Professional Responsibility (52)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 6 min
- Kinolab
- 2014
In this episode, Matt and Joe Potter, who inhabit the same cabin, tell each other short stories from their lives. Eventually, Joe Potter reveals that he killed his former father in law, and shortly after became responsible for the murdered man’s granddaughter freezing to death in the snow. Once he confesses this crime, it is revealed that Joe Potter is actually a digital consciousness trapped inside a virtual reality manipulated by Matt, designed in order to get his murder confession. Now having given a clear confession, his digital consciousness is sentenced to live inside a virtual reality, existing in nothingness for thousands of years.
- Kinolab
- 2014
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- 6 min
- Kinolab
- 2014
Digital Interrogation and Torture Methods
In this episode, Matt and Joe Potter, who inhabit the same cabin, tell each other short stories from their lives. Eventually, Joe Potter reveals that he killed his former father in law, and shortly after became responsible for the murdered man’s granddaughter freezing to death in the snow. Once he confesses this crime, it is revealed that Joe Potter is actually a digital consciousness trapped inside a virtual reality manipulated by Matt, designed in order to get his murder confession. Now having given a clear confession, his digital consciousness is sentenced to live inside a virtual reality, existing in nothingness for thousands of years.
How can virtual reality be abused? If law enforcement come to use virtual reality as an interrogation technique, what should the rules and regulations be? Is it ethical to administer such interrogation or torture techniques unknowingly on any criminal, no matter how egregious their crime?
Black Mirror: Potter's Confession-
- 13 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
In this episode, Victoria wakes up with no memory of who she is in a post-apocalyptic scenario. She is chased and hunted by weapon-toting masked people, and gets no help from the bystanders who record her horrific struggle for survival on their smartphones. Eventually, it is revealed that this scenario is an engineered reality. While the digital technologies present here are limited, this narrative stands as an effective metaphor to study the phenomenon of “cancel culture” and other ways in which digital technologies alienate the humanity of others.
- Kinolab
- 2013
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- 13 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
Fascination and Desensitization through Digital Technologies
In this episode, Victoria wakes up with no memory of who she is in a post-apocalyptic scenario. She is chased and hunted by weapon-toting masked people, and gets no help from the bystanders who record her horrific struggle for survival on their smartphones. Eventually, it is revealed that this scenario is an engineered reality. While the digital technologies present here are limited, this narrative stands as an effective metaphor to study the phenomenon of “cancel culture” and other ways in which digital technologies alienate the humanity of others.
Do smartphones and their recording capabilities make people less sensitive to events or phenomena which they capture? How do digital news channels or platforms sensationalize bad people, especially criminals or other wrong-doers, and inspire collective hatred? How can digital technologies be designed to be more empathetic? Why is it so easy to criticize others over digital channels?
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- 8 min
- Kinolab
- 2019
Chris is a ride-share driver who has taken passenger Jaden hostage, with the conditions of release being that he is connected with Billy Bauer, the CEO of social media company Smithereen, for a conversation. While the London police attempt to deal with the situation through negotiation, the management team at Smithereen uses several data mining techniques, including analysis of Chris’s various social media pages and audio data streaming from his device, to provide the police with a valuable and complete profile on Chris.
- Kinolab
- 2019
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- 8 min
- Kinolab
- 2019
Social Media Data and Cooperation with Law Enforcement
Chris is a ride-share driver who has taken passenger Jaden hostage, with the conditions of release being that he is connected with Billy Bauer, the CEO of social media company Smithereen, for a conversation. While the London police attempt to deal with the situation through negotiation, the management team at Smithereen uses several data mining techniques, including analysis of Chris’s various social media pages and audio data streaming from his device, to provide the police with a valuable and complete profile on Chris.
Are things said on social media fair game for law enforcement to use against a person? Does this include data that a user might not even know a company has gathered on them? How might “abstractions” of a user formed by a social media company be misused to make a bad judgement about a person? Should social media information and profiles of users made by companies be used in attempts to stop crime or criminals before any wrongdoings are committed? What are the dangers of big data companies having a close relationship with law enforcement?
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- 12 min
- Kiniolab
- 1968
In the opening of the film, the viewpoint jumps from the earliest hominids learning how to use the first tools to survive and thrive in the prehistoric era to the age of space travel in an imagined version of the year 2001. In both cases, the scientific innovation surrounds a mysterious, unmarked monolith.
- Kiniolab
- 1968
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- 12 min
- Kiniolab
- 1968
The Duality of Tools and Runaway Innovation
In the opening of the film, the viewpoint jumps from the earliest hominids learning how to use the first tools to survive and thrive in the prehistoric era to the age of space travel in an imagined version of the year 2001. In both cases, the scientific innovation surrounds a mysterious, unmarked monolith.
How can the most basic of innovations grow to unexpected heights in the span of many years? Could the inventors of the first computers have imagined the modern internet? How can and should innovation be controlled? Is it worth trying to predict what consequences innovation will have millions of years from now? Should the potential positive and negative impacts of certain tools, including digital ones, be thoroughly considered before being put to use, even if their convenience seems to outweigh negative consequences?
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- 13 min
- Kinolab
- 2018
Cassius “Cash” Green, once a telemarketer, has now moved up into the upper echelons of WorryFree, a dangerous and controversial corporation which is revealed to be undertaking genetic experiments on humans with the goal of creating a more productive labor force. Once Cash exposes this monstrosity to the world, he finds that society has a positive reaction, opposite to what he expected, and thus undertakes a protest against the corporation. Although this hypothetical scenario is highly fantastical, the metaphor is nonetheless apt for describing late-stage capitalism in America.
- Kinolab
- 2018
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- 13 min
- Kinolab
- 2018
Building a Better Worker
Cassius “Cash” Green, once a telemarketer, has now moved up into the upper echelons of WorryFree, a dangerous and controversial corporation which is revealed to be undertaking genetic experiments on humans with the goal of creating a more productive labor force. Once Cash exposes this monstrosity to the world, he finds that society has a positive reaction, opposite to what he expected, and thus undertakes a protest against the corporation. Although this hypothetical scenario is highly fantastical, the metaphor is nonetheless apt for describing late-stage capitalism in America.
With advances in computational genomics, how can it be ensured that humans are not used in experiments which fundamentally alter their genomes, especially when it comes to protecting workers already exploited by corporations? How has the increase in automation raised the bar for what a productive workforce looks like? How has the digitization of channels such as news media and the stock market altered the landscape of economic perception and expectations?
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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
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- 8 min
- 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?