Speaker 1: Podcast join host hoh as he discussed as the riveting
Speaker 1: Netflix original series Black Mirror. Now here he is hoo
Speaker 1: hoo there broadcasting from Weapini Soft Production Studio B. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Black Mirror Podcast and as always I'm your host.
Speaker 1: Ho Ho. So, how y'all's doing. I hope you don't good?
Speaker 1: I really do, because today we are kicking off season
Speaker 1: seven with episode one titled common People Now. This episode,
Speaker 1: it had some it reminded me of a few things, right,
Speaker 1: you know, there was a throwback to you know, season
Speaker 1: three episode six titled Hated in the Nation. There was
Speaker 1: possible throwback to season three episode four with san Junapiro
Speaker 1: and it. You know, so there were some aspects in
Speaker 1: this episode that very much reminded me about, you know,
Speaker 1: cell phone coverage and plans back in the day whenever
Speaker 1: that you know, cell phones were really first coming out.
Speaker 1: And yes, yes, I'm older than smartphones, I'm older than Google,
Speaker 1: I'm older than the Internet. I'm pretty sure I'm older
Speaker 1: than the computer. Even maybe I don't know about that one.
Speaker 1: I might not be older than the computer. And it
Speaker 1: also reminded me about, you know, with with how streaming
Speaker 1: services started off being and then what they kind of
Speaker 1: progressed to all that good stuff. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: so there were some things that this this episode definitely
Speaker 1: reminded me of. And the bottom line is this episode
Speaker 1: is about what happens when desperation max head on into
Speaker 1: corporate greed, very much so. And before we get into
Speaker 1: all that spoiler alert, we are going to be talking
Speaker 1: about the episode itself. So if you have yet to
Speaker 1: watch Common People, head on over there, check out the episode,
Speaker 1: and then come on back and we'll discuss it all. Right,
Speaker 1: So let's go ahead and get into it now. The
Speaker 1: show starts off like so many episodes, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got just your average everyday couple, you know, you're
Speaker 1: just traditional people. You've got Mike, a welder, you know,
Speaker 1: just just working his butt off, making ends meet, paying
Speaker 1: for the house, paying for whatever else they need. You've
Speaker 1: got Amanda. She is a school teacher, and I think
Speaker 1: she's teaching elementary school. But at any rate, you know,
Speaker 1: while she's teaching, and I believe this is like the
Speaker 1: first thing that we hear her teaching about. Actually, they're
Speaker 1: talking about these autonomous robotic bees that they used to
Speaker 1: replace like actual bees that by this time has gone extinct,
Speaker 1: and of which case, that is very much a throwback
Speaker 1: to Hate It in the Nation very much, is you know,
Speaker 1: which is interesting to me because you know, I believe
Speaker 1: it was season four. Was it season four? Oh man,
Speaker 1: now I'm going to have to look Dad Gummett. It
Speaker 1: was the episode of Black Museum, and I gotta check
Speaker 1: when that was Black Museum? Okay, so that was actually
Speaker 1: season season four, Yes, Black Museum, you know, and we
Speaker 1: learned in that episode that, you know, everything that's going
Speaker 1: on on Black Mirror basically happens within the same extended universe,
Speaker 1: the Black Mirror extended Universe, if you will, the b
Speaker 1: m EU. We kind of learned that that everything is
Speaker 1: kind of connected. So I thought it was neat that
Speaker 1: they threw, you know, through that little easter egg in there,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of explaining a little bit that possibly
Speaker 1: may have been before the uh, you know, what happened
Speaker 1: in Hated in the Nation, I don't know, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but you know, definitely talks about them autonomous bees. Very
Speaker 1: interesting stuff. And you know, while Amanda is teaching, she's
Speaker 1: in front of the class and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden she passes out, completely loses consciousness. It's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is horrible, right, you know, And she's
Speaker 1: taken to the hospital and you know, you see, you know,
Speaker 1: Mike's standing there in front of the window, and the
Speaker 1: doctor's talking to Mike, letting him know that, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: she she has a brain tumor, and considering where the
Speaker 1: tumor is located, there's just nothing we're going to be
Speaker 1: able to do, unfortunately, and she may never regain consciousness, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is just absolutely horrible news. I couldn't
Speaker 1: even imagine news like this. I mean I really couldn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, dude, just the heartbreak, the desperation that he has.
