• 
• 7 min
• Slate
• 2019

Discussion of Facebook’s massive collection of human faces and their potential impact on society.

• Data Privacy
• Civil Surveillance
• Biometrics
• Social Networks

• 
• 16 min
• Kinolab
• 2004

Joel Barish recently broke up with Clementine, his girlfriend of two years, in a brutal argument. After discovering that she has used a procedure known as Lacuna to erase him from her memories, Joel decides to undergo the same procedure to forget that he ever knew Clementine. The procedure uses a brain-computer interface to map the areas of Joel’s brain that are active whenever he has a memory of Clementine, first when he is awake and using associated objects to perform active recall and then when he is asleep and subconsciously remembering her. Despite Joel’s eventual regrets and desperate attempts to remember Clementine, the procedure is successful, and he forgets her. However, Joel and Clementine reunite in the real world after their respective procedures, and as they have a fresh start, they end up listening to Clementine’s tape from before the procedure where she dissects all of the flaws of Joel and their relationship.

• Digital Censorship
• Edited Humans
• Computer Vision
• Brain-Computer Interfaces

• 
• 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. 

• AI Emotions and Rights
• Edited Humans
• Brain-Computer Interfaces
• Virtual Reality

• 
• 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.

• AI Emotions and Rights
• Singularity
• Brain-Computer Interfaces
• Robots

• 
• 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.

• Control of Personal Data/Identity
• Edited Humans
• Brain-Computer Interfaces
• Robots

• 
• 15 min
• Kinolab
• 1993

Dinosaurs are an extinct species that are revived and brought into the modern day in Jurassic Park. This is accomplished through a cloning process involving extracting dinosaur DNA from mosquitos preserved in amber, and using computational genomics to create replicants with certain properties, such as breeding only female dinosaurs. Three scientists are sent to audit the park, and all three find problems inherent with the use of technology in attempts to control life itself. Eventually, the park’s founder, John Hammond, admits that his idea to create entertainment out of this dangerous technological revival was a failure, which is seen in action during the subsequent dinosaur attack.

• Historical and Cultural Heritage Technologies
• Scientific Innovation
• Computational Genomics