The Entire History of You
“The Entire History of You (episode)” is the final episode of season one of the British science-fiction dystopian series, Black Mirror. The story is set in a futuristic universe where nearly all people have “grain” implants. “Grains” are devices, implanted behind the ear, that record everything a person sees and hears at all times, so they can play back any of their memories at any time. In this episode of Black Mirror, the main character Liam uses his grain to analyze mounting evidence surrounding his wife’s extramarital affair.[1]
Plot
The protagonist Liam attends a performance evaluation for work. On his ride home, he uses his grain device to re-watch parts of his appraisal, and is seemingly troubled that it went poorly. Later on, Liam meets his wife Ffion at a dinner party with friends. He sees a man there who he doesn’t recognize—Jonas. Throughout the party, Liam appears to show disdain towards Jonas’s crude sense of humor and his affinity for Ffion. Jonas discusses his habit of using his grain to re-watch past sexual encounters long after they occurred; this makes Liam visibly uncomfortable. After the party, Liam invites Jonas over as a kind gesture, but then revokes the invite when he realizes his distaste for Jonas. When Liam and Ffion return home, he presses her to talk more about Jonas. After some prodding, she finally confesses that she and Jonas had been in a brief relationship years ago. Liam finds the timeline of her recount to be inconsistent in her story. Jonas continues to prod Ffion as he becomes more paranoid, and the conversation ends in a fight. Later on, Liam calms down and apologizes to Ffion, and they make up. Afterward, Liam begins drinking heavily and re-watching moments from the dinner party throughout the night. In the morning, Ffion wakes to find Liam is still awake and drunk from the previous night. He appears more frantic, and demands her to be truthful about Jonas. She refuses to answer and leaves the room, while Liam goes to Jonas' house to confront him. Liam punches Jonas and threatens him into erasing all his memories of Ffion from his "grain.” Jonas complies, and Liam leaves, drunkenly crashing his car. When he awakens and watches his recent memories, he discovers that Jonas had a memory of having sex with Ffion 18 months ago—near the same time that their daughter Jodie was conceived. Jonas heads home and furiously confronts Ffion, who admits to sleeping with Jonas at that time, but claims they had used a condom. Liam demands to see her memory of the event for proof, but Ffion claims she deleted it. Now even more hostile, Liam demands to see the blank space in her grain where she erased the memory. After heavy coercion, Ffion reveals her memory of the event, which shows in fact, that they had unprotected sex, which implies that Jonas is Jodie’s father. Distraught with all of his old, happy memories of Ffion, Liam uses a razor to cut out his grain implant, freeing himself from his memories.[2]
Google Glass
No technology currently exists that is on par with the sophistication of the “grain,” however devices such as Google Glass run along a similar vein. Google Glass is a brand of smart glasses created for the purpose of ubiquitous computing. The device contains a touch pad along the side that allows the user to control the device by swiping through the interface on the screen. Google Glass also allows the user to take pictures and video (storage-permitting.) The main goal of Google Glass is to allow users to stay connected to technology regardless of what they are doing. The device could conceptually allow users to stay connected to people through messages or voice, keep track of emails, as well as take pictures and video directly from their eyes. [3] Some of these features lie in parallel with those of the fictional “grain” from Black Mirror, though much further behind technologically.
Ethical Concerns
Ubiquitous computing devices such as the “grain” present a unique set of ethical dilemmas, such as privacy and deception.
Privacy
The “grain” creates an invasion of privacy in three ways:
The first regards the degradation of personal privacy that comes with being recorded by every person one comes in contact with. A person’s appearance, location, and activities is essentially public knowledge, because it is being recorded at any given time by a stranger. If placed into nefarious hands, this information can pose a privacy risk. The second concerns the ability to record anything that the user views and watch it back as many times as desired. This presents a privacy problem because if the user sees something they were not supposed to, they have the ability to re-view it privately, unbeknownst to the people who were recorded. The third concerns the threat posed by having a grain stolen or compromised. As the device records everything the user sees or hears, it likely stores a great deal of sensitive information, that poses a privacy threat for the user, if stolen.[4]
Deception
The technology embodied by the “grain” allows for the ability to view any memory at any time; this poses a risk of cheating on examinations or presentations, or any other memory-based material.