Speaker 1: And then the doctor tells him about a new startup
Speaker 1: tech company called Rivermind and suggests that he talked to
Speaker 1: the rep that was in the hospital like a week
Speaker 1: before that, I think something like that. So he goes,
Speaker 1: he talks to the rep and the representative explains that,
Speaker 1: you know, that is what they can do is remove
Speaker 1: the tumor. And Mike's like, well, isn't that dangerous And
Speaker 1: she goes, well, normally yes, but as what we do
Speaker 1: is we replace what we remove with a synthetic type
Speaker 1: of a brain tissue. That is connected to the cloud,
Speaker 1: you know, because they take a backup of her consciousness
Speaker 1: and save it on their heart. And then is what
Speaker 1: they do is they upload and just stream her consciousness
Speaker 1: like into that brain tissue that they replace in the
Speaker 1: in her brain with the you know, with the tumor
Speaker 1: that they removed. That that's that's what they do. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, and and she even goes further to explain that,
Speaker 1: you know, we pay for the surgery. You don't have to,
Speaker 1: you know, there's no cost to you for the surgery whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And he's like, you know, what about the cost? What
Speaker 1: about the cost? What about the cost? And she, you know,
Speaker 1: she she very strategically ignores that question until she completely
Speaker 1: has him hooked. And that's when she unleashes the bombshell
Speaker 1: of what it's going to cost. Three hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 1: Holy crap. I mean, dude, that's like a car payment, right,
Speaker 1: you know. And I mean here's the thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, Mike and Amanda, they're just common, average, every
Speaker 1: day middle class people, that's what they are, just like me,
Speaker 1: And an additional payment like that would be that'd be hard, right.
Speaker 1: I Mean, there's so many people out there today are
Speaker 1: living you know, basically paycheck to paycheck, and even if
Speaker 1: they do have, you know, money in the bank, I mean,
Speaker 1: having to pay that kind of expense on top of
Speaker 1: everything else they're already paying for holy crap, you know.
Speaker 1: And and he's like, Okay, you know, we'll you know,
Speaker 1: I can I can swing this. You know, I can
Speaker 1: definitely do that. And you know what she goes and
Speaker 1: she explains to Mike is that, you know, we are
Speaker 1: a small startup company. We're still building out our network,
Speaker 1: but right now things are kind of limited, so you're
Speaker 1: going to be restricted to you know, your your area.
Speaker 1: But we are expanding things. Shortly, we will be you know,
Speaker 1: they'll be coverage nationwide and then we are going to
Speaker 1: be expanding to global. And of which case, that's when
Speaker 1: the real magic is going to happen, right, I mean
Speaker 1: that's she sells him on the dream, right, that's what
Speaker 1: she does. She sells them on the dream. I mean
Speaker 1: in this type of a situation, how many of you
Speaker 1: out there would jump on that deal? You know personally?
Speaker 1: I mean if I was in that situation, I would,
Speaker 1: I mean, dude, I would, I would have to. I mean,
Speaker 1: I would definitely have that mentality that I would have
Speaker 1: to do that. You know, I would have to do
Speaker 1: something because otherwise what you're talking about is completely basically
Speaker 1: saying goodbye to your wife. I mean, I don't think
Speaker 1: I can do that with with that type of an option.
Speaker 1: Price be damned, right. I mean maybe that's just me,
Speaker 1: But in that situation, I could easily see how I
Speaker 1: would do the same thing. What would you do? Would
Speaker 1: you do the same thing or would you not? Would
Speaker 1: the price be too high? Mind? You? You know, she
Speaker 1: just got done selling Mike the dream, right, a dream
Speaker 1: of having his wife back, of being able to go
Speaker 1: back to normal. And the only downside that he talked
Speaker 1: that she talks about, you know, outside of having a
Speaker 1: limited coverage, was she's going to be sleeping a couple
Speaker 1: extra hours a night, so instead of sleeping eight hours
Speaker 1: a night, she's going to be sleeping ten. Big whoop
Speaker 1: that he freaking do? Right, you know, I'll take that
Speaker 1: deal half a heartbeat, right. Well, the next year later,
Speaker 1: you know, he well, Okay, so she gets the surgery,
Speaker 1: everything's fine, she's completely normal, back to her same self.
Speaker 1: And then a year later they're going on their anniversary
Speaker 1: and they're going to a like a hotel called the
Speaker 1: Juniper I think, or the Junipero. I think it was
Speaker 1: the Juniper. And in which case, that kind of reminded
Speaker 1: me of the episode San Junapio, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's definitely what it reminded me of. What was that
Speaker 1: season three episode four. I don't know if the two
Speaker 1: were related in some way, shape or form. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just of all the names they could have picked,
Speaker 1: they picked one so close to a previous episode just
Speaker 1: kind of made me wonder. I mean, they don't really
Speaker 1: explain anything into that at all, but it definitely made
Speaker 1: me wonder. So anyway, they're going on vacation and you know,
Speaker 1: they get into a little bit of an argument. I
Speaker 1: mean it's not a bad argument, but they get into
Speaker 1: a little bit of an argument. And as soon as
Speaker 1: as soon as they cross the county line, do do
Speaker 1: do do? She powers off, She loses consciousness. She is
Speaker 1: down for the count right. She passes out again. Mike
Speaker 1: understandably so is freaking out. He's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I got to turn her out. We got to go back.
