Black Mirror has found its spiritual home. The move from England's channel 4 to Netflix seems as inevitable as the choose-your-own-dystopias the show lays out for us. Netflix, after all, is a service that has made bingeing acceptable, so where better to house Black Mirror, an addictive show that tackles the fears we have about society.
The newest season of Black Mirror is so bleak (except for this episode!) that we formed a PCMag support group on Slack, where each week we'll chat about an episode from Black Mirror's third season; here are our chats about episode one, two, and three. This week, Jordan Minor, Rob Marvin, Matthew Buzzi, Chandra Steele, Victoria Song, Eric Griffith, and Pete Haas discuss our universally favorite episode "San Junipero."
Minor [10:28 AM]
OOH BABY DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT'S WORTH pic.twitter.com/KtGBBOw6kI
— Jim Trinca (@Jim_Trinca) November 13, 2016
Marvin [10:30 AM]
^I really like this new tweet format
Buzzi [10:31 AM]
People, an episode was actually...uplifting!
[10:31]
I mean don't get used to it or anything
Steele [10:31 AM]
Can we only talk about this episode every week?
Song [10:31 AM]
Who knew a Belinda Carlisle song would be the anthem of hope in 2016?
Slackbot [10:31 AM]
¯\_(?)_/¯
Steele [10:32 AM]
Upload ourselves to San Junipero, the streaming version
Griffith [10:32 AM]
after last week, we need episode 4
Haas [10:32 AM]
they could've made the central tech in this episode into something dark and I'm glad they decided to go in the opposite direction
Song [10:32 AM]
I bet they don't worry about garbage elections in San Junipero.\
Buzzi [10:32 AM]
Even though it had some generally sad themes throughout, managed to be heartwarming
Song [10:32 AM]
Poignant.
Haas [10:33 AM]
you have to turn off your brain a little and just surrender to the 80s cheerfulness of it
Steele [10:33 AM]
Just like the song Girlfriend in a Coma
Griffith [10:33 AM]
They can revisit this future a lot for other stories. the tech is right out of Ready Player One (soon to be a Spielberg blockbuster)
Song [10:34 AM]
You know what was cool? This was simultaneously a futuristic and period piece.
[10:34]
That's some creative storycraft.
Minor [10:34 AM]
Calling this the best episode of the season or even the show kind of seems like an understatement since it's so different from the M.O.
Griffith [10:34 AM]
It's a "very special episode"
Haas [10:34 AM]
what's fascinating is that the rest of the series now feels like a setup for this episode
Buzzi [10:34 AM]
Contrast with how episode 3 was the worst because it was hardly part of the show
Haas [10:34 AM]
because you're expecting something horrible to happen the entire time
Song [10:35 AM]
:Puts on omniscient voice: There is a clear reason San Junipero is smack dab in the middle!
Griffith [10:35 AM]
imagine what the trolls in that service would do to the kid in episode 3 when he logged in.
Steele [10:35 AM]
You have the power of foresight
[10:35]
I am watching week to week as we do this
Song [10:35 AM]
Pretty sure lots of people would've quit halfway through the elongated season given how bleak the rest of the episodes are
[10:35]
with the exception of Nosedive
[10:35]
Think it was massively strategic to put Nosedive first and San Junipero right when you're ready to just give up.
[10:35]
THEY PULL YOU BACK IN.
Buzzi [10:36 AM]
Really just 2 harsh ones then, which isn't exactly out of line with the rest of the show
Song [10:36 AM]
Not to foreshadow episodes 5 & 6, but this is really just a contained oasis.
Marvin [10:36 AM]
San Junipero is definitely the only episode so far that's left me with that same complete feeling of awe/wonderment that I got from a few of the standout episodes in earlier seasons
[10:37]
Jordan's right, it's because the M.O. is so different
Song [10:37 AM]
It's also hitting on a lot of the things the tech industry as a whole are talking about right now--virtual reality, life extension.
Griffith [10:37 AM]
and that inevitable plug into the brain we all should have by now
Marvin [10:37 AM]
It was the right balance of atmosphere and a really relatable sci-fi tech future
Griffith [10:37 AM]
and there was love!
Marvin [10:38 AM]
A lifelong paralyzed woman got a new life!
Minor [10:38 AM]
How many more 80s-set prestige dramas can Cameron Mackenzie be in?
