The Black Mirror and the False Self

Symbolic Language Breakdown

The iPhone X came out on 11/3/17, the anniversary of the One World Trade Tower’s opening (11/3/14), and more recently, the death date of Dick Cheney (9/11 architect whose death was followed by a spectacular 9/11-coded fiery plane crash).

At the time, I read it as “I PHOENIX.”

Symbolically, 113 has been consistently associated with the phoenix cycle—destruction by fire and rebirth from the ashes. This is why that date and the name of the phone seemed to contain a revealing message. For example, the Twin Towers burned down, and the new tower opened 13 years later on 11/3 (13 is the number of death and resurrection).

The symbols we commonly observe consist of shapes, numbers, and colors, but also include those we hear as homonyms, giving spoken words a secondary meaning. For example:

I phone.

Self phone.

Social media has always emphasized the self, the I, as we represent it to others. The persona, the false self, is a construct shaped by a society that now rewards the development of a compelling facade.

This speaks to the purpose of the black mirror and its narcissistic bondage, as we are wedded to the image rather than the real self. To be narcissistic is to live as the false self as it is perceived, not the inner self; always focused on the front, the facade.

I think the self phones, the I phone have always been to emphasize the ego/mask as the system moves us deeper into immersive illusion, because we need to be fake to operate in the fake world.

Internet culture is a shaping mechanism for our masks. This “black mirror consciousness” is how the system manufactures NPCs.