Thanks for the thoughtful comments, Robert! I'm glad that you picked up on the deliberate referencing of Brooker's other television writing work in the examples I gave - this was partially to try and generate reflection on the themes and issues that have cropped up in series that he has previously been involved in (Barley's satirical depiction of new technologies and web environments; Brass Eye's destructive mockery of the political elite) and which appear in some form or another in Black Mirror. Your comment about language as magic (or as plain obfuscation), designed to baffle the technological illiterati and credulous, again ties into Brass Eye, where language was subsequently taken to heightened and absurdist extremes. I would certainly concur that the reason why the video "works" for the layperson is that, despite being aesthetically amateurish, the language deployed sounds slickly convincing and is cleverly scripted - it is believably couched in terms (and utilises technologies) that are just about in the contemporary vernacular and public consciousness. Of course, the moment that the tech. community started paying closer attention to the video, the "spell" was broken! "Vapourware" is something that I have a tangential interest in, as my research in the past has often been preoccupied with both media ephemera and "forgotten histories". In particular, moments in media history that occurred in the transitional moment between the shifting from analogue to digital production and distribution, meaning that many experiments, conversations and bits of content have fallen down the back of the internet's sofa, only recoverable if one knows what to look for and where to look. It is in these moments (particularly around the turn of the century) where media institutions (broadcasters especially) started to fiddle around online, making grand promises for new types of content and new spaces of interaction... which subsequently swiftly dissolved into the aether when it became apparent such schemes weren't tenable or usable. Fragments of these moments still haunt the internet, which the Internet Archive and amateur archivists have exhumed so that we may pay our respects. I think the reason why The Entire History of You ranks as a favourite is because of the notion that this speculative technology, rather than providing a benefit, instead facilitates the haunting of ourselves with a presumed-forgotten past with tools from the future! Note: That paragraph certainly built up a head of steam there - apologies for the ramble! Re: Psychoanalytic implications of the campaign - I hadn't considered this at all (and I had thought my line to be a little throwaway). Intriguing. I have little knowledge of this field, but perhaps somebody else would like to chip in at this point?

Thanks for the kind words, Michael! Whenever posthumanism is brought up, I always think of Donna Haraway's assertion that "we are all chimeras" and "cyborgs" now, or Stelarc's robotic augmentations, or the speculative communities featured in Warren Ellis's "Transmetropolitan"! However, looking at contemporary (and less invasive than optic tech like the Argus II implants) technologies like Google Glass, the Apple Watch and the iPhone, one could argue that all this wearable technology which monitors us closely - recording/tracking our movements, our heart-rates, our voices, what we see and hear - has already brought us to a "posthuman" state. "The Black Mirror Project", speculating on the notion that our technologies can monitor and map our brain-wave patterns to the point where it can discern our desires without us having to voice them, therefore represents a more complex version of the versions of posthumanism which we've already witnessed (in art, television and real-life), making it all the more convincing (and aiding in the process of fooling the audience). I believe that the underlying panic or unease (which is bubbling under the surface of Black Mirror) is once again linked to notions of autonomy and agency - when we cede power and allow technology to either act as a memory prosthesis (as we do now) or a driver of innovation strategy, then at what point does the process become automated, rendering human input redundant? Re: "The seed" in "The Entire History of You" - perhaps the point that is trying to be made within the episode is that technology in and of itself is not a dangerous or malicious thing. It's the consistent ABUSES of technology by neurotic humanity (represented by the lead character's obsessive playing and replaying of memory), as well as the potential to exploit it for gain (raised in the notion of "seed-jacking" mentioned in the dinner-party scene), which is what makes it potentially harmful. The "seed" is essentially a micro flash-drive with a really slick search algorithm, which, like the fake tech in the campaign video above, is based on technology which not only COULD happen, but is something that is being striven for and desired! Re: "APPLE TERROR" - if there was a whittling down of corporations to a mere handful and only ONE was responsible for technological or communicative innovation, would you trust that they would not abuse the access that they would undoubtedly demand to your data (and perhaps your mind) for the sake of a more pleasurable/comfortable user/leisure experience? Heh.