Song [10:38 AM]
Originally, I read that the story was meant to be a man and a woman; so it's a nice twist and a nod to the diversity in S3 that it got changed to an interracial LGBTQ couple.
Steele [10:38 AM]
She really has the face for it
Song [10:39 AM]
And Yorkie's story feels a whole lot more tragic and relevant given the current climate because of it.
Steele [10:39 AM]
Maybe Cameron is actually visiting us from the 80s
Song [10:39 AM]
(Halt and Catch Fire is really good too...)
Minor [10:40 AM]
The virtual fantasy becomes even more powerful when it's something actively discouraged in the real world
Steele [10:40 AM]
This is one of the most distinctly un-British of the new Black Mirror episodes
[10:41]
Episode 1 was the dark side of American optimism
[10:41]
And this is the best of it
[10:41]
Last week when we had American optimism
Marvin [10:41 AM]
So were people rooting for Kelly to choose San Junipero at the end or to join her husband in the analog afterlife/nothingness?
Steele [10:41 AM]
Now it's just dead and living in San Junipero
Song [10:41 AM]
I don't think that's a binary choice. I think...she ended up having both.
[10:41]
Because, her brain and body are dead. Her consciousness lives on in a server, but who knows how long that is.
[10:42]
And whether or not that uploaded consciousness is actually you, or a clone of you.
Steele [10:42 AM]
So not both simultaneously?
Song [10:42 AM]
So I don't see why she can't have both stayed with her husband and daughter, as well as Yorkie.
Haas [10:42 AM]
I was definitely rooting for her to choose san junipero. as she said, she didn't even believe in heaven. she was just punishing herself by not choosing to give this VR afterlife a chance
Song [10:42 AM]
A rare case where I think you can have your cake and eat it too.
[10:42]
Also I think there's a line where Yorkie hints you can opt to "delete" yourself
Griffith [10:42 AM]
they should make multiple copies, she could live all over!
Song [10:42 AM]
I could be wrong
Haas [10:43 AM]
yeah, they do mention being able to remove yourself
Marvin [10:43 AM]
Can you take vacations from San Junipero to visit other VR communities in the datacenter/world? I hope so
Song [10:43 AM]
There's a plane!
[10:43]
In the end credits scene!
Minor [10:43 AM]
I liked the detail that you could visit other decades
Marvin [10:43 AM]
Right, and that you had to guess which decade each person was most at home in
Song [10:44 AM]
Also, can we just say that 80s fashion montage Yorkie goes through? That was just plain fun.
Steele [10:44 AM]
The Addicted to Love look was fantastic
Griffith [10:44 AM]
having lived through the 80s (AHEM) I watched those fashions and thought... well, it wasn't quite that... vivid.
[10:44]
that should have been my clue it was in-game
[10:44]
so to speak
Song [10:44 AM]
Or the hints about midnight and only having a few hours.
Buzzi [10:45 AM]
I was wondering what happens when whatever funding is keeping their virtual worlds running goes down....
Minor [10:45 AM]
Didn't Kelly have a line about people taking their styles from what they probably saw in movies? That they were overdoing it?
Griffith [10:45 AM]
Seriously, that company needs better data centers.
Song [10:45 AM]
government subsidies! taxes! heaven is a place on earth buzzi!
Steele [10:45 AM]
I did keep thinking about how much this would cost
Buzzi [10:45 AM]
Until they pull funding or the company goes out of business!
Minor [10:45 AM]
Forfeit your social security for your San Junipero ticket
Steele [10:45 AM]
Or a natural disaster destroys the data center
Song [10:46 AM]
Death is inevitable guys. You can delay it with virtual reality heaven, but you're still gonna die.
Marvin [10:46 AM]
The corporate angle definitely stuck with me after. Like wringing out a family's savings to get their consciousness a spot in the community...but wait it's a SaaS model so you've got to pay yearly to keep their digital selves alive
Griffith [10:46 AM]
as long as my consciousness is on a USB drive I AM IMMORTAL
Song [10:46 AM]
Well, maybe the company was also funding it through other types of research.
[10:46]
They were using it as a type of cognitive treatment for preventing dementia.
