Augmented Reality In Black Mirror's Men Against Fire

The application of Augmented reality has been felt in our daily lives. First used for military, industrial, and medical applications, by 2012 its use expanded into entertainment and other commercial industries. By 2016, powerful mobile devices allowed AR to become a useful learning aid even in primary schools. It has the means to immerse our perspective of reality into one that does not exist for our benefit. However, with all things that benefit us it can also be exploited as shown in Black Mirror’s “Men Against Fire” Where soldiers are being exploited by augmented reality to kill without remorse and purge those deemed inferior. Augmented reality if left unchecked can have negative implications by blurring the line of fiction and non-fiction, institutionalizing social problems, brainwashing/propaganda, and extensive state control. “Men against fire” is set in a future with dystopian, post-apocalyptic elements. The episode also alludes to a wealth of different prejudices still rife among humankind, particularly institutionalized racism, tribalism, and fear of refugees. The main protagonist of the story is a soldier named Stripe who works for a military organization who is hunting down mutant humans
known as “roaches”. In the Military organization the soldiers are outfitted with an implant known as MASS that enhances the processing of their senses, and provides instant data via augmented reality. What Stripe does not know is that the military organization is killing off people with undesirable genetics and the implant helps the soldiers view them as savage mutants. The shocking revelation is finally thrown at him when video recording of his earlier missions shows him killing innocents disguised as roaches under the augmented reality. The whole reason for MASS is to dehumanize people to kill without any form of hesitation. Many social issues can be tied into augmented reality.
The most pressing one as evident in “Men Against Fire” is propaganda and dehumanizing. The military used propaganda through augmented reality by symbolizing the civilians as savage mutants thus allowing the soldier to feel little to no guilt in killing. Harold D. Lasswell in “The American Political Science Review” goes further into the matter of propaganda by stating that “Propaganda objects must be chosen with extreme care. The primary objects are usually quite distinct. Thus, war propaganda involves the enemy, the ally, and the neutral.” In the case of “Men against Fire” the military made sure to make the undesirable civilians a distinct enemy by using the MASS to help soldiers perceive them as savage
mutants. State control and national interest was another aspect that was prevalent throughout the episode. In the beginning you see the military assisting a ransacked village by roaches, but the way it is presented makes it seem there is a state of martial law. We can also view this as a way of national interest even though the interest is morally wrong.