The disruption of markets and economies due to robots and automation.
Technology Based Economic Disruption (12)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 11 min
- Kinolab
- 1982
Roy Batty is a rogue humanoid android, known as a “replicant,” who escaped his position as an unpaid laborer in a space colony and now lives among humans on Earth. After discovering that he only has a lifespan of four years, Roy breaks into the penthouse of his creator Eldon Tyrell and implores him to find a way to prolong his life. After Tyrell refuses and lauds Roy’s advanced design, Roy kills Tyrell, despite seeing him as a sort of father figure. After fleeing from the penthouse, he is found by android bounty hunter Rick Deckard, who proceeds to chase him across the rooftops. After a short confrontation with Deckard, Roy delivers a monologue explaining his sorry state of affairs.
- Kinolab
- 1982
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- 11 min
- Kinolab
- 1982
Meaning and Duration of Android Lives
Roy Batty is a rogue humanoid android, known as a “replicant,” who escaped his position as an unpaid laborer in a space colony and now lives among humans on Earth. After discovering that he only has a lifespan of four years, Roy breaks into the penthouse of his creator Eldon Tyrell and implores him to find a way to prolong his life. After Tyrell refuses and lauds Roy’s advanced design, Roy kills Tyrell, despite seeing him as a sort of father figure. After fleeing from the penthouse, he is found by android bounty hunter Rick Deckard, who proceeds to chase him across the rooftops. After a short confrontation with Deckard, Roy delivers a monologue explaining his sorry state of affairs.
Discussion Prompts:
Should robots who are modeled to act like real humans be given a predetermined, short lifespan? Should robots who are modeled to act like real humans ever be expected to complete uncompensated work? How should creators of robots give their creations the opportunity to make meaning of their lives? Who is ultimately responsible to “parent” a sentient AI?
Blade Runner: Roy Confronts His Father-
- 2 min
- Kinolab
- 2019
In an imagined future of London, citizens all across the globe are connected to the Feed, a device and network accessed constantly through a brain-computer interface. In this clip, Meredith must seek help from the leader of a developing country without the Feed network, because the Feed has become hacked and is bringing down infrastructure with it.
- Kinolab
- 2019
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- 2 min
- Kinolab
- 2019
Technological Superhighways and Monopolistic Control
In an imagined future of London, citizens all across the globe are connected to the Feed, a device and network accessed constantly through a brain-computer interface. In this clip, Meredith must seek help from the leader of a developing country without the Feed network, because the Feed has become hacked and is bringing down infrastructure with it.
Discussion Prompts:
How integrated should our advanced technology be into our daily lives and basic amenities? Does it pose risks if the tech is hacked? What risks exist with technology monopolization, besides economic inequality? Should nearly all service be reliant on a small number of platforms with highly centralized control? Is the developing country of COM better off now because it never had the technology to begin with, and is therefore uncorrupted now?
Movie Title:
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2008
Under threat of eviction, Luz must find a quick way to make some money to pay rent. Thankfully, through the company TruNode, she can digitize her memories and sell them on the internet for anyone who may wish to access and stream them. While this seems convenient, the downsides are shown when the repository of her memories are used to help ruthless drone pilot Rudy Ramirez hunt down an innocent laborer who is a supposedly dangerous criminal. After Luz reveals this means of making money to Memo, the aforementioned innocent laborer, he is less than enthused with the system.
- Kinolab
- 2008
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2008
Selling Digitized Memories
Under threat of eviction, Luz must find a quick way to make some money to pay rent. Thankfully, through the company TruNode, she can digitize her memories and sell them on the internet for anyone who may wish to access and stream them. While this seems convenient, the downsides are shown when the repository of her memories are used to help ruthless drone pilot Rudy Ramirez hunt down an innocent laborer who is a supposedly dangerous criminal. After Luz reveals this means of making money to Memo, the aforementioned innocent laborer, he is less than enthused with the system.
Discussion Prompts:
How can the high cost of very personal data and digital memories be both empowering in the right circumstances and disempowering in the wrong ones? What if people were able to sell all of their personal data, as is shown here? Is the complete digitization of memory a positive concept or a negative one? How can data or memory be purchased for nefarious purposes? How can people be unintentionally harmed by this system? Can the emotions of memories ever be paired well with a digital interface?