[10:46]
hence the 5 hour limit
Steele [10:47 AM]
If they figured out the Singularity, it seems weird that they couldn't cure diseases
Marvin [10:47 AM]
Oh, not to mention the company is probably collecting and using all the cerebral data of its "residents"
Song [10:47 AM]
OK YOU GUYS
Griffith [10:47 AM]
doctors gave up on curing disease when they could spend all day dancing to the 80s tunes
Song [10:47 AM]
ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE IT INTO A MORE BLACK MIRROR EPISODE
Marvin [10:47 AM]
but that's cynical business journalist talkin'. This episode was lovely
Song [10:47 AM]
CAN WE JUST BE HAPPY
Steele [10:47 AM]
We should take it for what it is
Buzzi [10:47 AM]
Data Mining The Dead: My Column
Steele [10:47 AM]
Like San Junipero itself
Minor [10:47 AM]
another great detail, people doing the most indulgent things they could find to feel anything again
Song [10:47 AM]
I can't even with you Buzzi right now.
Haas [10:48 AM]
right, there are a lot of potential downsides to the VR itself. also we know that there are some people who are kind of miserable there, which is why they spend time going to that weird oil refinery/sex club to try and actually feel
Minor [10:48 AM]
very relatable
Buzzi [10:48 AM]
that Mad Max spinoff town
Haas [10:48 AM]
can we talk about how fucking weird that place looked? my god
Song [10:48 AM]
Well...I guess you would get bored if you had nothing to do with eternity
Marvin [10:49 AM]
San Junipero's main attractions: cheesy disco or dungeon sex barn!
Song [10:49 AM]
No jobs. No new content.
Minor [10:49 AM]
and when you consider they're all old, it's like the final evolution of Swingers
Song [10:49 AM]
Just an endless stroll through memory lane.
Steele [10:49 AM]
Buzzi would be writing content
Haas [10:49 AM]
true, and not everyone found a special someone to enjoy this virtual after-life with
Griffith [10:49 AM]
they need a Westworld narrative
Marvin [10:49 AM]
like sad James Dean knockoff guy
Haas [10:49 AM]
I'd be that goddamn dweeb in the arcade
Song [10:49 AM]
lol pete noo
[10:50]
we can all vouch you dress better
[10:50]
and do not lurk sipping soda weirdly
Buzzi [10:50 AM]
he struck out in like 3 different decades, that has to be a record
Steele [10:50 AM]
He kept going with the same look
Griffith [10:50 AM]
San Junipero is, essentiall, Second Life. a "game" with nothing to do but interact.
Steele [10:50 AM]
If you're going to bother to switch decades, change up your style
Griffith [10:51 AM]
it would absolutely need a narrative to keep people interested.
Song [10:51 AM]
Gugu Mbatha-Raw :raised_hands:
[10:51]
She looked real good in all the decades.
Griffith [10:51 AM]
thats why Second Life is dead and Warcraft is still clinging to life.
Steele [10:51 AM]
She really did, even in present time
[10:51]
Or whatever time
Marvin [10:51 AM]
Gugu slayed
Haas [10:51 AM]
she had a lisa turtle thing going in the 80s
Minor [10:51 AM]
Anyone ever see Beyond the Lights?
Marvin [10:52 AM]
Yes!
Song [10:52 AM]
Love that little purple blazer with the shoulderpads.
[10:52]
God the shoulderpads.
Steele [10:52 AM]
And the earrings
Minor [10:52 AM]
She's great at "I act care-free but am actually harboring deep pain"
[10:52]
great aesthetic
Song [10:53 AM]
It did make me wonder whether I'd go to San Junipero though.
[10:53]
But that might be young hubris talking.
Steele [10:53 AM]
I'm inclined to think I wouldn't
Song [10:54 AM]
If I were older, the chance to be young again would be so tempting.
Griffith [10:54 AM]
it's a place you go once. not over and over.
Buzzi [10:54 AM]
Almost weird how they even include the depressing club in the universe--I guess everyone can pick their poison, so to speak, but it's like, 'hey come be sad at this place forever'
Song [10:54 AM]
You guys—youth is wasted on the young!
[10:54]
I mean, maybe the options for what you can do at San Junipero are limited, but if you could do whatever you wanted?
[10:55]
Like you can in life? Literally live after you're dead, forever and eternally young until you get bored?
Marvin [10:55 AM]
I mean for someone like Yorkie it was literally a new life
Song [10:55 AM]
Sheet. All that free time not worrying about how I'm gonna pay rent.
Minor [10:55 AM]
Limitations or not, you can party and play video games and have sex. Pretty good options!
