15 Technologies That Prove We're Living In A 'Black Mirror' Episode

A deepfake is a fake video that uses artificial intelligence to make it look like someone said or did something they didn't. Deepfakes can be used for things like porn, spoofs, and satire, but they can also be used maliciously to spread false information. While deepfakes kinda started out as harmless fun, there is potential for them to be misused in the future.

Cloned dogs have been employed by the Korea Customs Service to work at customs checkpoints across the country! These genetically duplicated Labs were part of a litter of seven born in 2007, created by Seoul National University scientists. The team who cloned these had successfully created the world's first known dog clone in 2005.

In Shanghai, robots are being employed during the Covid-19 lockdown telling people over loudspeakers to stay inside and wash their hands regularly. There are also self-driving carts which bring food orders from restaurants straight to people's doorsteps so that no one has to leave quarantine.

15 Deepfakes are fake videos that look real using AI.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes Al-GENERATED VIDEO A deepfake is a video that uses artificial intelligence to make it look like someone said or did something they didn't. This can be used for things like porn, spoofs, and satire, but also to spread false information. CRACKED — *Shamook/YouTube*
*The Guardian*

14 Billionaires are taking to space while poor people stay on Earth.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes THE WEALTHY ARE FLEEING THE PLANET Billionaires have taken the lead in space exploration in recent years, with private companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin providing recreational flights for those who can afford it. Instead of, you know, fixing things on Earth. CRACKED — *Evgeniyqw/Shutterstock*
Vox

13 Harmony is a sex robot that can be customized to look and act however you want.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes BESPOKE SEX ANDROIDS Harmony is a sex robot designed to be customizable via an accompanying app. It first debuted at CES, and has been updated with a new face, Al improvements, and the ability for users to control remotely. There are also plans for different gender variations in the future. CRACKED — *RealDoll*
Engadget

12 China rates its citizens with a “social credit score” to encourage good behavior, and the baddies get punished with things like travel bans and slow internet.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes SOCIAL CREDIT SCORES The social credit system is a moral ranking system that the Chinese Communist Party has been constructing for years to monitor the behavior of its enormous population. Punishments for bad behavior include travel bans and slow internet speeds. CRACKED — *MMD Made my dreams/Shutterstock*
Insider

11 Robot dogs in Shanghai are telling people to stay inside and wash their hands during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes AUTHORITARIAN ROBOT DOGS Shanghai is using robots to help with the lockdown due to COVID-19. Robot dogs roam the streets, telling people to stay inside and wash their hands. On the plus side, there are also self-driving carts that bring food to people in quarantine. CRACKED — *ALX1618/Shutterstock*
*Financial Times*

10 Soylent is a protein shake that was introduced in 2013 as an alternative to food.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes FOOD ALTERNATIVES When Soylent was first introduced in 2013, its value proposition of being a protein shake that replaced food altogether seemed shocking. Eight years later, it was on track for $100 million in sales and available Ready-to-drink meal in 30,000 U.S retail stores. Mint Chocolate Naturally flavored soylent 20g plant protein 39 essential nutrients' CRACKED — *Soylent*
Food Dive

9 Pigs are one step closer to being able to donate organs to humans, thanks to CRISPR!

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes ORGAN HARVESTING Pig-to-human transplants have been a long time coming, and CRISPR is making them closer to reality. By inactivating the viruses that lurk in pig genomes, researchers are almost able to transplant organs from pigs into humans without provoking a massive immune response. CRACKED — *SciePro/Shutterstock*
*The Atlantic*

8 Scientists use CRISPR to edit human genes for the first time with promising results.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes HUMAN GENE EDITING The CRISPR-Cas9 gene editor went to work inside human patients in a landmark trial, snipping apart DNA and inserting, deleting or modifying genes. Another experiment aboard the ISS showed that CRISPR can generate and repair DNA breaks in yeast cells in microgravity. Great news? CRACKED — *Natali _ Mis/Shutterstock*
*Discover Magazine*

7 The iPhone XS's facial recognition software is a stepping stone to more complex AI foundations that will be implemented across the infrastructure of "smart cities."

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes FACIAL RECOGNITION IN SMART CITIES The iPhone XS's facial recognition software is seen as a stepping stone to more complex Al that will be implemented across the infrastructure of smart cities. There is concern that there is potential for abuse by police forces and targeted advertising by retailers. CRACKED — *Kitreel/Shutterstock*
TNW

6 These cloned dogs are ready to work!

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes CLONED DOGS The Korea Customs Service has employed six cloned dogs to work at customs checkpoints across the country. They're genetic duplicates of a single Labrador retriever, and were part of a litter of seven born in 2007. CRACKED — *MirasWonderland/Shutterstock*
ABC News

5 Since COVID-19, more and more companies are installing “bossware” on their workers' computers.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes BOSSWARE Since COVID-19, there has been a rise of companies offering software that tracks workers' every move, keystroke, and location. This bossware is often installed without the worker's knowledge, and can be used to collect data for lawsuits or other nefarious purposes. CRACKED — *Jr images/Shutterstock*
Electronic Frontier Foundation

4 Biometric and facial recognition is growing quickly and impacting human behavior, leading many tech experts to warn of a surveillance nightmare.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes BIODATA COLLECTION Tech experts are warning that society is sleepwalking into a dystopian surveillance nightmare. The growth of the biometric and facial recognition sector has started to have a major impact on human behavior and the communities it monitors. CRACKED — *kiattiporn kumpeng/Shutterstock*
Citywire

3 The future of work is looking bleak for many Americans.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes AUTOMATED JOBS In the past, when jobs have been made obsolete by automation, companies have created new ones to meet their needs. But lately, artificial intelligence is being employed instead of human Dryara workers. CRACKED — *Antonello Marangi/Shutterstock*
*Time*

2 ANPR is a system that can read license plates without human intervention.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes READING ROBOTS Through high-speed image capture and CD9876 detection of characters, a program called ANPR can identify a license plate at high speed and decode the text associated with it, without human intervention. AB1234 CRACKED — *klyaksun/Shutterstock*
ANPR Cameras

1 Pixar's 2008 film WALL-E predicted our current reality of obesity rates, Zoom calls, and meal replacement companies.

Real-Life Dystopian Tropes WALL-E CALLED IT. In 2008, Pixar released the movie WALL-E which depicted a future Earth that was uninhabitable due to climate change. There are many eerie similarities between the film and our current reality including obesity rates, Zoom calls, and meal replacement companies. WALI CRACKED — *Pixar*
Bloomberg

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