Speaker 1: I'm taking you to the hospital. This is not right,
Speaker 1: this is not normal. What the heck's going on. And
Speaker 1: as soon as he you know, after he cuts the
Speaker 1: U turn right there on the highway, as soon as
Speaker 1: he crosses back into their own county, she comes to again.
Speaker 1: Now he's thinking there's some kind of an issue, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, of course there's there's got to be some
Speaker 1: kind of an issue. Come to find out, because they
Speaker 1: go back to the you know, they go back to Rivermine.
Speaker 1: They talk to their their salesperson, the representative again and
Speaker 1: and she's like, oh no, well, I mean, you know
Speaker 1: it's it's a coverage And Mike's confused. He's like, what
Speaker 1: are you talking about coverage? I checked the coverage map.
Speaker 1: You know there was you know, there's supposed to be
Speaker 1: coverage over there, and and the the rep was like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: there is, but you're not. That's not part of your plan.
Speaker 1: That's not part of the tier, the usage tier that
Speaker 1: you're using. You guys are on the common tier. If
Speaker 1: you want to be able to expand where you go,
Speaker 1: you've got to upgrade to a plus tier that'll give
Speaker 1: you the ability to do that. And but that's okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go. If you want to travel, if you
Speaker 1: want to do that kind of stuff. That's amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can do that if you upgrade to the tier.
Speaker 1: It's just going to cost you a measly five hundred
Speaker 1: dollars on top of what you're already paying, bringing the
Speaker 1: grand total to eight hundred dollars. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: Holy crap, that's like a mortgage payment. Holy cow, that's
Speaker 1: rent from most places. And this right there, this very
Speaker 1: much reminded me of, you know, like how cell phone
Speaker 1: plans were back in the day, right because back in
Speaker 1: the day. Okay, now, you youngsters out there, you got
Speaker 1: no idea. All right, I'm gen X. We lived in this,
Speaker 1: all right. This is how things were back in the day,
Speaker 1: you know, because you didn't just get unlimited everything. And
Speaker 1: the only thing that you really paid any additional money
Speaker 1: for was data. No, no, no, no. Back in the day,
Speaker 1: you paid for minutes. You know, there was such a
Speaker 1: thing as as peak time and off peak time. You know,
Speaker 1: peak time being from like seven am to seven pm
Speaker 1: on there you had to pay you know, full price
Speaker 1: on minutes, but nights and weekends seven pm to seven
Speaker 1: am and weekends you had like basically unlimited minutes. But
Speaker 1: before that you didn't you know, if you wanted to
Speaker 1: send a text message, you know, it was like you
Speaker 1: got to charge like half a minute. Talking on the
Speaker 1: phone was a minute. And then there was this thing
Speaker 1: called roaming because you just didn't have service wherever you went.
Speaker 1: You were restricted to your area, your zip code, your
Speaker 1: town whatever. I mean, you were restricting and where you
Speaker 1: could where you can be and have a normal coverage.
Speaker 1: If you go outside of your coverage area, and if
Speaker 1: you didn't have you know, roaming, then you were unable
Speaker 1: to use your phone, right, I mean that's how things
Speaker 1: were back then. You know, we've come a long way
Speaker 1: from how we used to be whenever it came to
Speaker 1: cell phone plans and coverage. Now it's a night and
Speaker 1: day difference, it really is, but back then it was different. Now,
Speaker 1: shortly after this happened, okay, because obviously they're like, no,
Speaker 1: we don't we're not going to pay you know, we're
Speaker 1: not going to pay that much more money. You know,
Speaker 1: I ain't got it. I can't do it. We're not
Speaker 1: going to pay for that. We're already paying three hundred
Speaker 1: dollars a month. We're not going to the plus tier.
Speaker 1: You know, that's just ridiculous. This is not what we
Speaker 1: were sold. This is not the dream you sold me
Speaker 1: whenever you did all this stuff. You know. But it's
Speaker 1: not like you can back out of the deal though, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, he has his wife back and an extra
Speaker 1: two hours a night. You know, it's it's a he'll
Speaker 1: pay that, right, you know, it's he's got his wife back.
Speaker 1: But shortly thereafter, she starts speaking ads. She starts just
Speaker 1: speaking commercials, and she doesn't even know what's going on.
Speaker 1: You know, she was having a you know, teaching about
Speaker 1: this and the next thing, you know, this ad comes
Speaker 1: out of her mouth and she isn't even aware of
Speaker 1: a couple of things. You know, this happens a few
Speaker 1: other times. You know. Then finally his you know, Mike
Speaker 1: realizes what the heck's going on and is like, this
Speaker 1: is kind of this is kind of weird, right, you know,
Speaker 1: And she ends up talking an ad in a very
Speaker 1: bad at a very bad time. You know. She's talking
Speaker 1: to one of her students and spouts off about I
Speaker 1: don't know, some type of some type of a religious thing.
