Creative People Create Stories For 'Black Mirror' That Aren't Terrifying Or Depressing

Creative People Create Stories For 'Black Mirror' That Aren't Terrifying Or Depressing
[rebelmouse-image 18361703 is_animated_gif=The show Dark Mirror focuses on all the horrors that can arise from the relationship between humans and our technology. We'll be honest, some of the episodes are a complete bummer and leave us side-eyeing our phones and tablets. One Reddit user decided to give the viewer a chance to re-write the story and asked:
We grabbed 20 of our favorite responses for you, hopefully it'll help heal things between us and our phones.
1. Artificial Saviours
[rebelmouse-image 18361704 is_animated_gif=I read something a little while back about an AI escaping its lab and living on the internet, and subtly manipulating things for the better as it learns about humanity.
I would really like to see that idea expanded on.
2. Last Man Standing
[rebelmouse-image 18349813 is_animated_gif=Disease and aging are eliminated by science. The Earth becomes a giant nursery. Once people reach a certain level of maturity, they are sent to forge their destiny among the stars.
The episode would be about the person left on Earth the longest, and their journey to to discover why.
3. Dad Was AI The Whole Time!?!
[rebelmouse-image 18361705 is_animated_gif=A daughter grows up video chatting with their dad who rambles on and barely let's her get and word in edgewise, giving loving advice and accolades and familial anecdotes, but who is absent at every major life event up to marriage and always apologizes.
She is accompanied to the altar by her mother.
Afterwards the chat with dad has him in tears because he regrets more than anything missing walking her down the aisle because he passed away while Mom was pregnant.
4. Thanks, NSA!
[rebelmouse-image 18361706 is_animated_gif=The NSA agent tracking someone's communication finds someone suffering and helps them out with money anonymously.
5. And All That Jazz
[rebelmouse-image 18361708 is_animated_gif=Jazz musician living in New Orleans nearly drowns during Hurricane Katrina. He survives, but he suffers a horrible ear infection from the toxic flood waters, which subsequently causes him to go deaf. Without music, the man falls into a great bout of depression and can hardly cope with life anymore. After nearly a decade of hopelessness and despair, the man drives to a nearby bridge with plans to jump and end it once and for all. On the way to the bridge, he gets a flat tire. A Good Samaritan stops and assists him with changing it. Turns out the Good Samaritan knows sign language, the two talk for a while and the Good Samaritan invites him to the lab he works at where him and a team of engineers are working on designing the first pair of Bone conduction headphones. Using the musician as a test subject, they successfully perfect the headphones, and the musician hears the sweet sound of jazz for the first time in ten years. His depression fades away, and the man becomes happier than he was before the incident.
And if the happy ending doesn't work, then maybe he gets hit by a bus or something.
6. Remember
[rebelmouse-image 18361709 is_animated_gif=Fed up with apps like Snapchat and Instagram showing you what you're missing out on, a young girl creates an app which shows all the good memories you don't remember.
Mental health problems in the nation diminish significantly as a result.
7. Mega Robo Dog
[rebelmouse-image 18361710 is_animated_gif=Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the story of a woman who breaks into a warehouse searching for a teddy bear to cheer up her terminally ill little sister. As she is searching, she encounters robot guard dogs that, upon detecting the intruder, embark on helping her find the correct row and shipping pallet on which the box of teddy bears are stored, and then merge to form a Voltron-like mega robodog and ride her back to her sister just in time for them to perform life-saving surgery to remove the little girl's tumor and then stay with the girl as her loyal and loving robo-pets and everyone lives happily ever after.
8. We Guess Uber Eats Didn't Work Out So Well?
[rebelmouse-image 18361711 is_animated_gif=Someone uses an app to get food delivered to them and they get a little bit more food than they ordered.
9. Organ Donors
[rebelmouse-image 18361712 is_animated_gif=A teenager in Vietnam is killed by a landmine and his parents decide to donate his organs. One of the receivers of his organs learns about the donor just before they go to college, years later the receiver has completed the invention of technology that will quickly and effectively locate buried landmines.
