Years and Years (BBC, Miniseries; 2019)
Season 1, Ep 1-6.
It started with the £1 Tshirts in the mid-1990s. Everyone knew it was ridiculously cheap, but nobody saw the need to create a ruckus about it. The businessmen took the lion's share of the profit while the poor workers who put it together took home a few pennies. The buyers did not complain as it was a bargain. The workers did not either. They were thankful that they had a job to go to. After many years, they were able to see some money. That was the beginning of the divide - the divergence between the haves and the have nots. It went on to create obnoxiously rich conglomerates.
With the spread of the world wide web to all corners of the world, global netizens were hooked. They were lulled with the dopamine of social media influence and the lure of aimless spending. People were cooped in the comfort of their echo chamber, looking into the eyes of the fellow humans but into the abyss of their monitors. Perched in their armchair, they became opinionated about everything and feel superior to the surroundings. Unbeknownst to them, the Big Brother of the Web was busy mining their habits and idiosyncrasies and would one day be used against them.
These must be some of the thoughts that went through the scriptwriters as they envisioned a potential dystopic UK in the 15 over years after 2019.
The United Kingdom is no longer the cradle of the world as it used to be. Many jobs which used to be done by people is redundant as AI can do it as well, if not better. Who needs accountants anymore? Unskilled works like the manual car wash are resurfacing after being phased out long ago by the automatic car wash stations. Despatch riders to deliver online orders made a comeback. People simply needed jobs.
The story revolves a matriarchal octagenarian and her four grandchildren as well as their partners and children. Trump had been re-elected and had authorised the launch of a nuclear missile to the man-made island owned by China. Theresa May is somehow still in the picture. Politics in the UK is still chaos as hatred and populist politics hog the limelight. Brexit had secluded the UK from the Continent, but it has to deal with an influx of refugees from Ukraine. Russia had invaded Ukraine and is after its enemies and the LGBTs. Gay marriages in the UK are the norm, hence the illegal immigrants.
Along the way, many British banks collapse. Political candidates become outrageous in their approach to convince voters to vote for them. Digital contents are regulated so much. Deep fake videos make nothing credible anymore. Frequent power outages are carried to continually erase and modify data. Information is controlled by the ruling regime. BBC is shut down. Once again, print media makes a comeback as it proved more credible. Housing shortage becomes acute. The long arm of the law becomes something to be feared as the process to wrangle out such legal entanglements becomes too easy and cumbersome.
On the other end, people get so obsessed with integrating themselves to the net that they go into great lengths into incorporating the human body with the digital world. In Transhumanism, man can implant chips into their hand to receive calls, plant cameras into their eyes to get their instant clicks (literally at the blink of an eye) and even to transfer our memories and consciousness to a digital format.
Along the way, we do see advances in medical treatment. Macular degeneration (which may cause blindness) is reversed with stem cell technology. The 80-year-old, who later became 90, seems active as ever, celebrating birthdays after birthdays. There is even mention of in-utero correction of spina bifida.
If Consciousness is the common denominator that unifies all beings in the Universe, the ability to interpret Consciousness will put Man at the level of God, would you say?
History has shown that giving too much power to the ruling elite can be disastrous. In the same vein, the people in the 2030 UK realised this and garnered their resources to oust the ruling regime by exposing their concentration camps and take charge of the Government.
Season 1, Ep 1-6.
It started with the £1 Tshirts in the mid-1990s. Everyone knew it was ridiculously cheap, but nobody saw the need to create a ruckus about it. The businessmen took the lion's share of the profit while the poor workers who put it together took home a few pennies. The buyers did not complain as it was a bargain. The workers did not either. They were thankful that they had a job to go to. After many years, they were able to see some money. That was the beginning of the divide - the divergence between the haves and the have nots. It went on to create obnoxiously rich conglomerates.
With the spread of the world wide web to all corners of the world, global netizens were hooked. They were lulled with the dopamine of social media influence and the lure of aimless spending. People were cooped in the comfort of their echo chamber, looking into the eyes of the fellow humans but into the abyss of their monitors. Perched in their armchair, they became opinionated about everything and feel superior to the surroundings. Unbeknownst to them, the Big Brother of the Web was busy mining their habits and idiosyncrasies and would one day be used against them.
These must be some of the thoughts that went through the scriptwriters as they envisioned a potential dystopic UK in the 15 over years after 2019.
The United Kingdom is no longer the cradle of the world as it used to be. Many jobs which used to be done by people is redundant as AI can do it as well, if not better. Who needs accountants anymore? Unskilled works like the manual car wash are resurfacing after being phased out long ago by the automatic car wash stations. Despatch riders to deliver online orders made a comeback. People simply needed jobs.
The story revolves a matriarchal octagenarian and her four grandchildren as well as their partners and children. Trump had been re-elected and had authorised the launch of a nuclear missile to the man-made island owned by China. Theresa May is somehow still in the picture. Politics in the UK is still chaos as hatred and populist politics hog the limelight. Brexit had secluded the UK from the Continent, but it has to deal with an influx of refugees from Ukraine. Russia had invaded Ukraine and is after its enemies and the LGBTs. Gay marriages in the UK are the norm, hence the illegal immigrants.
Along the way, many British banks collapse. Political candidates become outrageous in their approach to convince voters to vote for them. Digital contents are regulated so much. Deep fake videos make nothing credible anymore. Frequent power outages are carried to continually erase and modify data. Information is controlled by the ruling regime. BBC is shut down. Once again, print media makes a comeback as it proved more credible. Housing shortage becomes acute. The long arm of the law becomes something to be feared as the process to wrangle out such legal entanglements becomes too easy and cumbersome.
On the other end, people get so obsessed with integrating themselves to the net that they go into great lengths into incorporating the human body with the digital world. In Transhumanism, man can implant chips into their hand to receive calls, plant cameras into their eyes to get their instant clicks (literally at the blink of an eye) and even to transfer our memories and consciousness to a digital format.
Along the way, we do see advances in medical treatment. Macular degeneration (which may cause blindness) is reversed with stem cell technology. The 80-year-old, who later became 90, seems active as ever, celebrating birthdays after birthdays. There is even mention of in-utero correction of spina bifida.
If Consciousness is the common denominator that unifies all beings in the Universe, the ability to interpret Consciousness will put Man at the level of God, would you say?
History has shown that giving too much power to the ruling elite can be disastrous. In the same vein, the people in the 2030 UK realised this and garnered their resources to oust the ruling regime by exposing their concentration camps and take charge of the Government.
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