Upgrade Available - How Domestic Sci-Fi Reflects Technology’s Potential To Augment and Streamline Human Experiences

<p dir="ltr">This thesis explores domestic science fiction as a creatively compelling TV genre that portrays the complexity of technology’s influence on the human experience. Through analysing the shows Severance and Black Mirror, this thesis argues that this genre functions as a speculative critique of the allure of technology streamlining everyday experiences. In doing so, they visually and thematically question the authenticity of personal desires, interpersonal codes of conduct, and perceptions of others.</p><p dir="ltr">On the personal sphere, this analyses Black Mirror: The Entire History of You and Severance to question the implications of memories in constructing self-identity. In the artificial enhancement or deletion of these, a person's internal narrative is affected, making memories building blocks of the self. From the interpersonal standpoint, this thesis examines Black Mirror: Hang The DJ to explore the implications of spontaneity and uncertainty in social interactions. When technological systems strip them away from the experience, the people involved lose agency over their decision-making process. On a global scale, this thesis investigates Black Mirror: Men Against Fire to discuss the dangers of using technological advances to reduce people's humanity. By artificially detracting a group of people's qualities, such as empathy, the risk of systemic brutality is imminent.</p>