May 24, 2021

I felt so anxious at the end of the day, yesterday. I'm feeling better this morning, but I was pretty hung up on the fact that I need to go into the office today. I'm not worried about COVID - I'm vaccinated - it's the social anxiety of it. Not used to being there. Not sure how it'll go. This morning it doesn't feel so bad. I'm going to be heading in in about 15 minutes. So we'll see. 

One of the grad students in the lab is giving her thesis defense over zoom, right now. And it's nice to see the names of some former lab members on the call. I've got to get up there to set up her in-person thesis defense party. It's my job to pick up ice. 

Tlog time! Yep - this is a TV log. I'm just starting it. 

**SPOILERS**

BLACK MIRROR

Season 3, Episode 6 – “Hated in the Nation” 

Written by: Charlie Brooker

Directed by: James Hawes

Watched: 5/23/21

Two detectives investigate the death of a click-bait commentator/journalist who had recently received the scorn of the internet for an article she had written. The detectives find her throat slashed with a broken bottle, and her husband says it was self-inflicted. The detectives find an ADI – a robotic bee that has been designed to replace the dwindling bee population and prop up the ecosystem – burrowed into her brain. The next day, a different person, also hated by the internet, has a screaming fit until he’s sedated. When put in an MRI, one of these ADI bees is sucked out of his skull through his eye socket. The detectives discover that the deaths are linked to a “game” on the internet. At 5pm, whoever has the most #Deathto (along with a photograph) against them will die. The detectives track down a former employee of the bee corp who’s motives are to make people realize there are consequences to online hate. In the process of trying to shut the program down – before the chancellor dies – the detectives end up activating the hacker’s end game: to use the bees to kill every person who’s used the hashtag. Consequences. 

I watched this episode because I saw it was linked to Jon Ronson’s book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, which I just finished. I thought the way the Brooker unfolded this episode was really nice: starting with a normal-ish murder mystery and opening it up and up to the final reveal. The fact that the government is using these bees to spy on the whole population is just a passing horror compared to the look at the vitriol of every day human beings. When the people who used the hashtag got targeted for death, I felt a little bit like they deserved it. But of course they didn’t! Piling on and using a hashtag is not an action that should be punishable by death. I think we – me included – revel in punishing people. 

The bees also look really nice. They must’ve spent a fortune on special effects for this movie-length TV episode. Good for them. 

Rating: ★★★