BitTorrent’s making a sci-fi and it looks pretty damn prescient

If you know BitTorrent for anything, it’s as a tool that allows you to download pirated content legitimately shared files and folders. But now it’s making its own foray into original content.

While the series, called Children of the Machine, was announced a month ago there hasn’t been all that much information around the show, until now.

BitTorrent has released a couple of videos which are related to the show, giving us a glimpse of the kind of universe it takes place in. More in the realm of speculative fiction than sci-fi, COTM takes place in a world where bio-hacking has become relatively commonplace and the kids have found a new way of getting high called “jolting”.

The first video, released to the show’s Facebook page, follows a 14-year-old girl called Winona in the year 2025. She has a chip that, together with a contact lens, allows her to connect with people, be totally cool and keep up with all the latest trends.

September 2025 from Rapid Eye Studios on Vimeo.

The second meanwhile is a little more current and explores the beginnings of the “jolting” movement.

July 2014 from Rapid Eye Studios on Vimeo.

According to the studio behind the series, its research for the upcoming series, included following “the pioneers of today’s virtual psychedelic movement, documenting psychological dependency in the post-Internet age, and interviewing some of its first casualties: the kids lost to digital addiction”.

BitTorrent will show the first episode of the series for free this December, followed by another seven episodes if the required 250 000 users pony up the US$9.95 fee.