Black Mirror: 10 Times It Creepily Predicted The Future
8. Human Batteries
The Episode: Fifteen Million Merits is set in a power plant in which people generate energy by running on a treadmill all day - their experience alleviated by playing X-Box Kinect-type games and watching cheap reality TV while they work.
How It Came True: In February 2016, the scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a paper which outlined their idea to utilise our movements to generate electricity. With the aid of a stamp-sized device that can be stuck to your inner elbow, every move a person makes could serve to generate their own personal energy supply. Currently, the process works at about 0.6% efficiency, which isn't much use. However, the MIT experts are hoping to get the process up to at least 6% efficiency, which would be enough to charge a smartphone.
This idea definitely sounds awesome for now, but you have to wonder how long it will be before someone has the idea to make it even more efficient. You know, perhaps by creating people-powered energy plants...