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Kelly Clarkson Show Like Black Mirror '15 Million Merits'
As Tim Pool points out, there is a close correspondence between recent science fiction (Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits) and a new episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show":
this is basically that episode of Black Mirror where people lived in tiny boxes and had avatars represent them at shows https://t.co/mUHqwnhM9j
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) September 25, 2020
Here's a relevant excerpt from Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits, which was first shown in 2011:
The term "avatar" was introduced to many science fiction fans in Neal Stephenson's1992 novel Snow Crash:
As Hiro approaches the street, he sees two couples probably using their parent's computer for a double date in the Metaverse. He's not seeing real people, of course. It's all part of a moving illustration created by his computer from specifications coming down the fiber optic cable. These people are pieces of software called avatars.
(Read more about Neal Stephenson's 'avatar')
The word "avatar" itself is ancient. It is taken from Hindu philosophy. An avatar is an incarnation of a deity in human form; the literal meaning of the Sanskrit word is "he passes or crosses down." Just as the deity "passes down" from the higher realms of being to the simpler realm of the material Earth, so a person becomes an avatar in a simpler computer-generated reality.
The concept of using a computer-based character to represent oneself was used earlier in Vernor Vinge's 1981 story True Names; see the entry for personality simulator.
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