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- 14 min
- Kinolab
- 2008
After his family home is destroyed and his father is killed, Memo must become a part of the global economy. He is expected to do this at the Sleep Dealer Factory, where citizens of Mexico who are implanted with “nodes” connect to a brain-computer interface which they use to remotely control robots in the United States. This was meant to be a solution to the “migrant problem” to the United States in this imagined future, allowing the United States to contract labor from immigrants without actually having people cross the border. However, the wages payed by the Sleep Dealers for the exhaustive labor are incredibly low, thus most laborers there live in unlivable conditions. The technology is shown to not only be exhausting due to the menial labor, but also dangerous if someone is connected during a short-circuit.
- Kinolab
- 2008
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- 14 min
- Kinolab
- 2008
Networked Laborers and Remote Workforces
After his family home is destroyed and his father is killed, Memo must become a part of the global economy. He is expected to do this at the Sleep Dealer Factory, where citizens of Mexico who are implanted with “nodes” connect to a brain-computer interface which they use to remotely control robots in the United States. This was meant to be a solution to the “migrant problem” to the United States in this imagined future, allowing the United States to contract labor from immigrants without actually having people cross the border. However, the wages payed by the Sleep Dealers for the exhaustive labor are incredibly low, thus most laborers there live in unlivable conditions. The technology is shown to not only be exhausting due to the menial labor, but also dangerous if someone is connected during a short-circuit.
Discussion Prompts:
How could technology theoretically exacerbate the gross xenophobia displayed toward Mexican immigrants in the United States? How does automation lower the value of labor, causing harm to those communities who need jobs? How can automation and robots be used to avoid putting workers in dangerous scenarios? Could a system using the technologies displayed in this narrative ever be designed to be truly fair?
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- 30 min
- UNIVERSITY OF WÜRZBURG GRADUATE SCHOOLS
- 1982
Hardware specialist Automatic Jack is roped into a dangerous hacking scheme with his partner Bobby Quine while they compete for the affections of Rikki. Their plan is to use deadly malware to infiltrate the protections of Chrome, a mysterious overlord of cyberspace who hoards massive amounts of wealth. They enact this plan by entering cyberspace within a program and visualizing the data held within this digital network which connects people all across the globe.
- UNIVERSITY OF WÜRZBURG GRADUATE SCHOOLS
- 1982
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- 30 min
- UNIVERSITY OF WÜRZBURG GRADUATE SCHOOLS
- 1982
Cyberspace and Internet Imaginations: “Burning Chrome” by William Gibson
Hardware specialist Automatic Jack is roped into a dangerous hacking scheme with his partner Bobby Quine while they compete for the affections of Rikki. Their plan is to use deadly malware to infiltrate the protections of Chrome, a mysterious overlord of cyberspace who hoards massive amounts of wealth. They enact this plan by entering cyberspace within a program and visualizing the data held within this digital network which connects people all across the globe.
Discussion Prompts:
How can malware be used for good, and when should it be used for good? How do imaginations of the internet influence how people perceive this mysterious yet pervasive network? In what ways would making aspects of the internet into tangible images help people understand it better? How should the most powerful stakeholders in a given digital architecture be challenged? How might immersion into cyberspace give people more agency?
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- 5 min
- Gizmodo
- 2021
Thorough investigation led to the conclusion that bots played a role in the economic disruption of GameStop stocks in early 2021. Essentially, the automated accounts aided in the diffusion of materials promoting the purchase and maintenance of GameStop stocks as a ploy to act as a check on wealthy hedge fund managers who bet that the stock would crash. The wholistic effect of these bots in this specific campaign, and thus a measure of how bots may generally be used to cause economic disruption in online markets through interaction with humans, remains hard to read.
- Gizmodo
- 2021
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- 5 min
- Gizmodo
- 2021
Bots Reportedly Helped Fuel GameStonks Hype on Facebook, Twitter, and Other Platforms
Thorough investigation led to the conclusion that bots played a role in the economic disruption of GameStop stocks in early 2021. Essentially, the automated accounts aided in the diffusion of materials promoting the purchase and maintenance of GameStop stocks as a ploy to act as a check on wealthy hedge fund managers who bet that the stock would crash. The wholistic effect of these bots in this specific campaign, and thus a measure of how bots may generally be used to cause economic disruption in online markets through interaction with humans, remains hard to read.
Discussion Prompts:
Do you consider this case study, and the use of the bots, to be “activism”? How can this case study be summarized into a general principle for how bots may manipulate the economy? How do digital technologies help both wealth and non-wealthy people serve their own interests?