Bioinformatics (84)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 7 min
- Slate
- 2019
Discussion of Facebook’s massive collection of human faces and their potential impact on society.
- Slate
- 2019
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- 7 min
- Slate
- 2019
Facebook’s Face-ID Database Could Be the Biggest in the World. Yes, It Should Worry Us.
Discussion of Facebook’s massive collection of human faces and their potential impact on society.
Is Facebook’s facial recognition database benign, or a slow-bubbling volcano?
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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
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.
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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- 7 min
- Wired
- 2020
After student members of the University of Miami Employee Student Alliance held a protest on campus, the University of Miami Police Department likely used facial recognition technology in conjunction with video surveillance cameras to track down nine students from the protest and summon them to a meeting with the dean. This incident provided a gateway into the discussion of fairness of facial recognition programs, and how students believe that they should not be deployed on college campuses.
- Wired
- 2020
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- 7 min
- Wired
- 2020
Facial Recognition Applications on College Campuses
After student members of the University of Miami Employee Student Alliance held a protest on campus, the University of Miami Police Department likely used facial recognition technology in conjunction with video surveillance cameras to track down nine students from the protest and summon them to a meeting with the dean. This incident provided a gateway into the discussion of fairness of facial recognition programs, and how students believe that they should not be deployed on college campuses.
How can facial recognition algorithms interfere with the right of people to protest? When it comes to facial recognition databases, are larger photo repositories better or worse? Does facial recognition and video surveillance have a place on college campuses? How does facial recognition and video surveillance embolden people in power in general?
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- 12 min
- Kinolab
- 1973
Simulacron is a virtual reality full of 10,000 simulated humans who believe themselves to be sentient, but are actually nothing more than programs. The identity units in Simulacron do not know or understand that they are artificial beings, and they behave under the idea that they are real humans. “Real” humans can enter this virtual reality through a brain-computer interface, and control the virtual identity units. Christopher Nobody, a suspect whom Fred is trying to track down, had the revelation that he was an identity unit, and that realization led to a mental breakdown. In following this case, Fred meets Einstein, a virtual unit who desires to join the real world. As Einstein enacts the final stages of this plan, Fred discovers a shocking secret about his own identity. For a similar concept, see the narrative “Online Dating Algorithms” on the Hang the DJ episode of Black Mirror.
- Kinolab
- 1973
Simulated Humans and Virtual Realities
Simulacron is a virtual reality full of 10,000 simulated humans who believe themselves to be sentient, but are actually nothing more than programs. The identity units in Simulacron do not know or understand that they are artificial beings, and they behave under the idea that they are real humans. “Real” humans can enter this virtual reality through a brain-computer interface, and control the virtual identity units. Christopher Nobody, a suspect whom Fred is trying to track down, had the revelation that he was an identity unit, and that realization led to a mental breakdown. In following this case, Fred meets Einstein, a virtual unit who desires to join the real world. As Einstein enacts the final stages of this plan, Fred discovers a shocking secret about his own identity. For a similar concept, see the narrative “Online Dating Algorithms” on the Hang the DJ episode of Black Mirror.
What purposes can virtual reality “laboratories” full of simulated humans serve in terms of research in fields such as sociology? Is it justifiable to make programs which believe themselves to be sentient humans, yet deny them access to the “real world”? How can AI mental health be reassured, especially when it comes to existential crises like the one Fred has?
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- 9 min
- Kinolab
- 1995
In this world, a human consciousness (“ghost”) can inhabit an artificial body (“shell”), thus at once becoming edited humans in a somewhat robotic body. The Puppet Master, a notorious villain in this world, is revealed not to be a human hacker, but a computer program which has gained sentience and gone on to hack the captured shell. It challenges the law enforcement officials of Section 6 and Section 9 saying that it is a life-form and not an AI. It argues that its existence as a self-sustaining program which has achieved singularity is not different from human DNA as a “self-sustaining program.” The Puppet Master specifically references reproduction/offspring, not copying, as a distinguishing feature of living things as opposed to nonliving things. Additionally, it developed emotional connection with Major which led it to select her as a candidate for merging. It references how it can die but live on through the merging and, after Major’s death, in the internet.
- Kinolab
- 1995
Self-Sustaining Programs
In this world, a human consciousness (“ghost”) can inhabit an artificial body (“shell”), thus at once becoming edited humans in a somewhat robotic body. The Puppet Master, a notorious villain in this world, is revealed not to be a human hacker, but a computer program which has gained sentience and gone on to hack the captured shell. It challenges the law enforcement officials of Section 6 and Section 9 saying that it is a life-form and not an AI. It argues that its existence as a self-sustaining program which has achieved singularity is not different from human DNA as a “self-sustaining program.” The Puppet Master specifically references reproduction/offspring, not copying, as a distinguishing feature of living things as opposed to nonliving things. Additionally, it developed emotional connection with Major which led it to select her as a candidate for merging. It references how it can die but live on through the merging and, after Major’s death, in the internet.
Do you agree with the puppet master’s arguments that self-sustaining programs are conceptually the same as human DNA? Why or why not? Has the externalisation of memory made it far more possible for robots to achieve singularity and exist as human-like figures in the world? Is memory the sole feature that helps humans build their identities? List all the comparisons made in this narrative between self-sustaining programs and human genetics and existence.
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- 4 min
- Kinolab
- 1995
In this world, a human consciousness (“ghost”) can inhabit an artificial body (“shell”), thus at once becoming edited humans in a somewhat robotic body. Major, a security officer, sees how a garbage man is sad to know that his ghost has been hacked and filled with false memories of a family, and dives to set up her own reflections with self-identity developed later in the film, especially as she starts to believe that she may be entirely a cyborg with no knowledge of such an existence. Essentially, because the human body has become so thoroughly and regularly augmented with cybernetic parts and even computer brains, defining a real “human” becomes harder and harder.
- Kinolab
- 1995
Identity Through Memory and Data
In this world, a human consciousness (“ghost”) can inhabit an artificial body (“shell”), thus at once becoming edited humans in a somewhat robotic body. Major, a security officer, sees how a garbage man is sad to know that his ghost has been hacked and filled with false memories of a family, and dives to set up her own reflections with self-identity developed later in the film, especially as she starts to believe that she may be entirely a cyborg with no knowledge of such an existence. Essentially, because the human body has become so thoroughly and regularly augmented with cybernetic parts and even computer brains, defining a real “human” becomes harder and harder.
If robots develop to the point where they can question their own existence as human, does the line between robot and human truly matter? For what reason? Is questioning human existence a fundamentally human trait? Can fake memories contribute to an identity as much as real ones? Is this a dangerous concept, or might it have positive utility? Do you agree with the assessment that “all data is just fantasy,” or an inaccurate abstraction of real life? What kinds of data, then, make up the human identity?