Marvin [10:55 AM]
But I suppose there was that option to just delete yourself if you've had enough
Steele [10:55 AM]
Yeah, if you lived a full and complete life like Kelly, that decision is definitely harder
Buzzi [10:55 AM]
Delete your account
Song [10:56 AM]
Oy. Dying a second death.
Steele [10:56 AM]
That would be the worst thing you could say to someone there
Buzzi [10:56 AM]
I'd probably go. Dying for good is for squares
Haas [10:56 AM]
I mean, they have to acknowledge that this heaven is what you make of it. and hey, maybe some of those people at Exxon Valdez Sexorium like it
Buzzi [10:56 AM]
:laughing:
Marvin [10:56 AM]
Pete just made us all audibly crack up
Song [10:57 AM]
"Exxon Valdez Sexorium"
Haas [10:57 AM]
I'd give san junipero a shot. I like video games so why not?
[10:57]
I would not be surprised at all if it went horribly wrong though
Buzzi [10:57 AM]
None of those trash arcade games though
Steele [10:58 AM]
You couldn't play Pac-Man for eternity?
Song [10:58 AM]
I'd want to go if you could travel to other places in San Junipero; why else would you have all those roads and planes
Haas [10:58 AM]
buzzi spending his virtual afterlife smashing 2D arcade games
Marvin [10:58 AM]
I think I would go, and then try to keep jet-setting around the virtual universe like King Candy from Wreck-It Ralph
Buzzi [10:58 AM]
yeah that is actually my version of hell, trapped with old 2D games
Minor [10:58 AM]
Don't worry Buzzi, they have the rare Destiny arcade cabinet
Buzzi [10:58 AM]
I could literally play Destiny forever
Minor [10:58 AM]
famous game with enough content to last eternity
Song [10:58 AM]
...
[10:58]
Unplug yourself
Buzzi [10:58 AM]
Think how many Civilization campaigns I could complete
Song [10:59 AM]
My god.
Haas [10:59 AM]
oh! I had a question: who works in san junipero? do you think the bartenders are staffers at those retirement homes?
Griffith [10:59 AM]
did that guy at the arcade hitting on Yorkie ever find love?
Minor [10:59 AM]
Pete The same people working as bank tellers in EVE Online
Song [10:59 AM]
Who knows. Maybe they're AI. Like NPCs.
Griffith [10:59 AM]
Hosts.
Buzzi [10:59 AM]
Hah, some people just get burdened with the manual labor jobs in their afterlives
[10:59]
Drew the short straw
Steele [11:00 AM]
It was a nice touch to have Tucker's be the corporation, minus all the vowels of course
Song [11:00 AM]
Or maybe they're all aspiring mixologists
[11:00]
Now if you saw a janitor in San Junipero, then i'd be sad.
Marvin [11:00 AM]
Maybe if you don't have the money to pay for San Junipero outright, it's like an indentured servitude kind of thing? Cook french fries for a few million years and then you can stay
[11:01]
payment plan
Song [11:01 AM]
I can't imagine Yorkie was rich.
Steele [11:01 AM]
Like Max's view of traveling to Mars
Griffith [11:01 AM]
San Junipero is the new Social Security
Minor [11:01 AM]
I do not believe that Elon Musk is hatching an evil scheme to become a space dictator. But I have concerns.
Marvin [11:01 AM]
I would like to think that social security or government subsidy pays for it. For once, let's hope it's not just the elite that get to play with the cool toys for eternity
Song [11:01 AM]
Maybe it's covered by health insurance. In the future timeline where Obamacare wasn't repealed but improved upon.
Minor [11:02 AM]
Maybe something good could happen
Song [11:02 AM]
Yorkie and Kelly didn't strike me as super rich types
[11:02]
so that gives me hope
Haas [11:03 AM]
right, I was waiting for one of them to have an "oops, your insurance doesn't cover this" scene
Buzzi [11:03 AM]
I remember hope
Haas [11:03 AM]
or "oops, you're gonna be working in the san junipero sewers"
Song [11:03 AM]
Do you even need sewers in San Junipero
Marvin [11:03 AM]
Oh and it took me a while to realize why the names with little lights in the data center gave me the creeps but maybe fellow hebrew @Steele can back me up on this...did it remind you of the little mourning lights and name plaques they put up in synagogues?
Steele [11:04 AM]
It is like that!
