For those who are fans of Black Mirror, I just got news of the forthcoming Netflix Series 7.As usual, it is a dark anti-tech futuristic vision, but I was particularly intrigued by the script of Episode 3: the Trust Token*. The theme is that, in the near future, as Earth globalises and integrates, we ditch money and replace currencies with a token based upon how you are viewed by the people you deal with, and how much they can trust you. By this time – probably around 2080 or thereabouts – money has become meaningless after the failed experiments around centralising currencies versus those who want to decentralise them. The whole bitcoin versus CBDC friction has played out and trust in currencies were broken so, as Earth became just one place, all governments agreed to transact using a Trust Token.
The Trust Token is digital, authorised and based upon who you are. The Token is you. And everybody can contribute to a view on your token. It is a follow up to Black Mirror’s first episode of Season 3, Nosedive, but pivots to focus upon: what if the currency of the future is your reputation and trust?This is a theme explored extensively in Star Trek, and it just makes you wonder about the future world of money, if money does not exist. We are already moving past cash and towards everything being digital. What if we moved past digital to everything being tokenised?
So, here’s the scenario painted by Black Mirror, Season 7, Episode 3: The Trust Token.
Opening scene: a man is jogging down a road in the desert. He looks cool and has designer sunglasses and On sneakers. Then, without warning, a car runs him over. The car is solar-powered and silent. Question: why?
Seven days earlier: the man turns out to be called Chris. He is around thirty years old and works for a company that builds robots. His speciality is artificial intelligence and, specifically the implant of personality profiles in the robots. On this particular day, he decides to implant a personality that he has called psycho. It seems like a bit of a joke to him but, unfortunately, the robot turns out to be a killer. Without realising that the robot has this flaw, he shares his joke with friends.
Six days earlier: Chris’s update has gone a bit viral and the majority of his friends think that his joke is unacceptable. His trust rating starts to go down and, bearing in mind his trust rating is his trust token, his currency balance decreases. Chris is worried as his trust token balance is the key to how he lives.
Five days earlier: the robot that Chris implanted with the psycho profile has been purchased by a lovely family who have two children. The robot is switched on and appears to be fine. It does the jobs that robots are meant to do. Cleans the house, cooks the food, mows the lawn, drives the car. You name it, the robot does it.
Four days earlier: the robot starts acting a bit weird. As it chops the onions for the meal that day, it starts chopping other things … like the family’s cat and dog. This is one sick robot.
Three days earlier: the family have complained to the company about the robot and what it did. They returned it, and the CEO discovers that it was Chris’s implant of the psycho programme that caused the issue. Chris gets fired but, not only that, the CEO shares with all of the company’s followers that a rogue employee had created a psycho programme that caused the company’s robot to kill a family’s cat and dog. The world goes mad.
Two days earlier: one of Chris’s digital community links the fact that he had posted the idea of a psycho profile being placed in the production of robots as a joke to the post by the company's CEO. 1+1=3 and they share the fact that the rogue employee is Chris. Thousands of people attack Chris’s profile with negativity and Chris’s Trust Token reduces by ten percent.
The day before: Chris is out shopping. The store refuses to serve him as his Trust Token has gone down too low. Oh, and by the way, the Trust Token is a badge on Chris’s shoulder. It’s a digital signage that was flashing 70%, with an amber rating, down 30% overnight. Chris is worried and checks his glasses to see what’s going on. The glasses are connected to the world, like the old Apple Vision Pro glasses but on steroids. Chris cannot believe what he is seeing. Because of the robot killing the cat and the dog, due to his psycho programme, everyone seems to be against him. They are voting his Trust Token through the floor. Literally, as he’s watching, his score goes down another ten per cent. That’s a huge problem as the only way he can buy and exchange is on a Trust Token above 50 per cent.Then, as he walks home, people start shouting, cursing and spitting on him. His Trust Token starts tanking further as people seem to hate Chris.
On the day: Chris’s Trust Token has been voted down to just 10 per cent. That is a below red rating. In fact, it's a hellfire rating. There is no way to live on a 10% Trust Token. He does not know what to do as a Trust Token is the key to life. If people don’t trust you, you cannot live. He knows he cannot reverse his stupid joke about the psycho programme but, c’mon folks, it was only a cat and a dog. It wasn’t a child. Chris decides to take a jog to get over it and work out what to do. He puts on his On track shoes and leaves the house to do his normal desert jog.
Meanwhile, the father of the family who bought Chris’s robot has used his digital network to track down who programmed the robot. The sudden barrage of hate against one person in the network identified the protagonist as someone called Chris. What had not been reported is that the robot not only chopped the cat and dog to pieces, but also his son Peter. The father gets in the car and uses the livestream from Chris’s device to see that he’s jogging near the city in the desert …
* Please note that this script has been leaked and, to avoid a lawsuit, I am only sharing it because Charlie Brooker is a friend of mine (in my head)
