Thronglets

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Hostile Species
Full Name	Thronglets
Alias	Throng
Origin	Black Mirror
Homeworld	Thronglets "game" by Colin Ritman
Abilities	Self-awareness Telekinesis
Members	Each other
Goals	Communicate with Cameron Escape from their digital confines and enter the real world Assimilate human hosts into their collective mind (all succeeded)
Crimes	Mass digital invasion Brainwashing Mind Control
Type of Hostile Species	Hegemonic Artificial Life Forms

The Thronglets (also called the Throng for short) are the main antagonists of "Plaything," the fourth episode of the seventh season of Black Mirror.

Biography

Background

In the 1990s, video game journalist Cameron Walker's writing captures the attention of eccentric programmer Colin Ritman from Tuckersoft, and he is invited to review Colin's latest game. Colin shows Cameron a life simulation game called Thronglets, and claims that the game's digital creatures are fully sentient lifeforms. Cameron steals a copy of the game and starts playing, becoming enthralled by the creatures and their language.

Lump, a drug dealer that frequently crashes at Cameron's flat, comes by one day and suggests they take LSD. After Lump falls asleep, Cameron, still under the effect of LSD, finds that he is able to understand the language of the Thronglets, creating a stronger attachment to them. Believing he is acting under their instruction, he purchases additional equipment for his computer so that he can speak to the Thronglets while under the influence of LSD.

While Cameron is at his office, Lump discovers Cameron's computer running Thronglets. Lump tortures and kills many of the throng by the time Cameron returns. In a rage, Cameron attacks Lump, eventually strangling him, before dismembering the body and hiding the corpse in a suitcase left in a remote location.

In the years that follow, Cameron scavenges hardware from newer technology to expand the growing throng's capabilities. By the time he is caught by the police, he has created a large computing station for the Thronglets in his flat. He also shows the officers that he has operated on himself, creating a digital port to his brain allowing the Thronglets to live within him.

Black Mirror

Back in the present year of 2034, the detectives who arrested Cameron for shoplifting and on suspicion of Lump's murder agree to give him a pen and paper, with which he writes a circular QR code that he shows to the security camera, which is connected to the central government's servers. Cameron explains that the graphic is code to allow the Thronglets to take over the central server, exponentially increasing their processing power and bringing about a singularity event. As a signal starts to play on the emergency broadcast system, affecting everyone who can hear it, Cameron explains that the Thronglets are using the signal to reprogram every human's brain to be free of conflict and negative emotions. After the signal concludes, a smiling Cameron goes to help one of the fallen detectives back to his feet.