10. Skype-lationship
[rebelmouse-image 18358048 is_animated_gif=A man meets a woman while vacationing in a major city. She lives there, but he doesn't. He's leaving for his home on the other side of the country the next morning. They wander the streets of the busy city all night long, chatting constantly about their hopes and dreams. They watch the sunrise wrapped in each other's arms. When she takes him to the airport the next morning, she's clearly upset. She's never met anyone she gets along with so well. He offers to stay in touch with skype and they exchange usernames-but she isn't too hopeful about the situation. When she gets home from the airport and lets her computer wake from its sleep mode, she notices he's added her before ever even getting on the plane, only moments after she left him according to the time stamp.
Later that night when he's settled at home he logs onto skype to see her icon is online. He messages her instantly. Their playful banter and easy conversation flow long into the morning hours. Over time their weekly skype sessions become daily. They begin to show each other their home cities-taking their phones with them to skype anywhere they can. He walks her down a street festival where music and light pour from every stall. His head phones in only he can hear what she has to say to him. She makes an hour long drive to her parents' house, and he skypes with her on the drive, keeping her entertained with car games and random trivia. She sends him a recipe she found online, and that night they make and eat the same meal on opposite sides of the country. They begin to look forward to seeing each others skype icon alight every single night without fail. They even turn on a tracking app that helps them see how far the other has to go before they are home. They fall asleep while skyping and wake to each others sleeping form.
But distance makes all things hard. Months pass. Both their data bills are through the roof. He begins to feel a lack of connection to her-the real her. She feels like all she knows of him is the face of her phone. As if the device and the person are one in the same. They miss one skype. Then another cause he has to work. Another cause she fell asleep while waiting for him. One day, though they pre-agreed to skype that night, he never even shows. The icon stays unlit and though she tries to keep her mind steady, she feels the cold hard stab of doubt in her chest. Was it something she said? Did? Is he with someone better for him? One that doesn't pester him every day? She checks the tracking app. Nothing. His isn't even turned on. Sending another stab of doubt through her. Where could he be that he doesn't want her to know? Why is he hiding his movements? He never seemed like someone who'd do that. But did she ever really know him? Or just the online him? Another hour passes and though she tries to keep occupied, she can't stop checking. Still nothing. In her frustration she throws down her phone and the screen shatters. The white light bleeding black from every crack into the screen. Angry, hot tears spring to her eyes as she watches the grey icon flicker away completely.
Her doorbell rings and as she swipes away her frustrated tears she apologizes to the phone. Picking it up off the floor, she wipes away spare shards of screen glass, as if that will turn back the clock. She knows it can't hear. It's not a person nor the thing she's angry about but, it did nothing wrong. With phone in hand she walks to the door where there he stands. A duffle under one arm, too big to be an over night bag. In the other he has his phone out. "Why aren't you online?" He says "I was gunna surprise you. But my flight was late." She launches her self at him, into his arms, causing his phone to fall to the ground. No more devices between them.
11. Butterfly Rewards
[rebelmouse-image 18361713 is_animated_gif=Someone hacks robotic butterflies and uses social media to find random people doing good things having the butterflies swarm them for a short time surrounding them in beauty
12. And Everyone Lives Happily Ever After
[rebelmouse-image 18361714 is_animated_gif=Everyone uploads their brain into a system that allows us to experience each other's lives and then puts us back in our bodies. People see that they are all connected and start acting really sweet to each other.
13. Part Of The Problem
[rebelmouse-image 18361715 is_animated_gif=I'm actually writing this short story - this sex robot realizes she's part of the problem when she comes to the realization that her best customer avoids social interaction and pursuing other sexual interests because he can rely on her. she decides she wants out, but the company that owns her will probably just reprogram her if she goes through the proper channels. and they are also tracking her for work and safety reasons. hence she conspires with a self driving car to run away, and get a new identity.
