[ExI] Black Mirror: White Christmas

[Anton Sherwood]

«Black Mirror» is a British tv anthology series of hi-tech dystopian 
stories.  Last night I watched the episode “White Christmas”, which 
features - among other gimmicks - the "cookie", a device that, when 
implanted in your temple, makes a copy of your personality; it can then 
be removed and run in a virtual environment.

We are shown two applications of the "cookie", both abusive.


Greta's cookie wakes up and is told that her purpose is to be Greta's 
servant, managing Greta's appointments and her house's smart gadgets. 
Her alternative to doing this job is a simple punishment: endless 
isolation and boredom.

Why does Greta's cookie not remember what Greta knows about the cookie 
and its purpose?  What is to prevent her from subtly sabotaging Greta's 
life?  Why can't she redecorate her blank white world?


Joe is a murder suspect.  His cookie is placed in a disorienting 
environment and manipulated into confessing -- and then given an 
eternity of psychological torture on the whim of one of the detectives.

I don't know if English law has a doctrine analogous to the USA's Fifth 
Amendment ("nor shall any person .. be compelled in any criminal case to 
be a witness against himself").  It might be argued that the principle 
does not apply, because the defendant's cookie is not himself.  (Clearly 
cookies do not have human rights.)  But then the cookie's confession is 
hearsay!

-- 
*\\*  Anton Sherwood  *\\*  www.bendwavy.org