Making Decisions in a Technologically Advanced Society:

A Reflection Paper on Black Mirror’s Episode “Fifteen Million Merits”

Many years have passed by and our world is quietly changing. From a world of
simplicity, where people lived having no gadgets on their hands, to a world of
technological dependence, where people are significantly relying on technology at all
times. As years passed by, several innovations in technology have greatly impact the kind
of living that we, people, used to have. Such technological advancements have
significantly affect our behavior, attitude, and principle as moral persons trying to attain
the kind of life that we dreamed of. Technology is not static and it’s definitely developing
and changing through time. Thus, we can merely have an expectation of what our future
world will look like. We can foresee what kind of society that our world will have in the
future. We can foresee serious problems that may arise in the near future due to the fact
that our world is slowly becoming as modernized as we’ve expected.

The kind of world that we have nowadays, where we tend to become too
dependent on technology, is the kind of world that one of the episodes of a series Black
Mirror, entitled “Fifteen Million Merits”, is depicting. In the episode, we can see people
living a kind of life as if they were confined and staying in a space where the only thing
that majority of these people would do is riding on a bike all day long, doing cycling, for
them to earn merits. These merits that they have earn in doing cycling could be used for
them to acquire foods and other things inside the enormous and enclosed space. I can
say that the episode is kind of depicting our world in these contemporary times in a way
that one can observe that the lives of people being portrayed in the episode is somewhat
dependent on the power of technology, the kind of lives that we tried to live nowadays.
The context of the episode is just the same with the context that we have in each of our
societies nowadays, hence, we can say that agency is absolutely possible in the kind of
setting. I didn’t observe anything happened in the episode that might give me an idea for
me to have an inference that in such kind of setting, agency is not possible. I see people
being shown in the episode as normal people, as normal as we are. I didn’t observe
anything special about them, that we as viewers could say that within such kind of context
that the episode has shown, there is no possibility of agency. There is really a possibility
of agency. We can observe that the three kinds of social status of people within the society
were explicitly shown in the episode. People like Abi Khan and Bing Mansen portray
people who belong to the middle class wherein they have freedom on whether or not
they’ll be doing the work that they should actually do for them to earn money or credits.
People who belong to the lower class were generally depicted by those janitors in yellow
uniform that we can see in some parts of the episode. These people were seen as an
unimportant and marginalized sectors in the society, and they kind of received sort of
humiliation from those people who belong to the upper and middle class. People like
judge Hope, judge Charity, and judge Wraith were those who portray people who belong
to the upper class of the society, thus, having power to control or somewhat influence
one’s decision.

Talking about influencing one’s decision and choices in life, the above-mentioned
judges of the show Hot Shots have played major role in influencing the decisions that Abi
Khan and Bing Mansen have made in their lives as individuals who wanted and were
trying to get out of the kind of boring life that they have. They wanted to escape from the
kind of life that they used to have, where all day long, they’re just riding on bikes, doing
cycling. Abi Khan, who was supposed to be a kind of person who wanted to become a
star like Selma Telse, has in the end, made her choice and turned out to become a star
of the pornographic channel owned by Judge Wraith, which is WraithBabes. On the other
hand, Bing Mansen who at first wanted to appear in the show Hot Shots to tell and show
to the three judges of the said show on how they’ve destroyed the lives of some of the
contestants who worked hard and earned fifteen million merits just to get to the show and
were hoping to becoming stars, has been swayed by one of the judges’ words and in the
end, has made his decision of having his own show, thus, living a more comfortable life
than before. The choices that the two main characters have made were merely influenced
by other people but then again, we can’t take that as a reason for Abi and Bing not to be
considered as accountable for their choices. Both of them are accountable for the choices
that they have made since in the first place, they knew and they were fully-aware on the
choices that they have to make. It’s really their intention to make such kind of decision,
hence, we can say that they’re accountable for the decisions that they have made. Abi
and Bing are both accountable for the choices that they’ve made but that doesn’t mean
that the extent of accountability is the same between the two. Bing Mansen is considered
to be more accountable to the choice that he has made for a reason that he made his
choice without the influence of the drink called “Cuppliance”. On the other hand, Abi Khan
prior to making her choice on becoming a pornstar on WraithBabes, was being drugged
by the “Cuppliance”, thus, considering her to be less accountable of her choice. Abi Khan
has made her choice under the influence of “Cuppliance” while Bing Mansen has made
his choice without having any factors that might influence the choice that he would make.
Factors such as the influence of the drink “Cuppliance” made the extent of accountability
between the choices that Abi and Bing have made for themselves vary. From this, we can
say that the extent of one’s accountability to the choice that he/she made really is
dependent on the external factors that may affect one’s decision.

In the Black Mirror’s episode entitled “Fifteen Million Merits”, the most notable part
is when Bing Mansen, fueled by his determination and perseverance, has tried and let
the best out of himself in riding on his bike all day long for more or less two months just
to re-earn 15,000,000 merits. He’s very zealous in doing such thing for he has a reason
in doing so, that is to buy another Hot Shots ticket for him to have an opportunity to voice
out his grievances, in front of the three judges, on the unfair system that their society has.
Bing Mansen’s courage and determination in this part of the episode is worth appreciating
for despite of the fact that he belongs to a middle class in the society, he still let the
bravery inside him be out for him to face people who belong to the upper class like judge
Hope, judge Charity, and judge Wraith. In all instances of our lives, may we like Bing
Mansen in this part of the episode. We should have no one to be afraid of no matter how
superior that person is, for as long as what we are fighting is right, then as moral
individuals, we shouldn’t be scared of standing for the truth and right. As moral persons,
living in a technologically-dependent kind of society, it is our duty not to tolerate any
immoral action, behavior and bias system in our society.