Speaker 1: I forget exactly what it was, but some type of
Speaker 1: religious things like, hey, if you're having a hard time,
Speaker 1: get counseling from here yaha yahdah blah blah. The kid
Speaker 1: goes home tells his mom. Mom's outrage is like, dude,
Speaker 1: you can't do this kind of stuff. So now these
Speaker 1: ads are threatening a man's job, right, And you know,
Speaker 1: I was reminded about how streaming services were back in
Speaker 1: the day, you know, because I remember whenever Netflix was
Speaker 1: a DVD thing, you know that you you would go
Speaker 1: on their website and you would you know, I mean
Speaker 1: this was before you know, this was before like really broadbanding.
Speaker 1: I mean, this was back in the in the early
Speaker 1: days when you had you know, dial up was still
Speaker 1: like the main way people got on the web, and
Speaker 1: this was, you know, like right around the same timeframe
Speaker 1: where broadband was really getting out there with you know,
Speaker 1: with cable and with what DSL. You know. I mean
Speaker 1: that this is whenever broadband was just coming out and
Speaker 1: streaming services weren't a thing yet. But you could go
Speaker 1: on to you know, Netflix dot com and you could
Speaker 1: say I want I want to watch these different movies
Speaker 1: and whatnot, and they would send you, based off of
Speaker 1: your tier, so many DVDs. Whenever you watch them, you
Speaker 1: send it, you know, they you send it back to
Speaker 1: them and they send you the next one down on
Speaker 1: your list. That's how it was. Back then, it was
Speaker 1: all done by DVDs and then streaming service. You know,
Speaker 1: this was the nail in the coffin really to you know,
Speaker 1: Network TV and cable, you know, because they they went
Speaker 1: from doing the DVD service to online on demand streaming
Speaker 1: and it was that was like, dude, that was the thing.
Speaker 1: No longer were you restricted watching your favorite show when
Speaker 1: a network told you it would be available if you
Speaker 1: miss an episode, Holy crap, you're screwed. You missed it.
Speaker 1: You gotta wait for the reruns. But now all that
Speaker 1: went away with on demand streaming services. Then competition came about,
Speaker 1: and the next thing, you know, they were doing different well,
Speaker 1: the next thing, you know, the same type of thing
Speaker 1: of what was going on with rivermind. They started playing ads.
Speaker 1: But then they said, hey, you know, if you don't
Speaker 1: want the ads, then you could always pay extra for
Speaker 1: an ad free experience. You know, I mean, advertisers are
Speaker 1: still out there, they're still wanting to you know, advertisers
Speaker 1: still want advertise, and so that's what you had was
Speaker 1: different tiers of your subscription in order to get out
Speaker 1: of things like ads. It's very much what this reminded
Speaker 1: me of. You know, so, I mean, you know, what
Speaker 1: did you think about how you know? I mean, were
Speaker 1: you around whenever streaming services first really became a thing.
Speaker 1: You seen the competition come in, and you know, things
Speaker 1: just started to slowly change and then not slow not
Speaker 1: so slowly change. I mean it was it was kind
Speaker 1: of wow type of thing, right, so oh oops, so yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it was just it was just crazy back then,
Speaker 1: very much so. And that's whenever they ended up going
Speaker 1: back to rivermind, whenever these ads were playing, because you know,
Speaker 1: she was basically told, Amanda was basically told by the
Speaker 1: principals like, look, we can't, we can't have this. You
Speaker 1: can't be a teacher if you're just going to random
Speaker 1: start speaking commercials and advertisements. You can't. You can't do this.
Speaker 1: And by then, Mike was introduced by one of his
Speaker 1: co workers to a an online streaming site called Dumb Dummies.
Speaker 1: And on this streaming site, you know, you could watch
Speaker 1: people do just stupid, humiliating, painful things, right like you know,
Speaker 1: one guy pulled out a tooth, he you know, drank
Speaker 1: his own urine. I mean, dude, you know, and it
Speaker 1: was just just stupid, humiliating, painful things, and as a viewer,
Speaker 1: you could pay money, and it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: if I get you know, if if we get this
Speaker 1: much money, then I'll do this thing, you know, And
Speaker 1: that's how it was done. And I gotta be honest
Speaker 1: with you, you know, with with different streaming sites and
Speaker 1: with things like you know, like OnlyFans, I'm i gotta
Speaker 1: be honest with you. I'm I'm kind of surprised that
Speaker 1: a website like this isn't actually out right. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't think something like this is out Maybe it
Speaker 1: is on the dark web. Hell, I have no idea,
Speaker 1: but I'm actually kind of surprised at something like this
Speaker 1: isn't a thing right, that people can do these things
Speaker 1: for money, that you, as a viewer, could give money
Speaker 1: to somebody to do something stupid, yank out of his own tooth,
Speaker 1: do whatever, all kinds of humiliating things, right. I mean, dude,
Speaker 1: I am though, I gotta admit, I'm actually kind of
Speaker 1: surprised at something like this isn't already out there, I mean,
Speaker 1: is it? And I mean if something like this was
Speaker 1: out there, would you watch it? Would you actually partake?