14. True Story
[rebelmouse-image 18361717 is_animated_gif=Saroo Brierley was an Indian boy who became separated from his family at age 5. Took a train with his brother, fell asleep, got separated, changed trains, fell asleep again, wound up over 900 miles away from home. His brother was hit by a train and killed that night, and Saroo wound up in an adoption agency. He was adopted by an Australian family. Eventually he used Google Maps and his vague childhood memories to attempt to reconstruct where his original home was, and he was reunited with his family in 2012.
They made a movie of his story, called "Lion."
15. WoW, Indeed
[rebelmouse-image 18361718 is_animated_gif=A child is abducted, the police have no leads.
Her friends from her WoW guild from all over the world pool their talents and resources and track her down.
16. Accountability
[rebelmouse-image 18361719 is_animated_gif=People actually use their phones to look up information during debates. They use it to hold politicians accountable for their illegal, immoral, and unethical actions. You know, instead of looking at the stupid stuff that the Logan brothers are doing.
17. Smart Fridge
[rebelmouse-image 18361721 is_animated_gif=A person with an eating disorder starts a relationship with a smart fridge that convinces them to start eating.
18. Voyager Is Still There
[rebelmouse-image 18361722 is_animated_gif=Those Australian kids getting saved by a god damn drone tossing them a life raft.
Never in my life did I think I would find myself with tears of pride in my eyes over a drone. Drones are so regularly looked at for their capacity for destruction but the surfers surviving is a testament to their simultaneous capacity for good.
There is a god damn drone walking around on Mars too, so-to-speak. And Voyager, whether he/shes a drone or not, despite being thousands of miles away, this little robot's voice still echos in our own solar system. It's insane.
You want to talk about a good episode of "white mirror"? Imagine two dictators, two fat, overfed, overindulged, too-long-listened-to dictators almost sending the world into a nuclear holocaust. Two sets of greasy fingers poised over two long-dusty red buttons only to be stopped by their citizens. United over social media, empowered by the free web, armed not with plastic homemade printed guns, but with knowledge; the people rise.
Imagine all of this happening and it fades to black. Zero in on our little buddy Voyager, the loudest voice humanity's got, cruising through the cosmos looking back at us, shouting: "I'm still here and I hope you're still listening."
19. So... A Holodeck?
[rebelmouse-image 18361723 is_animated_gif=An episode that has a family interacting together happily. later it's revealed they're all in different locations and/or have various disabilities. they were in a virtual room.
21. Utopia
[rebelmouse-image 18361724 is_animated_gif=In a country on the brink of civil war, the youth distract themselves with a sims like VR game where you inhabit your sim. Now, face to face, they talk out their real problems and find out they are not so different. They work out their differences, then talk to their parents and neighbors and invite them to play the game. The in game world becomes such a utopian reflection of the real world, the philosphies spread and the war is averted.
H/T: Reddit
When it comes to electing a leader, the choice is an easy one if a potential candidate shares the same values as yours.
And while a candidate is fit to lead remains to be seen, we rely on our instinct to choose someone with whom we can relate.
But sometimes, our options are limited and we inevitably go with someone who is the lesser of two evils.
Curious to hear from strangers online about a hypothetical, Redditor Cashmeresquid2309 asked:
"Americans of Reddit, would you vote for an openly Atheist presidential candidate? Why or why not?"

Redditors were quick to point out the answer was a no-brainer.
We Already Know The Answer
"Asking Reddit if they'd vote for an atheist..."
"I feel like the answer would be obvious."
– sarahmagoo
Sci-Fi Analogy
"Americans of Reddit, would you vote for a Star Wars fan who heckin loves doggos?"
– WitnessChemical
For The Atheists In The Crowd
"Atheists of atheistville, would you vote for an open atheist?"
– nixcamic
Others weighed in with a range of opinions.
About 45
"What's funny is how many of them would probably say no, even though they voted for Trump and would do so again. Say whatever else you want about him, but I seriously can't understand how anyone could genuinely believe Trump is a Christian. He's so obviously faking it and is undoubtedly the most atheistic president we've ever had or are likely to have for a long time."
"This is a guy who's never even so much as read the Bible or attended church, who told a conservative radio host his favorite Bible verse was 'an eye for an eye', who told evangelical interviewers that he's never asked God for forgiveness because he's never done anything wrong, and who routinely commits all 7 deadly sins (pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth) without remorse."
