Resumen de When code replaces scripture: black mirror, technology and the specter of christianity
This thesis analyzes 12 episodes from the dystopian science fiction anthology series, Black Mirror (2011-present). The episodes selected are those that, as argued in this text, depict the role of technology as replacing that of religion. The importance of looking at these episodes together becomes clear when considering contemporary debates around technology and our collective technological aims. The analysis of individual episodes form a foundation for the reading of Black Mirror and its technology within the framework of Christian concepts. To build this argument, the episodes are compared to one another, Christian concepts they mirror, historical events related to theological debates within Christianity, and contemporary trends and events relating to technology. Throughout the history of western civilization, Christian belief has played an important role in shaping cultural ideologies particularly conceptions of death, suffering, and humanity’s place in the world. It could be argued that Christian ideas continue to penetrate cultural narratives today, despite declining self-recognition in the west as religious or spiritual.
Christian concepts including the afterlife, omniscience, vengeance, ostracism and eternal suffering spring up in some of the least expected places within contemporary popular culture today. Black Mirror takes on these concepts, among others, as detailed in this thesis. However, instead of the Christian God fulfilling or carrying out these religious notions, technology plays the role of God within the series, bringing these concepts to fruition—only feasible by technology’s hand. Furthermore, Christianity has played a key role in social control throughout history; this research also considers the ways that technology mirrors other Christian concepts such as devotion, piety, sacrifice and obedience. Black Mirror depicts the materialization of all these concepts through imagined worlds, signaling the lingering traces of their origin.
Considered in three parts following on from the literature review, this thesis will first look at the God-like powers that technology brings to life within the episodes (Part II: What Technology and Christianity Offer). Next, this thesis will look at the requirements and social behavior solicited by these technologies (Part III: What Technology and Christianity Demand) and then the darker punishments these technologies carry out (Part IV: The Consequences of Transgression). These distinctions between the seemingly positive outcomes in Part II and the negative outcomes in Part IV can be tied together by the notion of social control in Part III. These contrasts between the three parts of the thesis allows us to see the referential relationships between technology in the series and Christian concepts more clearly. Each of the parts will consider four episodes of Black Mirror, highlighting the most significant concepts as related to the technology in the given episode and how that technology relates to a major Christian concept.
Collectively, the three primary parts (Parts II-IV) form a foundation for the reading of Black Mirror and its usage of technology within the framework of Christian concepts. Likewise, the importance of looking at these episodes together becomes clear as we consider contemporary debates around technology and our collective technological aims. This model of analysis—comparing the use of technology within Black Mirror to Christian concepts—allows for an interesting consideration of the larger role that technology has come to play within contemporary western culture, which is often much more complex than a simple tool. Likewise, it draws clearer lines between the Christian concepts and their modern-day specters.