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, man. I mean, like as
Speaker 1: far as watching goes, okay, fine, I mean I would
Speaker 1: I would probably watch something like that. I probably wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, granted, I could only assume that, you know,
Speaker 1: to watch your you're probably paying some type of a
Speaker 1: subscription just to get in the door and watch somebody's videos, right,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean I could only assume that. I
Speaker 1: don't know, that isn't something that they really talk about.
Speaker 1: It's nothing that's really explained, you know, It's just a
Speaker 1: site that's there and you can do this. So I mean,
Speaker 1: if there was a site like this that was out there,
Speaker 1: if this was something that was actually going on, would
Speaker 1: you watch? Would you participate? Would you throw somebody some
Speaker 1: money to do something stupid, humiliating or painful? Better yet,
Speaker 1: it is some If there was a site out there
Speaker 1: like this, would you be a content creator? Sure? I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, I mean that's one way to earn money,
Speaker 1: I guess. But I mean, you know, it's like okay,
Speaker 1: pulling out teeth. I only got so many teeth, right,
Speaker 1: you only got so many you know what? Like you
Speaker 1: know what? In one instance? No, never mind, never mind,
Speaker 1: I can't I can't talk about that yet, But would
Speaker 1: you be willing to do that to be a content
Speaker 1: creator on one of on that type of a site,
Speaker 1: would you, I mean desperate times calls for desperate measures.
Speaker 1: I don't know that would be that would be rough
Speaker 1: to watch it? Oh? Sure, I mean I would do that.
Speaker 1: I mean I did. I'm just being honest with you,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean I've watched some stupid say stuff
Speaker 1: on you know, on the on the interwebs, you know,
Speaker 1: disturbing things, you know, people doing stupid stuff, people getting hurt,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean we've all watched those kind of
Speaker 1: kind of videos whenever there's that disclaimer that you know,
Speaker 1: this person was okay, you know, they lived, they survived,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean we've all seen those kind of
Speaker 1: kinds of videos. So I mean, would you actually participate
Speaker 1: in something like this? Would you watch? Would you pay
Speaker 1: somebody to do something stupid, something painful, something humiliating. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm not kind of like my money. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, I I kind of you know,
Speaker 1: I I think I I think i'd join in. I think, well,
Speaker 1: not join in, I think i'd watch. I really do,
Speaker 1: I think i'd watch. So a year later, okay, like
Speaker 1: they're they're on their next anniversary and oh wait, no
Speaker 1: I already already talked about that part, didn't I yes,
Speaker 1: I did so somewhere in in this timeframe, you know,
Speaker 1: after he's learned about dumb dummies, after he's you know,
Speaker 1: he went and talked about you know, already talked about
Speaker 1: the uh, the the plus tier. She noticed that she
Speaker 1: was sleeping even more and not having you know, RESTful sleep.
Speaker 1: And they get told about a new tier called lux
Speaker 1: and this new tier cost an additional thousand dollars on
Speaker 1: top of the you know, the eight hundred I could
Speaker 1: only assume, you know, on top of the eight hundreds.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're talking eighteen hundred dollars a month for
Speaker 1: the Luxury tear. Now. I mean, here's the thing though,
Speaker 1: The Luxury tear sounds kind of nice though, right because
Speaker 1: it integrates with you know, using an app on your phone.
Speaker 1: It integrates with like all of your senses, all of
Speaker 1: your senses, enhanced hearing, enhanced vision, enhanced sight, taste, smell,
Speaker 1: even has different abilities thrown in the here. I mean,
Speaker 1: you watched the commercial where the ladies like park or
Speaker 1: you know, and it's you watch that right. But it
Speaker 1: goes beyond that though, because it's even there's even a
Speaker 1: place in there where you can tie these things to
Speaker 1: your emotions. You can get additional pleasure, happiness. I mean,
Speaker 1: you want to talk about a combat against depression, anxiety, fear.