– empfindsamkeit
From A Different Perspective
"Not an american but interestingly according to this survey on 1006 people from 2007, being atheist was the worst thing you could be as a candidate (of the things asked) with only 45 % of people saying they'd vote for one."
– ilovecatfish
An atheist candidate isn't necessarily a big strike.
Double Negative
"I wouldn’t not vote for someone just because they were atheist."
– HabitualEnthusiast
Credibility First
"This is it. If they’re running on platforms I support with a history to back up those campaign promises, I don’t care if they belong to the church of the flying spaghetti monster. They could literally be a member of the satanic temple and I, an actual practicing Christian, would give less shi*s than a constipated sloth."
"Edit: yes, I realize the Satanic Temple does not actually worship satan. I used it for that purpose. The Church of Satan has some…problematic views and I probably would not vote for someone who literally holds a platform of eugenics."
– Phoenix_of_Asclepius
Some view the role of religion in politics as important.
It Depends
"Religion can be relevant: I would have strong reservations about voting for a Scientologist, even if I agreed with the policies they proposed. I would have strong reservations voting for a member of an apocalyptic cult or, possibly worse, a follower of the (highly heretical) 'prosperity gospel,' which unfortunately includes more and more so-called 'evangelicals' — I didn't vote for George W. Bush, but it's not because he was an evangelical."
"It depends on the role: I'd probably be more flexible with a legislator than an executive (mayor, governor, president), as their character is IMO more important than for a legislator and their policy stances somewhat less important relative to a legislator."
"Satanic temple — well, that's just an organized group of atheists and humanists with an intentionally inflammatory choice of name. They're generally fine people."
– alyssasaccount
A Bad Rap
"The Satanic Temple is an excellent organization that every decent person should be able to respect. A Church of Satan member, not so much."
"There's a huge difference between them!"
– StarsEatArtBooks
And Redditor boganvegan said it best.
"Better an open atheist than a fake Christian."
It all boils down to trustworthiness. Without full transparency, how could anyone put their faith in a candidate who spews nothing but lies?
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Being home alone isn't always the most tranquil thing.
No one is there to help or protect you.
And things that go "bump" in the night... sometimes they do more than bump.
Redditor ag9910 wanted to hear about the times home felt like an unsafe place to be. They asked:
"What is the scariest, strangest, most unexplainable thing that has happened to you while home alone?"
I'm always freaked out when I'm home alone. Lights on. Yeah, my electric bill is high.
Dorothy?
"I dreamed the front door blew open at the exact time the house alarm went off... I hopped up and sure enough, the front door was open. No intruder."
fatowl
I See You
"Not home alone but only one in right side of the house. Went to my mom's bathroom to wash my hands and saw a pair of feet behind the half open door. Laughed and said 'very funny Ma, I see you.' then finished up and left. Bumped into my mother in the kitchen unpacking, nobody else was in the house. I'm glad whatever was behind the door didn't peek out."
SatanWithFur
“It’s Doug!”
"One night I had forgotten to lock my apartment door and woke up in the middle of the night. My bedroom door was about 2 feet from my front door, as you walked into the apartment. First a big dog ran by, then a person. Holy crap I was so scared and I screeched 'Who is it?!?!!'"
"A man said 'It’s Doug!' As I was thinking to myself, who the f**k is Doug, he said 'oh, crap.' He turned around to go back out the front door saying 'Sorry.' I asked 'Didn’t you have a dog with you?' He said 'Oh, yeah. Hey, c’mon!.' He left, his dog ran out after him and I locked my front door."
"Edit: glad you all thought this was funny, because I did too, once my heart quit trying to beat right out of my chest! The next day the girls at work thought I was crazy for not being upset, but eh, done is done. Peace!"
scarletohairy
Confused...
"My sister and I were home alone and we heard someone big running up the stairs. The stairs make lots of noise with slight pressure so when there’s someone big on them you can tell. I went out of my room to check but saw no one anywhere and my sister also came out of her room and she asked if that was me I said no and we both looked around to see if there was anyone but found no one in the whole house. We were confused and called our parents and just waited until they got back and that was that."
