All Narratives (312)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 14 min
- Kinolab
- 2014
Brandy and Tim are two teens who attempt to live normal lives through interacting with their peers through social media platforms. For Brandy, this means using a secret Tumblr account to express herself, since her mother has passwords to all her other accounts and is able to constantly collect data from her daughter’s devices. Tim finds similar comfort in chatting with anonymous friends in an online game chat room. Tim and Brandy’s developing relationship is threatened once both of their parents overstep and violate their children’s privacy and trust.
- Kinolab
- 2014
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- 14 min
- Kinolab
- 2014
Interaction Records and Privacy from Parents
Brandy and Tim are two teens who attempt to live normal lives through interacting with their peers through social media platforms. For Brandy, this means using a secret Tumblr account to express herself, since her mother has passwords to all her other accounts and is able to constantly collect data from her daughter’s devices. Tim finds similar comfort in chatting with anonymous friends in an online game chat room. Tim and Brandy’s developing relationship is threatened once both of their parents overstep and violate their children’s privacy and trust.
Since social media and smartphones can contain complete records of interactions between people, how can parents intervene in their children’s social lives more thoroughly in the digital age? Is letting teenagers have complete control over their social media use and privacy part of letting them be children in the digital age? How do digital chat rooms make it difficult to verify the true identity of those with whom people interact? How does this anonymity allow people to act differently than they might in real life? Is digital addiction a true problem, or is this simply the truth of social life in the digital age?
Men, Women and Children: Let Me See Your Phone-
- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Downsizing, the procedure which shrinks people down to only a few inches, is invented to combat environmental harm by producing less waste.
- Kinolab
- 2017
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Thought Experiment in Technological Environmentalism
Downsizing, the procedure which shrinks people down to only a few inches, is invented to combat environmental harm by producing less waste.
Should the technology to edit humans be created and used if it means saving the planet? How would consent factor into this? Are there any other workable technologies for aiding the environment through means such as ameliorating climate change? Should technological innovation be directed toward first identifying problems and then encompassing the most radical solution possible?
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- 5 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
Actress Robin Wright plays a fictionalized version of herself who traverses through both the real world and the mixed reality of Abrahama city in this narrative. As Miramount Studio animator Dylan explains to her, the rules of the mixed reality allow people to appear as an avatar which they please, editing their human features into more imaginative ones. With this capability, many people choose to remain in the mixed reality permanently, leaving the real world in a grim stupor.
- Kinolab
- 2013
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- 5 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
Removed from Reality
Actress Robin Wright plays a fictionalized version of herself who traverses through both the real world and the mixed reality of Abrahama city in this narrative. As Miramount Studio animator Dylan explains to her, the rules of the mixed reality allow people to appear as an avatar which they please, editing their human features into more imaginative ones. With this capability, many people choose to remain in the mixed reality permanently, leaving the real world in a grim stupor.
Who has a responsibility to ensure that mixed and virtual realities are not tantalizing enough to absolve humans from the responsibility for caring for the real world? How can addiction to digital realities be ameliorated? What issues of identity and presentation to others arise from the capability to appear however one pleases? How is this empowering, and how is this dangerous?
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- 3 min
- Kinolab
- 2009
In a distant future after the “Water War” in which much of the natural environment was destroyed and water has become scarce, Asha works as a curator at a museum which displays the former splendor of nature on Earth. She receives a mysterious soil sample which, after digital analysis using a object recognition to take data from the soil, surprisingly contains water.
- Kinolab
- 2009
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- 3 min
- Kinolab
- 2009
Digital Environment Analysis
In a distant future after the “Water War” in which much of the natural environment was destroyed and water has become scarce, Asha works as a curator at a museum which displays the former splendor of nature on Earth. She receives a mysterious soil sample which, after digital analysis using a object recognition to take data from the soil, surprisingly contains water.
How can technology be used to gather data on certain environments and aspects of an ecosystem to help them reach their full potential? How should this technology be made accessible to communities all across the world?
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- 9 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
In the world of this film, Robin Wright plays a fictional version of herself who has allowed herself to be digitized by the film company Miramount Studios in order to be entered into many films without having to actually act in them, becoming digitally immortal in a sense. Once she enters a hallucinogenic mixed reality known as Abrahama City, she agrees to renew the contract with Miramount studios under the panic of her declining mental health and sense of autonomy. This renewed contract will not only allow movies starring her digital likeness to be made, but will also allow people to appear as her.
- Kinolab
- 2013
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- 9 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
Dangers of Digital Commodification
In the world of this film, Robin Wright plays a fictional version of herself who has allowed herself to be digitized by the film company Miramount Studios in order to be entered into many films without having to actually act in them, becoming digitally immortal in a sense. Once she enters a hallucinogenic mixed reality known as Abrahama City, she agrees to renew the contract with Miramount studios under the panic of her declining mental health and sense of autonomy. This renewed contract will not only allow movies starring her digital likeness to be made, but will also allow people to appear as her.
When mixed realities make any sort of appearance possible, how do people keep agency over their own likenesses and identities? How can engineers ensure that common human fears, including the fear of aging, do not drive innovations that will ultimately do more harm than good? Should anyone be allowed to give consent for their likeness to be used in any way the new owner sees fit, given how easily people can be coerced, manipulated, or gaslit? How could economic imbalances be further entrenched or established if certain people are allowed to sell their identities or likenesses?
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
In this film, actress Robin Wright plays a fictionalized version of herself as an actress whose popularity is declining. Her agent Al exposes her to deep fake technology which creates a virtual version of an actor to play a role in any number of scenarios or films. These “actors” are 3D holographs with AI that have been trained to replicate the real person which they imitate. However, Robin is disconcerted with the lack of agency that she would have in deciding how her image and identity appeared in these movies.
- Kinolab
- 2013
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
Digital Performers and the Gift of Choice
In this film, actress Robin Wright plays a fictionalized version of herself as an actress whose popularity is declining. Her agent Al exposes her to deep fake technology which creates a virtual version of an actor to play a role in any number of scenarios or films. These “actors” are 3D holographs with AI that have been trained to replicate the real person which they imitate. However, Robin is disconcerted with the lack of agency that she would have in deciding how her image and identity appeared in these movies.
What sorts of problems are implicated with the ability to manipulate another person’s body and likeness in a piece of media without their consent? Does technology like this actually have the potential to free actors from some of the constraints of the film industry, as Al says? How would acting be valued as an art, and actors paid accordingly and properly, if this technology became the norm?