Themes (326)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 15 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Detective Shazia Akhand is assigned to investigate the case of a man who was hit by a pizza truck in the street to help him build a case. She uses a brain-computer interface to read the memories of both the man hit by the truck and other witnesses, where the vague, abstract images are projected onto a screen. One of these witnesses includes Mia, a serial killer whose former crimes are revealed during her interview. In order to erase any footage or evidence of her murders, Mia continues her killing spree by wiping out Shazia and her family. However, Mia is eventually caught through the memories of an unlikely source.
- Kinolab
- 2017
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- 15 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Digital Memory Projection and Walking Surveillance Cameras
Detective Shazia Akhand is assigned to investigate the case of a man who was hit by a pizza truck in the street to help him build a case. She uses a brain-computer interface to read the memories of both the man hit by the truck and other witnesses, where the vague, abstract images are projected onto a screen. One of these witnesses includes Mia, a serial killer whose former crimes are revealed during her interview. In order to erase any footage or evidence of her murders, Mia continues her killing spree by wiping out Shazia and her family. However, Mia is eventually caught through the memories of an unlikely source.
Should police or detectives be able to view memories for interrogation reasons? Where should the line be drawn in these cases? What are the issues with tasking precise digital technologies with extracting and showing abstract memories? How could this technology be manipulated to make subjective memories seem objective? How might this sort of technology makes witnesses to crimes more targeted? How is this concept similar and different to the idea that anyone could accidentally or intentionally be capturing anything on a phone camera? Should technology be created that essentially allows anyone to be a walking surveillance camera?
Black Mirror: Shazia Interviews the Crash Victim-
- 10 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
In this episode, Kenny’s life is upended after hackers use malware to access a compromising video of Kenny on his laptop. Under the threat of this humiliating video being sent to everyone in his contacts, Kenny becomes a puppet of the hackers, forced to have his location services on and be tracked and contacted through his smartphone wherever he goes. Along with other puppets of the hackers, including a man named Hector who had an affair, he is forced to commit heinous acts such as a bank robbery and a fight to the death. Despite their compliance, the hackers release the puppets’ information anyway, leading to vast consequences in their personal lives.
- Kinolab
- 2016
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- 10 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
Cyber Blackmailing and Compromising Data
In this episode, Kenny’s life is upended after hackers use malware to access a compromising video of Kenny on his laptop. Under the threat of this humiliating video being sent to everyone in his contacts, Kenny becomes a puppet of the hackers, forced to have his location services on and be tracked and contacted through his smartphone wherever he goes. Along with other puppets of the hackers, including a man named Hector who had an affair, he is forced to commit heinous acts such as a bank robbery and a fight to the death. Despite their compliance, the hackers release the puppets’ information anyway, leading to vast consequences in their personal lives.
Is anyone truly “alone” or “unwatched” when in the presence of their mobile computing devices? Whose responsibility is it to guard people against the dangers witnessed in this narrative? Do digital technologies need clearer and more thorough warnings about the possibilities of malware infecting a device? How can mobile computing devices and location tracking be manipulated to deprive people of autonomy? Are small individual steps such as covering up cameras enough to guard against these types of problems?
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- 9 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Robert Daly is a programmer at the company Callister, which developed the immersive virtual reality game Infinity and its community for the entertainment of users. Daly is typically seen in the shadow of the co-founder of the company, the charismatic James Walton. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Daly possesses a personal modification of the Infinity game program, where he is able to upload sentient digital clones of his co-workers to take out his frustrations upon. In this narrative, Nannette Cole becomes his newest victim after her DNA is used to draw her into the virtual reality. After Daly’s sexist and violent treatment of her and the other crewmates, Nannette inspires a mutiny to escape Daly’s world. In order to help the team carry out the plan, she seduces Daly as a distraction.
- Kinolab
- 2017
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- 9 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Virtual Vindictiveness and Simulated Clones Part II: Daly and Cole
Robert Daly is a programmer at the company Callister, which developed the immersive virtual reality game Infinity and its community for the entertainment of users. Daly is typically seen in the shadow of the co-founder of the company, the charismatic James Walton. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Daly possesses a personal modification of the Infinity game program, where he is able to upload sentient digital clones of his co-workers to take out his frustrations upon. In this narrative, Nannette Cole becomes his newest victim after her DNA is used to draw her into the virtual reality. After Daly’s sexist and violent treatment of her and the other crewmates, Nannette inspires a mutiny to escape Daly’s world. In order to help the team carry out the plan, she seduces Daly as a distraction.