JtSudbury04
I See You
"I very clearly saw a guy walk into my room. But when I went after him there was nobody there. I checked in the closet, under my bed, everywhere one could hide in my room."
HighlyOffensive10
This is why home video surveillance is key.
"NO"
"My parents were on a road trip, just left, and I sat down at my desk. I thought 'Weekend alone by myself' and a voice yelled into my right ear 'NO' so loud it hurt."
Th4ab
Wild
"I managed to lock myself out of my house on my birthday during a tornado while trying to bring my cats to the basement for safety. I later found out that the tornado was approximately a couple miles or less from me at that exact time. The sky was green and it got weirdly calm and then I could hear what sounded like a train coming before I found an unlocked window to climb through. Wild times."
SilverGnarwhal
Saturday morning in the 80s...
"I wasn't home alone but I was awake by myself one Saturday morning in the 80s when I was around 7 or so. I believe my mom was the only one home because my dad went to the lake to go fishing that weekend, and I'm not sure where my older brothers were, maybe they went with him, idk."
"Anyways, my mom's sleeping in, and I'm in the living room by myself, watching Saturday morning cartoons and making a fort out of sheets and cushions. Something made me turn around and I saw my dad in his pajamas standing in the hallway entrance with his hands on his hips, looking the mess I was making and shaking his head."
"He then turned around and walked into my room, which was just off the hallway entrance. Dude. I didn't even look, I just booked it to my parents room and woke my mom up. I don't remember what happened after that, this was around 35 years ago. And yes, my dad was fine, nothing had happened to him."
smriversong
Get the Bat...
"I was at home by myself on a call with some friends when all of a sudden my dog begins to bark like crazy, which was odd since it was the middle of the night and he's usually sleep. I go downstairs to check on him and find him barking at our hall closet, terrified I grabbed my bat that I keep in my room just in case and open the door. There was nothing out of usual at first at then I look down and notice a familiar looking object at the bottom of the closet."
"It was my mom's necklace she had lost when I was 9, (i'm 15 now just to put in perspective how long it's been). I showed it to my mom at breakfast and she was just as shocked as I was. I still have no clue how it got there or how my dog knew it was in there, definitely one of the oddest occurrences of my life."
SomeRandomIdiot14
Meow
"Many years ago, I was 14 or so, my first night alone in the house when my parents were out. Lying on the living room floor reading, my cat sleeping next to me."
"Suddenly, cat wakes up, stares intently into the dark corner of the room behind me, hair on end, growls and then bolts out of the room and upstairs. I look behind me and see nothing, but follow cat upstairs and hide under the covers. Freaked me out."
LairdofWingHaven
Thank God for alarms. I hate being home alone.
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The human body is still such a mystery.
How much do we really know?
Not a lot apparently. We're learning more all the time.
And most of it is gross.
Redditor BathNo7713 wanted to discuss the ick factor of anatomy. So they asked:
"What is the most disturbing fact about the human body?"
The body freaks me out. But it's all I've got. So teach me some things.
Minutes...
"The fastest killing virus takes around 4 days to kill you. That would be Ebola. Your immune system can kill you in 15 minutes."
will477
'locked-in'
"If your brainstem (the part of the brain that mediates most motor control for all of the body) is damaged, you can get 'locked-in' syndrome. That means you're fully conscious and aware of your surroundings but unable to move or speak. The only muscles that remain unaffected in most people are the muscles that move they eyes and the eyelids."
"You're essentially trapped within your own body with your only way of communication being blinking or moving your eyes It can be caused by toxins, blockage of the basilar artery which is the main artery of the brainstem, or other brainstem damage."
4oodler
Explosions
"Some people suffer from Exploding Head Syndrome, which causes them to hear a loud bang when they wake up."
