David Kyle Johnson 
Black Mirror and Philosophy 
Dark Reflections

A philosophical look at the twisted, high-tech near-future of the sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror, offering a glimpse of the darkest reflections of the human condition in digital technology

Black Mirror–the Emmy-winning Netflix series that holds up a dark, digital mirror of speculative technologies to modern society–shows us a high-tech world where it is all too easy to fall victim to ever-evolving forms of social control.In Black Mirror and Philosophy, original essays written by a diverse group of scholars invite you to peer into the void and explore the philosophical, ethical, and existential dimensions of Charlie Brooker’s sinister stories. The collection reflects Black Mirror’s anthology structure by pairing a chapter with every episode in the show’s five seasons–including an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure analysis of Bandersnatch–and concludes with general essays that explore the series’ broader themes. Chapters address questions about artificial intelligence, virtual reality, surveillance, privacy, love, death, criminal behavior, and politics, including:
* Have we given social media too much power over our lives?
* Could heaven really, one day, be a place on Earth?
* Should criminal justice and punishment be crowdsourced?
* What rights should a ‘cookie’ have?

Immersive, engaging, and experimental, Black Mirror and Philosophy navigates the intellectual landscape of Brooker’s morality plays for the modern world, where humanity’s greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide.

عن المؤلف

Volume Editor
David Kyle Johnson is Professor of philosophy at King’s College in Pennsylvania and also produces lectures series for The Teaching Company’s ‘The Great Courses.’ His ‘great courses’ include Sci-Phi: Science Fiction as Philosophy (2018), The Big Questions of Philosophy (2016) and Exploring Metaphysics (2014). Kyle also publishes prolifically on the intersection of philosophy and popular culture. He’s edited four books on the topic, and written over 20 articles. He is also the author of The Myths that Stole Christmas and has an authors@google talk on Inception with over half-a-million views on Youtube. Academically he specializes in logic (both formal and scientific), metaphysics, and philosophy of religion, and has articles in journals such as Religious Studies, Sophia, Philo, Think and Science, and Religion and Culture.

Series Editor
William Irwin is Herve A. Le Blanc Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of Philosophy at King’s College in Pennsylvania. He is the author of Intentionalist Interpretation and scholarly articles on Sartre, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. Irwin originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books with Seinfeld and Philosophy in 1999 and is currently the General Editor of The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series.