A friend said to me: If you have Netflix you should watch an episode called Nosedive from the series Black Mirror.
I asked for the Executive Summary and she replied:
Tom, it’s almost worth just buying a one month subscription with Netflix just to see the Black Mirror series. You can cancel anytime without penalty.
Society has embraced a technology wherein everyone shares their daily activities through eye implants and mobile devices where one rates their interactions with others on a scale from one to five stars, cumulatively affecting everyone’s socioeconomic status.
Lacie Pound (Bryce Dallas Howard) seeks to raise her 4.2 rating to 4.5 for a discount on a luxury apartment; however, despite her attempts to be outgoing and pleasant, her rating has plateaued. Lacie talks to a consultant who suggests gaining favour from very highly rated people. Lacie uploads a photograph of Mr. Rags, a ragdoll that she and her childhood friend Naomi (Alice Eve) made together.
Naomi, who is currently rated 4.8, rates the photo five stars and calls Lacie to announce her engagement, inviting Lacie to deliver a wedding speech as the maid of honour. Lacie agrees and commits on the apartment, anticipating many high ratings from the guests.
On the day of her flight, several mishaps cause people to rate Lacie negatively, dropping her rating below 4.2. At the airport, her flight is cancelled and she cannot buy a seat on an alternate flight with her current rating. When Lacie causes a scene, security penalises her by putting her on “double damage” and subtracting a full point for 24 hours. Because of her low rating, Lacie can only rent an older car to drive to the wedding, which she cannot recharge when it runs out of power.
She is forced to hitchhike with Susan (Cherry Jones), a truck driver with a rating of 1.4. Susan tells Lacie that she used to care about her rating until her late husband was passed over for vital cancer treatment because their scores were deemed not high enough. Susan says she is much freer without obsessing over ratings.
While Lacie is en route to the wedding, Naomi tells her to not come, as her severely reduced rating will negatively impact Naomi’s own ratings. Enraged, Lacie reaches the wedding and sneaks in during the reception. She grabs the microphone and starts giving the speech she had written but insults Naomi with references to childhood conflict, finally grabbing a knife and threatening to behead Mr. Rags.
The guests rate Lacie negatively, causing her rating to drop below one star. Lacie is imprisoned with her eye implants removed. She and the man in the cell opposite hers (Sope Dirisu) realise they can now speak without worrying about being rated, and gleefully hurl insults at each other.
As I don’t have Netflix I passed her recommendation on to those in my family who do and my son replied: “Yeah I’ve seen it… social credit scores are all levels of messed up!”
I replied: “I like your conclusion. Please share it around. The more people reach the same, sane conclusion you did the more chance we have of defeating its implementation.”