Speaker 1: I mean, you name the mental illness on here, and
Speaker 1: now you have, using this technology access to be able
Speaker 1: to change that. I mean, I wonder how many different
Speaker 1: ways it could be used. I mean they don't really
Speaker 1: talk or I mean you find out some about what
Speaker 1: it can do, but I mean how far really could
Speaker 1: it go? I mean, dude, I mean if this was
Speaker 1: an option for you to be able to, you know,
Speaker 1: give extra stimulation to whatever, to be able to feel
Speaker 1: this instead of that, to be able to change everything,
Speaker 1: you know, artificially change your dopamine levels. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: what we're talking about, isn't it. Is this something that
Speaker 1: you would do? I mean, would you if you had
Speaker 1: that opportunity, would you do that? I mean good grief?
Speaker 1: I mean you'd think the rivermind, in a matter of speaking,
Speaker 1: would just want to sell that. I mean that component
Speaker 1: right there without having the drain damage attached to it.
Speaker 1: You would think that everybody would be interested in this, right, dude?
Speaker 1: I mean, if the option was there, would you want
Speaker 1: to do that? I mean, how far away do you
Speaker 1: think we are from that kind of technology in general?
Speaker 1: I mean, dude, I mean just think about how it
Speaker 1: could be used and then how could it be a
Speaker 1: be used. So somewhere in this uh you know, in
Speaker 1: this in this time frame, they are going on yet
Speaker 1: another anniversary, going back to the Juniper, and Mike for
Speaker 1: this trip is what he buys because they offer with
Speaker 1: with the Luxury tear, they offer a you know, certain
Speaker 1: you know, like what they call lux passes where you
Speaker 1: could buy time frames of a lux pass, and Mike
Speaker 1: buys Amanda a twelve hour lux pass, and you know,
Speaker 1: they this is where things get kind of entertaining. I mean,
Speaker 1: it really does. It gets it gets pretty entertaining. You know.
Speaker 1: She's like, I forget what exactly what settings she did?
Speaker 1: You know what, you know, how she altered it? I
Speaker 1: don't quite remember. But they're eating and this like, oh
Speaker 1: holy crap, right, you know, I mean, she just she
Speaker 1: is loving this burger, and I mean she is loving
Speaker 1: this burger. She's listening to the couple that are performing
Speaker 1: on stage, and she is just loving the performance, right,
Speaker 1: and then they're in their hotel room in boy, howdie
Speaker 1: is she ever loving that? I mean, it just goes
Speaker 1: off the rails. That cracked me up. I was laughing,
Speaker 1: you know, again, another huge bonus for something like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, abs of freako lutely. It just I thought
Speaker 1: it was hilarious now in this timeframe, okay, in order
Speaker 1: to pay for this plus service, because that's the type
Speaker 1: of that, that's the tear that Amanda is on, right,
Speaker 1: because they were forced to, you know, because of Amanda's job.
Speaker 1: In order to keep their job or keep her teaching job,
Speaker 1: they had to go on the plus tier. That was
Speaker 1: the only way they can do it. And you know,
Speaker 1: Mike started, you know, he started working more and more overtime,
Speaker 1: more and more overtime, extra shifts. I mean he was
Speaker 1: running himself ragged. And by now he had already learned
Speaker 1: about you know, the Dumb Dummies website, and he decided,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm struggling. I mean, he just gets home.
Speaker 1: He is so run down. I mean, he is just
Speaker 1: working himself ragged and he gets the idea that you know,
Speaker 1: I can maybe supplement some of my income by going
Speaker 1: on this website and do some stuff. And he and
Speaker 1: at first, you know, he's he's hiding his identity, right,
Speaker 1: and it's helping, you know, he's actually gaining some money.
Speaker 1: And then stupid happens. You know, he gets told by guy,
Speaker 1: you know, one of his viewers, that hey, I'll give
Speaker 1: you five bucks if you take off your mask and
Speaker 1: we can see who you are. Well, Mike gives in,
Speaker 1: and I mean, I assume that it's like the next
Speaker 1: day at work. You know that the same guy who
Speaker 1: introduced Mike to Dumb Dummies, he's seen Mike on the
Speaker 1: streaming service. So now Mike is ousted that he's on
Speaker 1: this service. He's done this, he's done that, he's done
Speaker 1: the other He's done these humiliating things, and now he's
Speaker 1: called out. A picture of him is posted, like in
Speaker 1: the breakroom or whatever, and Mike goes off. I mean,
Speaker 1: holy cow, he goes off. I mean, can you blame
Speaker 1: him though? You know, I mean here he's doing this,
Speaker 1: he's trying to do it under the radar, right, He's
Speaker 1: trying to bring in some extra money to help him
Speaker 1: out while paying for his wife's service premium tier or
Speaker 1: well plus tier. And he gets ousted online and he
Speaker 1: just goes off on it, basically the guy who ousted him.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I can I mean, dude, can you
Speaker 1: really blame the guy though? I mean, can you blame
Speaker 1: him on going off? Now? Unfortunately you know him and
Speaker 1: this guy, I have no idea what his name is,
Speaker 1: I don't remember. But you know, they they get they
Speaker 1: basically get into a fight, a little bit of a
Speaker 1: little bit of a scot They tussle. Is that the
Speaker 1: word I'm looking for. Yeah, they tussle, and he gets hurt,
Speaker 1: he gets injured, he gets injured bad. I mean, dude,
Speaker 1: I was very much questioning whether he was actually going
Speaker 1: to survive this. I mean, we can only assume that
Speaker 1: he did, but I mean, I don't know. But anyway,
Speaker 1: because of this fight, Mike completely loses his job. And
Speaker 1: you know, Mike gets the idea that, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: we'll just go back to Riverbind. You know, we'll just
Speaker 1: we'll just go back to him. And we've been loyal
Speaker 1: customers for years. We've never missed a payment, we've never
Speaker 1: been late, We've always you know, done this, We've done that,
Speaker 1: We've we've always done this, you know, and you need
Speaker 1: to keep your jobs. We need to keep our plus tier.
