making friends. It’s a hardware device that looks like a necklace that serves as your “friend”.
Here’s the commercial:
It’s always on and always listening. If you’re at the movies, talking to a friend in a café, having an intimate conversation with your boyfriend, it’s always taking in whatever sounds you are taking in. It then decides to make comments based on what it’s heard. Was that earlier comment from a friend pretty snide? Does your boyfriend sound questionable on a commitment? It uses the format of a text to text you its thoughts. You can reply back and it will continue the conversation.
In a Wired interview, CEO Avi says, “I feel like I have a closer relationship with this fucking pendant around my neck than I do with these literal friends in front of me.”
Now, depending on your age bracket, you might be going, WHAT IN THE WORLD! Who would ever wear a 24/7 monitoring device? Honestly, I don’t know how the sales will be for this product. So far, I’ve only heard negative comments. But if we look at the astonishing character.ai user numbers which is a similar app for a companion chatbot relationship, I actually think this product might have decent sales numbers. I also think this device might be purchased quietly, without the users showing off the purchase.
While the loneliness epidemic rises to even more astounding numbers, I also think this highlights for us that, at the end of the day, we all want companionship, and we might have just reached the point where it doesn’t matter who we are connected with, as long as there is connection.
No surprise to you, I’ve always been a huge fan of Black Mirror episodes. I think it’s the most explicit way to delve into second order thinking. Second order thinking probes beyond the immediately seen consequences of launching a technology, and digs deeper, imagines further, in how other things in the ecosystem will be affected. After reading about this product, it felt like the storyline of an episode. I talk about these episodes in my keynotes a lot, as a warning sign and reminder that sometimes what was fiction is quickly becoming reality.
While friend.com’s example is an episode that was not on Black Mirror, here are some episodes that have become reality.
When Sci Fi Becomes Reality
The first one that comes to mind is an episode called “Nosedive”. Here’s a clip to jolt your memory.
China has something called Sesame Scores, a trustworthiness score for every individual that is a product feature within the app Alipay, where I used to work. Funnily enough, Black mirror is actually banned in China - because the government doesn’t want its citizens to associate these types of new technologies in a negative light. Sesame scores also have a social element just like in the episode. If I add someone as my friend who has a lower score, my score is lowered. If I add someone with a score higher than mine, it will cause my score to be higher.
Here's another favorite episode of mine: "The Entire History of You". It Features a technology allowing people to play back memories. While we don't have direct memory playback, the ubiquity of cameras, social media, and other recording technologies means much of our lives are stored and can be revisited. It reminds me of all of those videos on Tik Tok where someone receives a racist comment and smartly pulls out his or her phone to record what happens next and we bring the wrath of the public to correct such behavior. And then there’s the ways that we’ve solved for public safety by doing the same thing such as identifying the man who punched several women in New York.
In episode "Be Right Back", a woman communicates with a digital recreation of her deceased boyfriend. Companies like Replika offer chatbots designed to mimic human personalities, and there are efforts in AI to recreate the digital presence of lost loved ones, though in very primitive forms. In fact, that was the whole reason the founder of Replika created the company. Her best friend had died in an accident. In an attempt to bring the friend back to life, the founder began to download all of their previous conversations and created a virtual version of the deceased friend.
In episode "Metalhead", lethal drone 'dogs' threaten a women as they no longer listen to human command. While not at the deadly level shown in the episode, companies like Boston Dynamics have created robotic dogs that are used for a variety of purposes, everything from delivery to factory work.
In episode "Shut Up and Dance", hackers blackmail individuals over their internet history. In the state of Georgia, a mother received a harrowing call from a kidnapper, claiming to have her daughter. The kidnapper even played a short clip of the girl screaming for help to the mom. When the mom called the father, he said that the daughter was right beside him. This led the mom to realize that she was almost going to be scammed by scammers who used an AI-generated clip of the daughter’s voice.
The Role of Speculative Fiction in Shaping Our Future
Stories like those in "Black Mirror" serve an important purpose beyond entertainment. They encourage us to engage in second-order thinking about technology – considering not just the immediate consequences of new innovations, but their potential long-term impacts on society, relationships, and human behavior.
While Hollywood has been criticized for fear-mongering about AI and technology, these speculative narratives play a crucial role in our societal discourse. They help us visualize potential futures, spark important conversations about ethics and regulation, and potentially influence the development of technology in more conscientious directions.
Conclusion: Navigating the Technological Frontier
Unfortunately, we have ran out of Black Mirror episodes as the series closed. If you caught the last season, it’s pivoted completely towards horror and thriller instead of staying true to its dystopic tones with technology, something that I lamented. I’ve always talked about, in my keynotes, how Hollywood is to be blamed for the fear mongering among us, painting AI in a very negative light. While it does tend to do that for clicks and sales, I think it’s great to have these stories play out a bit, because only when we’re shown what’s possible do we realize the immense consequences of the types of products we’re using as a society and its unintended effects.
There are no easy answers, but by staying informed, critically examining new technologies, and actively participating in discussions about their implementation, we can work towards harnessing the benefits of innovation while mitigating potential negative consequences. In this rapidly evolving landscape, the stories we tell – whether through science fiction or real-world examples – play a vital role in shaping our technological future. As the line between speculation and reality continues to blur, our ability to imagine, question, and guide these advancements becomes more important than ever.