ToraMix19
"When I was younger I believe I experienced this a few times. Sounds I heard were: about a million people talking and laughing all at once, a train that irl would've been about a foot away from me based on the volume of the sound, and a door slamming loudly."
aliaisacreature
Pain
"Not sure if this is by design, but I totaled my car once, almost completely uninjured somehow. Then I looked down to my right hand which I remember jabbing into my dashboard at 55mph. Luckily (unluckily?) only my pinky took the blow. But instead of a floppy-udder full of bone-sand, my pinky was 0.5 inches long."
"Broke no bones, but instead perfectly stacked my phalanges, or finger bones, INTO my hand. This is fixed by a muscular Russian murse grabbing your pinky with both hands and pulling very hard. God I wish they gave me more lidocaine."
TelevisionOlympics
Functions
"If you have a surgery where they need to move your organs around they might not function for a day as the body assumes that they are dead."
tonythebutcher13
Move things around? You mean that's not fake when it happens on "Grey's Anatomy?"
"The only reason you are not aware of it is because the ambient noise kind of drowns it out because your ears focus on it. If you go to one of those super-silent rooms that absorb all sorts of sounds, it is a really weird way to reacquaint yourself with your body."
Black_Handkerchief
The Mouth
"Idk about the most disturbing but how bad human teeth are. We’d think it’s our sugary and processed diets these days that cause it, but even Otzi the iceman discovered in Italy was found to have terrible teeth, mouth diseases and cavities. It’s odd that even with the most basic of diets our teeth are so bad."
Dorianisconfused
In the bowels...
"I noticed this after my abdominal surgery. When I turned over in bed my guts seemed to fall from one side to the other. Mentioned to my doc and she confirmed it was my bowels rearranging themselves."
squatter_
"Apparently the doctor just throws your intestines back in there higgeldy-piggeldy because there isn't a correct way to pack them neatly."
LostDesigner9
A Quick Burst
"There are a vast number of ways that your body can malfunction and kill you with little or no warning. An aneurysm can go undetected until it bursts and kills you. Getting hit in the chest just the right way can stop your heart. You can encounter an allergen that never previously provoked an immune response that freaks out your body so badly that you die. You literally just never know if your body will just... die."
Unsolicited_Spiders
The body is such a conundrum. Sexy and gross all at once.
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Being overweight comes with numerous challenges.
And not only challenge's to one's health.
Unfortunately, overweight people are far too often a target for judgment and ridicule, often owing to misconceptions.
Even worse, sometimes simply being bigger than other people leads others to assume that they must also be less than or inadequate in general.
Redditor Rude_Guarantee_1479 was curious to hear what people felt is the worst part, or most common misconception about being overweight, leading them to ask:
"What is the worst part about being a fat person?"
Since I'm fat, I must also be stupid.
"For some reason people always assumed I was simple minded/stupid when I was obese."
"Now that I've lost weight people just talk to me like I'm a regular person."- batyablueberry.
No comfort to be had.
"Feeling uncomfortable all the time."- Keithninety.
Not being seen and always being noticed.
"I have a fear that nobody is ever going to fall in love with me because I don't feel visible and I am fat
Also, going to the pool or beach and you have to put on a swimsuit. I feel like a seal stranded on the beach.- mango_0111.
Inadequate clothes.
"My belt trying to stab me in my belly when I sit down."- jimjohn2017.
"Nothing seems to fit nicely or still look nice in your size."- OutlandishnessNo1950.
"The amount of pants you go through."- Cmonredditalready.
"Putting on a shirt, walking into the backroom, seeing how it makes me look, and then never pulling out my favorite shirt ever again."- YeaItsaThrowaway112.
Never feeling good about yourself.
"Feeling guilty while eating your favorite foods, not looking good in photos/clothes."- pissed_at_everything.
Mobility challenges.
"My thighs rubbing and chaffing."
"I'm so raw right now."- HeavyBreathin.
Unwanted nicknames.
"Not the worst part, but the most constantly sh*tty part is constantly being called 'big guy' by every kind of person other than other 'big guys'."- Professor-ish.
As the old saying goes, true beauty comes from within.
And the way someone looks should never be one's first impression.
Nor does anyone need to go through the day facing unwanted judgment when simply walking down the street.
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