Speaker 1: So we'll go and we'll talk to him. And in
Speaker 1: the process of talking to him, you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, it comes out that, hey, you know, we're
Speaker 1: trying to get pregnant, we're trying to have a kid,
Speaker 1: and they learned that, Oh, well, you know, if you
Speaker 1: actually it's like, you're not pregnant right now, are you?
Speaker 1: Because if you get pregnant, you know, the pregnancy, it
Speaker 1: changes your brain to the point to where it causes
Speaker 1: you know, it costs more. I mean, if you actually
Speaker 1: do end up getting pregnant, you're going to have to
Speaker 1: pay additional money because it alters your brain chemistry, and
Speaker 1: we have to counter that. And basically, the representative, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever her name is, I don't remember, it doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: but she's like, no, we're unwilling to work with you.
Speaker 1: We don't care that you've been a loyal customer for years.
Speaker 1: We don't care that you lost your job. And the
Speaker 1: only way for your wife, Amanda, whom received this treatment,
Speaker 1: to continue to work is to be on the tier
Speaker 1: that you're at. We don't care your personal situation doesn't
Speaker 1: change the fact that you need to pay for this service,
Speaker 1: and they leave, and Mike goes completely all in on
Speaker 1: this website, being a content creator on Dumb Dummies. He
Speaker 1: goes all in. You know, he's already been ousted, he's
Speaker 1: already been struggling to find another job. Amanda lost her
Speaker 1: teaching job. They're back on the common tier. And then
Speaker 1: another year rolls around. They you know, they've already given
Speaker 1: up having a kid, and instead of being able to
Speaker 1: go to the same location on their anniversary, they're stuck.
Speaker 1: They're stuck at home. He's able to get a thirty
Speaker 1: minute pass and Amanda kicks up the serenity. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a saying from back in the day, a prayer,
Speaker 1: if you will, God, grant me the serenity to accept
Speaker 1: the things I cannot change, the courage to change the
Speaker 1: things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Speaker 1: And in this moment, in this time of serenity, Amanda
Speaker 1: looks at looks at her husband, and she's like, it's time.
Speaker 1: It's time. Do it when I'm not here, you know,
Speaker 1: do it whenever she goes in sleep mode, right and
Speaker 1: that night, as the timer's taken down and as soon
Speaker 1: as it reaches zero, here she is playing another ad
Speaker 1: speaking another commercial, more advertisements, and he deletes her with
Speaker 1: a pillow. And if that isn't bad enough, it ends
Speaker 1: with him walking into a studio with a box cutter
Speaker 1: in his hand. And I mean, dude, this episode, I
Speaker 1: don't know if this episode for you was like it
Speaker 1: was for me. I mean this episode for me, I mean,
Speaker 1: ERMI ger it hit kind of hard, right, especially that ending,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was it just, you know, it was
Speaker 1: bad enough what they went through throughout the episode. You know,
Speaker 1: it was bad enough with the struggle, you know, just
Speaker 1: common average everyday people, you know, struggling just to lead
Speaker 1: their best life. You know, I don't know, as if
Speaker 1: they were barely making ends meet, but you kind of
Speaker 1: get the idea. I mean, they're definitely not well off,
Speaker 1: but they don't really seem to be struggling either. They're
Speaker 1: able to make ends meet, They're able to, you know,
Speaker 1: work a little harder to get a little bit of
Speaker 1: what they want. And then tragedy and then it just
Speaker 1: they end up getting exploited, right, more exploitation, more exploitation,
Speaker 1: you know, and by the time they realized that this
Speaker 1: is a bad idea, it's too late. I mean, I
Speaker 1: can't even imagine the struggle that these two went through.