What should the ethical boundaries be in terms of creating digital copies of real-life people to manipulate in virtual realities? How would this alter the perception of autonomy or entitlement? Should the capability to create exact digital likenesses of real people be created for any reason? If so, how should their autonomy be ensured, since they are technically a piece of programming? How can bias, and more specifically the objectification of women, be eliminated in such conceptualisations? Are digital copies of a person entitled to the same rights that their corporeal selves have?
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- 6 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Robert Daly is a programmer at the company Callister, which developed the immersive virtual reality game Infinity and its community for the entertainment of users. Daly is typically seen in the shadow of the co-founder of the company, the charismatic James Walton. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Daly possesses a personal modification of the Infinity game program, where he is able to upload sentient digital clones of his co-workers to take out his frustrations upon, as he does with Walton in this narrative.
- Kinolab
- 2017
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- 6 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Virtual Vindictiveness and Simulated Clones Part I: Daly and Walton
Robert Daly is a programmer at the company Callister, which developed the immersive virtual reality game Infinity and its community for the entertainment of users. Daly is typically seen in the shadow of the co-founder of the company, the charismatic James Walton. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Daly possesses a personal modification of the Infinity game program, where he is able to upload sentient digital clones of his co-workers to take out his frustrations upon, as he does with Walton in this narrative.
What should the ethical boundaries be in terms of creating digital copies of real-life people to manipulate in virtual realities? How would this alter the perception of autonomy or entitlement? Should the capability to create exact digital likenesses of real people be created for any reason? If so, how should their autonomy be ensured, since they are technically a piece of programming? Are digital copies of a person entitled to the same rights that their corporeal selves have?
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- 11 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
Detectives Karin Parke and Blue Coulson work together to put an end to the series of mysterious murders perpetrated by the #DeathTo trend on social media. In this “Game of Consequences,” the person most mentioned under this hashtag each day becomes the target of ADIs, government drones shaped like bees, to track down and kill. This trend was spurred by bots on social media, drawing many people into participation, and a sole hacker was responsible both for the bots and for the abuse of the drones. After the detectives fail to protect one victim of the #DeathTo trend, they attempt to shut down the malware, but instead discover a large data mine and unleash a much more massive danger.
- Kinolab
- 2016
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- 11 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
Hacked Drones and Targeting Citizens
Detectives Karin Parke and Blue Coulson work together to put an end to the series of mysterious murders perpetrated by the #DeathTo trend on social media. In this “Game of Consequences,” the person most mentioned under this hashtag each day becomes the target of ADIs, government drones shaped like bees, to track down and kill. This trend was spurred by bots on social media, drawing many people into participation, and a sole hacker was responsible both for the bots and for the abuse of the drones. After the detectives fail to protect one victim of the #DeathTo trend, they attempt to shut down the malware, but instead discover a large data mine and unleash a much more massive danger.
Can the “unreal” nature of digital platform ever truly remove harmful intent from inflammatory words or statements? How should “free speech” be regulated on platforms where not everything can be taken literally? How can the information available about a person through their social media use be abused to make them targets? Should the government use cutting-edge digital technology if there is even the slightest chance that it can be abused? Are there requisite consequences to showing a lack of empathy toward others on digital platforms?
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- 8 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
In this extreme imagination of social media, detectives Karin Parke and Blue Coulson try to discover the correlation between two recent deaths. They first interrogate a teacher who posted “#DeathTo @JoPowersWriter” along with a photo of controversial journalist Jo Powers on the day before Jo was found dead. The teacher discusses the popularity of this message and the hashtag, sharing that an entire online community split the cost of sending Jo a hateful message on a cake. Later on, the detectives discover that these deaths were determined by bots and the trending of the #DeathTo, and that whichever name had the most hits under this hashtag were hunted down and killed by a mysterious force.
- Kinolab
- 2016
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- 8 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
Social Media Trends and Hive Mind Justice
In this extreme imagination of social media, detectives Karin Parke and Blue Coulson try to discover the correlation between two recent deaths. They first interrogate a teacher who posted “#DeathTo @JoPowersWriter” along with a photo of controversial journalist Jo Powers on the day before Jo was found dead. The teacher discusses the popularity of this message and the hashtag, sharing that an entire online community split the cost of sending Jo a hateful message on a cake. Later on, the detectives discover that these deaths were determined by bots and the trending of the #DeathTo, and that whichever name had the most hits under this hashtag were hunted down and killed by a mysterious force.
How does this relate to the phenomenon of “cancel culture” in the real world? How can buzzwords commonly used online translate poorly into real life? How can digital social media be re-imagined so that users are less susceptible to “trends” started by bots? Is there a possibility that social media might give too much power or too high of a platform to the general population?