Stories exploring general ethical issues not directly related to technologies
Fundamental Ethics (13)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 8 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish woman, ended up in the utopic afterlife The Good Place by mistake after her death. She spins an elaborate web of lies to ensure that she is not sent to be tortured in The Bad Place. In this narrative, she attempts to prevent Michael, the ruler of The Good Place, from being sent to the torture chambers by murdering Janet, the robotic assistant of the good place. However, Eleanor and her companions have a harder time murdering Janet than they had prepared for thanks to her quite realistic begging for her life.
- Kinolab
- 2016
Murder of Robots and Honesty
Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish woman, ended up in the utopic afterlife The Good Place by mistake after her death. She spins an elaborate web of lies to ensure that she is not sent to be tortured in The Bad Place. In this narrative, she attempts to prevent Michael, the ruler of The Good Place, from being sent to the torture chambers by murdering Janet, the robotic assistant of the good place. However, Eleanor and her companions have a harder time murdering Janet than they had prepared for thanks to her quite realistic begging for her life.
How can robots be programmed to manipulate emotional responses from humans? Is the act committed in this narrative “murder”? Is there ever any such thing as a victimless lie? How has true honesty become harder in the digital age? Is it ethical to decommission older versions of humanoid robots as newer ones come along? Is this evolution in its own right?
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish woman, ended up in the utopic afterlife The Good Place by mistake after her death. She spins an elaborate web of lies to ensure that she is not sent to be tortured in The Bad Place. In this narrative, her friend and ethics teacher, Chidi, teaches her about the ethical concepts of utilitarianism, or providing for as much net good impact as possible, and contractualism, or reciprocally upholding promises. For more overall context on the plotting of the series, see the Wikipedia page for Season One: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Place_(season_1).
- Kinolab
- 2016
Utilitarianism and Contractualism
Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish woman, ended up in the utopic afterlife The Good Place by mistake after her death. She spins an elaborate web of lies to ensure that she is not sent to be tortured in The Bad Place. In this narrative, her friend and ethics teacher, Chidi, teaches her about the ethical concepts of utilitarianism, or providing for as much net good impact as possible, and contractualism, or reciprocally upholding promises. For more overall context on the plotting of the series, see the Wikipedia page for Season One: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Place_(season_1).
How can and should technology companies uphold the principles of utilitarianism and contractualism in the creation of new technologies and their overall interactions with society? Do technology companies have enough positive impacts to compensate for their negative impacts? What do technology companies owe to society at large, in terms of advancement and social justice? Should technology and social media companies focus solely on “having fun,” or do they have a responsibility to engage in more social entrepreneurship and equity goals?
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- 3 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish woman, ended up in the utopic afterlife The Good Place by mistake after her death. She spins an elaborate web of lies to ensure that she is not sent to be tortured in The Bad Place. In this narrative, her friend and ethics teacher, Chidi, teaches her about the ethical concept of moral character, in which a person controls the good actions that ultimately make them a good person. He implores Eleanor to practice this in building a friendship with Tahani, a pretentious neighbor who Eleanor takes for fake and shallow.
- Kinolab
- 2016
Moral Character, Genuineness, and Appearances
Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish woman, ended up in the utopic afterlife The Good Place by mistake after her death. She spins an elaborate web of lies to ensure that she is not sent to be tortured in The Bad Place. In this narrative, her friend and ethics teacher, Chidi, teaches her about the ethical concept of moral character, in which a person controls the good actions that ultimately make them a good person. He implores Eleanor to practice this in building a friendship with Tahani, a pretentious neighbor who Eleanor takes for fake and shallow.
Does moral virtue stem from your actions or your intentions? How do the main intentions behind certain digital technologies, for example social networks, compare and contrast with their actions and impacts? How do digital communication channels encourage a certain level of falseness or shallowness? Do digital technologies make it easier to do good in the world?
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- 9 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish woman, ended up in the utopic afterlife The Good Place by mistake after her death. She spins an elaborate web of lies to ensure that she is not sent to be tortured in The Bad Place. In this narrative, the demons of the Bad Place try to wrest Eleanor’s soul away from the Good Place by convincing her that this is where she truly belongs. This resonates with Eleanor, who was always a lone wolf and never found a community of people who she liked. Ultimately, though, she fights to stay in the Good Place because of the fondness she has for the community of people who she knows there.
- Kinolab
- 2016
Community and Belonging
Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish woman, ended up in the utopic afterlife The Good Place by mistake after her death. She spins an elaborate web of lies to ensure that she is not sent to be tortured in The Bad Place. In this narrative, the demons of the Bad Place try to wrest Eleanor’s soul away from the Good Place by convincing her that this is where she truly belongs. This resonates with Eleanor, who was always a lone wolf and never found a community of people who she liked. Ultimately, though, she fights to stay in the Good Place because of the fondness she has for the community of people who she knows there.
Can our desire to be better outweigh our past actions? How do digital technologies help people find communities where they feel they belong? Does the intention to improve as a person matter just as much as actually improving as a person?
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- 3 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish woman, ended up in the utopic afterlife The Good Place by mistake after her death. She spins an elaborate web of lies to ensure that she is not sent to be tortured in The Bad Place. In this narrative, she tracks her personal ethical point total with a technology which is compared to a Fitbit. In theory, the more good actions she completes, the higher her score will get. For another narrative on personal ratings/point tracking, see the narratives “Lacie Parts I and II” on the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive.”
- Kinolab
- 2017
Personal Statistics Tracking
Eleanor Shellstrop, a deceased selfish woman, ended up in the utopic afterlife The Good Place by mistake after her death. She spins an elaborate web of lies to ensure that she is not sent to be tortured in The Bad Place. In this narrative, she tracks her personal ethical point total with a technology which is compared to a Fitbit. In theory, the more good actions she completes, the higher her score will get. For another narrative on personal ratings/point tracking, see the narratives “Lacie Parts I and II” on the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive.”
Do corrupt motivations spoil moral deeds? Should digital technologies be used to track personal data that is more abstract that health statistics or number of steps taken? What would be the consequences if such ratings were public?
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- 6 min
- Kinolab
- 2019
Eleanor Shellstrop runs a fake afterlife, in which she conducts an experiment to prove that humans with low ethical sensibility can improve themselves. One of the subjects, Simone, is in deep denial upon arriving in this afterlife, and does as she pleases after convincing herself that nothing is real. Elsewhere, another conductor of the experiment, Jason, kills a robot which has been taunting him since the advent of the experiment.
- Kinolab
- 2019
Resisting Realities and Robotic Murder
Eleanor Shellstrop runs a fake afterlife, in which she conducts an experiment to prove that humans with low ethical sensibility can improve themselves. One of the subjects, Simone, is in deep denial upon arriving in this afterlife, and does as she pleases after convincing herself that nothing is real. Elsewhere, another conductor of the experiment, Jason, kills a robot which has been taunting him since the advent of the experiment.
What are the pros and cons of solipsism as a philosophy? Does it pose a danger of making us act immorally? How can we apply the risk of solipsism to technology such as virtual reality– a space where we know nothing is real except our own feelings and perceptions. Should virtual reality have ethical rules to prevent solipsism from brewing in it? Could that leak into our daily lives as well?
Is it ethical for humans to kill AI beings in fits of negative emotions, such as jealousy? Should this be able to happen on a whim? Should humans have total control of whether AI beings live or die?