Speaker 1: And I mean if they would have known, if either
Speaker 1: one of them, if Mike and Amanda would have known
Speaker 1: what was going to happen, do you think they would
Speaker 1: have went through with it? With the struggle, with the
Speaker 1: with being smacked in the face multiple times by corporate greed,
Speaker 1: do you think they would have done it again? I mean, granted,
Speaker 1: Mike got his wife back for a couple of years, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, some people would say that that's priceless, and
Speaker 1: I mean I would go as far as to agree
Speaker 1: with that. I mean, to have someone you loved that
Speaker 1: was prematurely ripped from your hands in a freak accident,
Speaker 1: you know, a health tragedy. Some people would call that priceless.
Speaker 1: But you look at what they had to give up
Speaker 1: and what it ended up costing them. You know, would
Speaker 1: you be able to do something like that or would
Speaker 1: you take what happened in this episode as a hint
Speaker 1: a little bit of forward thinking may end up going
Speaker 1: a long way. Would you do it or would you not?
Speaker 1: That's the question for you today. If you had that
Speaker 1: opportunity to do something like this, to get an implant,
Speaker 1: to get your to get the time back with somebody
Speaker 1: you loved. Maybe it's a wife, maybe it's a husband,
Speaker 1: maybe it's a parent, maybe it's a kid, one of
Speaker 1: your own children, brother, sister, whatever, would you be able
Speaker 1: to would you do that? Would you make that sacrifice
Speaker 1: and basically do whatever it is you needed to do
Speaker 1: to make that dream a reality. I want to hear
Speaker 1: your thoughts. I really do, because this one I wow,
Speaker 1: Like I said, it hit hard, It really intrigued me.
Speaker 1: So I want to know how far would you go?
Speaker 1: Would you do it? Given the opportunity, would you do it?
Speaker 1: And here's another question, actually, how far away do you
Speaker 1: think some technology like this could go from science fiction
Speaker 1: to science fact? I mean I read an article a
Speaker 1: while back ago and it was talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: basically downloading somebody's consciousness. They're working on that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff right now, and I mean I wanting to say
Speaker 1: that this was an article that I read several months
Speaker 1: ago actually, So I mean we're working on that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and with quantum computing, with crystal storage devices,
Speaker 1: with all kinds of other things that we're doing. You know,
Speaker 1: this type of thing is well within our it really is.
Speaker 1: I mean It's terrifying, true, but fascinating all the same.
Speaker 1: How far away do you think we are to something
Speaker 1: like that, to that kind of technology actually being a reality,
Speaker 1: to alter somebody's moods, to download their consciousness, to live
Speaker 1: stream it into synthetic brain tissue. I mean, wow. Let
Speaker 1: me know. If you're over there on spreaker, you can
Speaker 1: let me know down in the comments below. If you
Speaker 1: are listening on one of the other myriad of podcast places,
Speaker 1: podcast hosting, well, podcast platforms, Holy crap. If you're an
Speaker 1: any one of those other places, then definitely send me
Speaker 1: an email ho ho at Black Mirror podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: Let me know. I'm intrigued by this one, and I
Speaker 1: want to hear your thoughts. I want. I want to know.
Speaker 1: I really do, And I know this episode very much
Speaker 1: ended on a you know that common people have very
Speaker 1: much ended on a very bad place. I know it did,
Speaker 1: and I know depression is real. I really do. And
Speaker 1: I may not know what you're going through personally, but
Speaker 1: I know pain. I've been around for a little while.
Speaker 1: I've seen some stuff, I've experienced some stuff. I get pain,
Speaker 1: I really do, but there are people out there who care.
Speaker 1: I know it may not seem like it all the time,
Speaker 1: but there is. And I want to invite you to
Speaker 1: reach out to me if you're struggling, if you're in
Speaker 1: a bad place, if you just need somebody to talk to,
Speaker 1: somebody to vent to. Everything's confidential. You can stay anonymous,
Speaker 1: but reach out if you need to reach out. Ho
Speaker 1: Ho at Black Mirror podcast dot com. I'm here for you,
Speaker 1: I really am. Anyway, I greatly appreciate y'all stopping by.
Speaker 1: I really do. I can't wait to see what the
Speaker 1: next what the next episode has in store. I can't
Speaker 1: wait for the rest of this season. I really can't.
Speaker 1: This one is going to be a doozy. I can already.
Speaker 1: This season is starting off strong. It really is. It
Speaker 1: is awesome. I'm excited. Y'alls have yourself a great one
Speaker 1: and I will see you in the next one. Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening to the Black Mirror Podcast. If you
Speaker 1: would like to join the conversation, you can comment on
Speaker 1: this episode a spreaker dot com or go to the
Speaker 1: Ho Ho Show dot com forward slash form in the
Speaker 1: discussion board for this wh