Buzzi [11:04 AM]
One clear takeaway is that we have a LOT of unanswered questions about San Junipero infrastructure
Haas [11:04 AM]
I mean, I'd want to take showers in VR
Buzzi [11:04 AM]
Sewers, wait staff, all the exciting stuff
Steele [11:04 AM]
But with robot arms
Song [11:04 AM]
Yeah but it's all a virtual world. If you can imagine it, it's there.
[11:04]
Clearly given how fast they can change clothes.
Steele [11:04 AM]
Aside from the essentially living forever, that was my favorite part
Song [11:05 AM]
I imagine you could take a shower if you wanted but since it's all imaginary, you don't need an actual sewer system or the messier aspects of a human body.
Buzzi [11:05 AM]
I'm wondering about that in relation to things, buildings, and places. Did someone wish the Sexorium into existence, or do they get a prebuilt world and that's that?
Marvin [11:05 AM]
Yeah the degree to which you can change your surroundings and warp the reality around you is really interesting. Wasn't enough time to delve that far of field in the ep
Song [11:05 AM]
Maybe it's a mix of both. Kelly clearly built her own house into being.
Marvin [11:05 AM]
Mr. Sexorium's Wonder Emporium?
Song [11:06 AM]
Maybe you're given an allotted plot of virtual land.
Haas [11:06 AM]
I was surprised no one dressed all that strangely. Like no one's running around in a Cloud outfit
Griffith [11:06 AM]
can't change it so much that Yorkie still had to walk miles and miles to the sex barnitorium
Buzzi [11:06 AM]
There's a separate digital world for cosplayers
Song [11:06 AM]
I was about to type that
Haas [11:06 AM]
GOOD.
Steele [11:06 AM]
As there should be maybe
Buzzi [11:07 AM]
If they can will new things into existence, they probably wouldn't get bored at least
Song [11:07 AM]
It also struck me how....uncrowded San Junipero was. Considering how many flickering lights there were in that server room.
[11:07]
Partly, I guess because they're spread across decades.
[11:07]
But HOW MANY
Steele [11:07 AM]
And weren't they also in separate "locations"?
Buzzi [11:07 AM]
I forget, didnt it make it seem like there were way more worlds than just SJ?
Haas [11:07 AM]
Yeah, are there like Wild West eras too?
Steele [11:08 AM]
That one server was labeled San Junipero
Buzzi [11:08 AM]
When that zoom out on the wall happens
[11:08]
Yeah Pete, Westworld
Song [11:08 AM]
But can you travel to other servers?
Griffith [11:08 AM]
would suck if you couldn't
Buzzi [11:08 AM]
The Black Mirror Cinematic Universe
Haas [11:08 AM]
Maybe there are price tiers
Steele [11:08 AM]
Tiered pricing probably
Marvin [11:08 AM]
there we go. always comes back to :money_mouth_face:
Minor [11:08 AM]
free-to-play heaven
Marvin [11:08 AM]
DLC
Song [11:09 AM]
Man. That sucks. What if I want a super rich sugar daddy in virtual reality heaven?
Buzzi [11:09 AM]
It's like joining the wrong server in an MMO 'aw geez my friends are on the other one and won't migrate their characters'
Haas [11:09 AM]
Sorry, you can only afford former coal mining town in the grip of crystal meth
Buzzi [11:09 AM]
But you know, for eternity
Steele [11:09 AM]
The afterlife as in-app purchases
Griffith [11:09 AM]
You are your own sugar daddy in San Junipero!
Marvin [11:09 AM]
Pete is :fiya: this chat
Song [11:09 AM]
Pete is always :fiya: in every chat
[11:09]
Salty Pete strikes again
Haas [11:09 AM]
pete is :fiya: IRL
Marvin [11:10 AM]
:eyes:
Buzzi [11:10 AM]
:fiya:
Minor [11:10 AM]
:fiya:
Song [11:10 AM]
In San Junipero, Salty Pete is a famous burn comic
Buzzi [11:10 AM]
I would watch that show
[11:10]
Every day forever, I guess
Steele [11:10 AM]
See, there is content there after all
Griffith [11:10 AM]
Ha, now Chandra has to get all those flaming fire icons to show up in the story. :slightly_smiling_face:
Buzzi [11:10 AM]
Oh god Pete, you really are doomed to an eternity of producing content
Marvin [11:10 AM]
"Hey, who was at the Exxon Valdex Sexorium last night?? THIS guy knows what I'm talkin' about!"
