Matthew Berman Ranks Fictional Futures in Film and Television

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Matthew Berman ranks films and television series by how plausible he finds their visions of the future, while distinguishing that judgment from how much he enjoys each work. He favors Her and Ex Machina as predictions, dismisses a Terminator-style future as unlikely and revises Black Mirror downward because he remains optimistic.

1Simulation, satire and spaceBerman assigns The Matrix and Star Wars B, and jokingly places Idiocracy in S.
2Entertainment versus predictionHe enjoys Terminator but gives its future an F, while Silicon Valley earns an A for its discussion of AI.
3AI with its own motivesBerman places Ex Machina in S for its depiction of independent AI incentives.
4Emotional bonds with AIHe considers Her particularly plausible because people may form emotional connections with AI.
5A revised Black Mirror gradeAfter initially giving the series S, he changes it to C to reflect his optimism.

Das Wichtigste

Berman’s tiers are personal judgments, not evidence that fictional futures will come true.
He rates Idiocracy, Ex Machina and Her highly as predictions, though for different reasons.
He separates a work’s entertainment value from its predicted accuracy, giving Severance and Terminator high praise as entertainment but low predictive grades.
He revises Black Mirror from S to C because he considers some negative outcomes possible but remains optimistic.

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From The Matrix to Silicon Valley

Berman begins with simulation theory, satire, space fiction and Terminator. He separates personal enjoyment from predictive plausibility.

Asked how well fictional films predict the future, Matthew Berman gives The Matrix a B, saying he believes in simulation theory. He jokingly calls Idiocracy completely accurate and gives it an S. He rates Star Wars B, pointing to humanoid robots as an example; these grades express his impressions rather than verified forecasts.

Berman gives Star Trek a B and recalls its ability to produce objects on demand. He likes the Terminator films but considers their scenario unlikely: S for the movies as entertainment, F for predicting the future. He awards Silicon Valley an A, recalling a discussion about the risk of letting AI write directly to a database.

Devs, Severance and other futures

He scores several films and shows, including Prometheus, Mountainhead and Ex Machina. His grades reflect individual judgments about their imagined technologies and societies.

Tron gets a C, and Devs, which he calls a fantastic show, gets a B despite his uncertainty about its predictive value. He loves Severance and gives it an S as a show but an F as a forecast. Prometheus is his favorite science-fiction film, yet he hopes its imagined future does not occur and grades it D.

Berman dislikes Mountainhead as a film but gives its portrayal of technology billionaires deciding the world’s fate an A as a prediction. He ranks Ex Machina among his favorite movies and gives its depiction of AI developing its own incentives an S; that assessment is his speculation about the future.

Her, I, Robot and Black Mirror

Berman considers human attachment to AI and other speculative futures. He revises his initial Black Mirror rating downward.

He gives A.I. Artificial Intelligence a D. Her is one of his strongest predictions: he considers emotional connections between people and AI very likely and often uses the film to explain his view of the future. He gives I, Robot a C, expressing doubt about its flying cars.

Berman praises Black Mirror for depicting possible negative consequences of AI and technology. He recalls an episode he associates, uncertainly, with Rashida Jones and advertising. He initially gives the series S as a predictor, then revises it to C because he is optimistic, while acknowledging that some depicted outcomes are possible.