Haas [11:10 AM]
Nooo
Song [11:11 AM]
Pete, always taking questions from the audience.
[11:11]
FOR ETERNITY
Minor [11:11 AM]
He died how he lived, Social
Song [11:12 AM]
I'm enjoying the fanfiction we're writing about Pete's VR afterlife.
Minor [11:12 AM]
A single tear falls down his comatose body as he "goes live"
Song [11:13 AM]
The blue sheep follows him everywhere, like a lost lamb.
Marvin [11:13 AM]
Social Pete, Eternal Shepherd of the Sheeple
Steele [11:13 AM]
How many One Cool Things could we have before we ran out?
Minor [11:13 AM]
One Cool Thing, The Void
Marvin [11:14 AM]
Galactus the Content Eater
Steele [11:14 AM]
Jordan will be the surprise guest every day
Song [11:14 AM]
Sascha and I will visit every Friday to talk about Dick Forests.
Marvin [11:14 AM]
Jordan will just come on and blaze it, silently.
[11:14]
Looking downwards.
Steele [11:15 AM]
Buzzi and I will just check in with Elon Musk on Mars
Song [11:15 AM]
Rob will go on and blaze it, not silently.
Buzzi [11:15 AM]
Elon damn well better be on Mars by then
Marvin [11:15 AM]
As dank as can be
Song [11:16 AM]
Cool Cool Cool. Apparently in VR heaven we'll all be doing...the exact same things as we're doing now.
Steele [11:16 AM]
By choice even
Buzzi [11:16 AM]
Really dreaming big here guys
Haas [11:16 AM]
I think I would pretty much do what I do now but virtually, yeah. can't wait to check out all those brunch spots in san junipero
Song [11:16 AM]
I'll finally get to shed my alter ego and live out my life as a true pop star.
Steele [11:16 AM]
We'll be doing it to a Belinda Carlisle soundtrack though
[11:16]
What if the other Victoria Song is there?
Song [11:16 AM]
Bitch I will cut her
Griffith [11:16 AM]
virtual fight!
Haas [11:17 AM]
there's gotta be a fight club there, right?
Marvin [11:17 AM]
Must be a room in the Sexorium
Steele [11:17 AM]
There seemed to be in the Sexorium
Song [11:17 AM]
But I think we'd play to different audiences.
Buzzi [11:17 AM]
We wouldn't know, they can't talk about it
Song [11:17 AM]
There can be only one.
[11:17]
And it's gonna be May.
[11:18]
Minor [11:18 AM]
What if, like, a celebrity uploaded themselves?
Marvin [11:18 AM]
One thing we didn't talk about--I'm guessing loved ones can go virtually visit their dead relatives? I mean they probably have to pay but that's got to be one of the top selling points of San Junipero
Haas [11:18 AM]
couldn't you just make yourself look like a celebrity?
Steele [11:18 AM]
Victoria and I would mobilize against them if it was Taylor Swift
Song [11:18 AM]
OMG
Buzzi [11:18 AM]
Jordan we already discussed Pete's presence in detail
Song [11:18 AM]
NO
[11:18 AM]
IF I DIE
[11:18]
I DON"T NEED TAYLOR SWIFT THERE
Haas [11:18 AM]
band of justin timberlakes just marauding the town
Song [11:18 AM]
NO. WHERE'S KANYE
Marvin [11:18 AM]
Victoria watches Mad Men and eats salads with Taylor Swift and her K-Pop alter ego for eternity
Song [11:19 AM]
...NO ROB
[11:19]
NO
[11:19]
BAD ROB
Marvin [11:19 AM]
:upside_down_face:
Steele [11:19 AM]
Think good thoughts, Victoria
[11:19]
A world of Rami Maleks
Minor [11:19 AM]
But you've gotta figure hell of celebs would be super into living forever as data
Song [11:19 AM]
I bet they'd have their own celeb world though.
Steele [11:19 AM]
They wouldn't live with us, Jordan
Haas [11:19 AM]
right, an eternity of being revered
Song [11:19 AM]
THey wouldn't deign to live with the rest of the commoners
Marvin [11:20 AM]
They'd live on the Mount Olympus of the data center
Song [11:20 AM]
Though lord knows what they'd do with themselves without all the adoration
Steele [11:20 AM]
Their Sexorium would look so much nicer
Marvin [11:20 AM]
oh wait we found Westworld
Song [11:20 AM]
As long as I never have to hear a Taylor Swift song in death.
[11:20]
EVER.
Buzzi [11:20 AM]
If there's nobody to appreciate the art, are they even artists
Song [11:21 AM]
Maybe they'd opt not to go if there's no one to tell them how awesome they are.
[11:21]
But could you imagine if they could actually posthumously keep releasing music forever
[11:21]
We already milk Tupac and other dead artists for all their worth
Steele [11:21 AM]
What are the royalty rights to that?
Buzzi [11:21 AM]
Royalties keep the servers running
Steele [11:22 AM]
I have so many economic questions about this
Song [11:22 AM]
What if you could film movies in VR
Marvin [11:22 AM]
The company owns it. All data produced within the datacenter
Song [11:22 AM]
Dead actors keeping parts from living ones
[11:22]
Dead actors and living actors filming in the VR world
[11:22]
the death of the CGI Industry because everything can be done in VR
Marvin [11:22 AM]
It's like you posting on Facebook. Facebook owns that. Tupac records a new hit in San Junipero? The company that runs the data center owns it
[11:22]
#corporatestoogery
Steele [11:23 AM]
That would be how it would work
Buzzi [11:23 AM]
There's no escape
Song [11:23 AM]
Dead Writers churning out works for eternity
Steele [11:23 AM]
All our content would belong to TCKR
[11:23]
Let's unionize and fight against it
Buzzi [11:23 AM]
And then at the end a troll face appears, or the server fries your brain
Song [11:23 AM]
Could you imagine the court case for half of these
[11:24]
"The plaintiff can't show up in court...on account of being dead and only existing on a server."
Steele [11:24 AM]
I would send a lawyer who visits the world to appear for me
Marvin [11:24 AM]
"What happens in the Sexorium stays in the Sexorium" --legal defense
Song [11:24 AM]
We're so deep in the rabbit hole.
Steele [11:24 AM]
I do not want to make a trial lawyer joke but there is a trial lawyer joke in there
Minor [11:25 AM]
If you exist in the server, do you still get to vote?
Song [11:25 AM]
God. The dead having legal rights. :upside_down_face: I don't even know how that would work.
Marvin [11:25 AM]
The true silent majority
Minor [11:26 AM]
Theoretically politics outside the server would still affect you
Buzzi [11:26 AM]
When they take away your subsidies that keep you virtually alive
Song [11:26 AM]
But then dead people would eventually outnumber the living
Buzzi [11:26 AM]
It's the biggest voting bloc to appeal to!
Haas [11:26 AM]
old conservative people voting in record numbers? what could go wrong?
Song [11:26 AM]
Aaaaaaa
Minor [11:26 AM]
Who's the first data core to run for president?
Song [11:27 AM]
oh god. Dictators could live forever.
[11:27]
:neutral_face:
Steele [11:27 AM]
In some ways they already do
Minor [11:27 AM]
iYatollah
Buzzi [11:27 AM]
We really know how to take a heartwarming story and turn it right around
[11:27]
Damn^^ :clap:
Haas [11:27 AM]
yeah, we've squeezed the joy right out of this
[11:28]
we did it, team!
Song [11:28 AM]
You remember when we were happy
[11:28]
?
Marvin [11:28 AM]
I'm done. iYatollah is rock bottom
Song [11:28 AM]
Buzzi [11:28 AM]
Starcraft!
Minor [11:28 AM]
^There's a game worth playing forever!
Buzzi [11:28 AM]
Jordan you could play forever
[11:28]
Beat me to it
Marvin [11:28 AM]
UNPLUG, SHEEPLE :eyes:
[11:30]
*Group watches relatively happy Black Mirror episode, chaos ensues*
Steele [11:31 AM]
It was good while it lasted
Haas [11:31 AM]
online games inside of san junipero raise all sorts of other thorny issues though. like can I roll back the clock to a balance patch I liked more?
[11:32]
anyway, yeah, this is an episode that's really happy and carefree the less you think about it
Steele [11:32 AM]
Now I will post our thoughts so that we can bring others down
Buzzi [11:32 AM]
Perfect
Minor [11:32 AM]
Next week, a continued descent into fascism
[11:32]
also a new episode of Black Mirror
Buzzi [11:33 AM]
:100:
Marvin [11:33 AM]
:flag-us:
Steele [11:33 AM]
:vr: