The human consciousness leaving our bodily form in order to move beyond the human lifespan.
Digital Immortality (14)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
At some point in the near future, Martha’s husband Ash dies in a car accident. In order to help Martha through the grieving process, her friend Sara gives Ash’s data to a company which can create an artificial intelligence program to simulate text and phone conversations between Martha and Ash. Through the chat bot, Ash essentially goes on living, as he is able to respond to Martha and grow as more memories are shared with the program.
- Kinolab
- 2013
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- 7 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
Martha and Ash Part I: Digital Revival and Human Likeness in Software
At some point in the near future, Martha’s husband Ash dies in a car accident. In order to help Martha through the grieving process, her friend Sara gives Ash’s data to a company which can create an artificial intelligence program to simulate text and phone conversations between Martha and Ash. Through the chat bot, Ash essentially goes on living, as he is able to respond to Martha and grow as more memories are shared with the program.
Discussion Prompts:
How should programs like this be deployed? Who should be in charge of them? Do our online interactions abstract our entire personality? Could this be validly used for therapy purposes, or is any existence of such software dangerous? Is it ethical to provide such a tangible way of disconnecting from reality, and are these interactions truly all that different from something like social media interactions?
Black Mirror: I Don't Want It-
- 9 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
At some point in the near future, Martha’s husband Ash dies in a car accident. In order to help Martha through the grieving process, her friend Sara gives Ash’s data to a company which can create an artificial intelligence program to simulate text and phone conversations between Martha and Ash. Eventually, this program is uploaded onto a robot which has the exact likeness of the deceased Ash. Upon feeling creeped out by the humanoid robot and its imprecision in terms of capturing Ash’s personality, Martha wants nothing more than to keep the robot out of her sight.
- Kinolab
- 2013
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- 9 min
- Kinolab
- 2013
Martha and Ash Part II: Digital Revival and Human Likeness in Hardware
At some point in the near future, Martha’s husband Ash dies in a car accident. In order to help Martha through the grieving process, her friend Sara gives Ash’s data to a company which can create an artificial intelligence program to simulate text and phone conversations between Martha and Ash. Eventually, this program is uploaded onto a robot which has the exact likeness of the deceased Ash. Upon feeling creeped out by the humanoid robot and its imprecision in terms of capturing Ash’s personality, Martha wants nothing more than to keep the robot out of her sight.
Discussion Prompts:
How can memories be kept pure when robots are able to impersonate deceased loved ones? If programs and robots such as this can be created, do we truly own our own existence? How can artificial intelligence fail as therapy or companionship? Can artificial intelligence and robotics help comfort people who never even met the deceased? How should an artificial companion be handled by its administrator? Can an animated or robotic humanoid likeness of a person who seemingly has feelings be relegated to the attic as easily as other mementos can?
Movie Title:
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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.
Discussion Prompts:
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?
Movie Title:
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- 13 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
Kelly and Yorkie, two women near death in the real world, meet and start a relationship with one another in San Junipero, a virtual reality program which hosts both “visitors” (older living people who spend small increments of time within) and “residents” (humans who have died and have had their consciousness uploaded to the cloud). The program is accessed via a brain-computer interface, which allows the humans to alter their own appearance and the appearance of the town according to their wishes. Once it is revealed that Yorkie plans to pass away and upload her consciousness into San Junipero permanently, Kelly is faced with a hard choice.
- Kinolab
- 2016
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- 13 min
- Kinolab
- 2016
Afterlives and Liberation in Digital Utopias
Kelly and Yorkie, two women near death in the real world, meet and start a relationship with one another in San Junipero, a virtual reality program which hosts both “visitors” (older living people who spend small increments of time within) and “residents” (humans who have died and have had their consciousness uploaded to the cloud). The program is accessed via a brain-computer interface, which allows the humans to alter their own appearance and the appearance of the town according to their wishes. Once it is revealed that Yorkie plans to pass away and upload her consciousness into San Junipero permanently, Kelly is faced with a hard choice.
Discussion Prompts:
How do digital worlds and platforms allow people a space for self-exploration and liberation that might not be possible in the real world? What are the positive outcomes of people being able to shape their identity as they please in digital worlds, especially as it relates to marginalized identities such as people in the LGBTQIA+ community? If digital immortality is to become a reality, how should it be presented/regulated? How should its creators avoid it becoming a sort of “trap”? Given the various secular and religious views on the afterlife, how could an agreed vision of a digital afterlife be reached?
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- 6 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
After his wife Carrie dies, Jack originally has her consciousness uploaded to his own brain as code. Once this solution is deemed unworkable, he has the coding of her consciousness transferred into a digital monkey toy which is gifted to their son Parker so that Carrie can continue to spend time with him. However, Carrie can only communicate in a binary manner, having access to only 2 phrases to express happiness or unhappiness.
- Kinolab
- 2017
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- 6 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Digitally Immortal Vessels and Eternity
After his wife Carrie dies, Jack originally has her consciousness uploaded to his own brain as code. Once this solution is deemed unworkable, he has the coding of her consciousness transferred into a digital monkey toy which is gifted to their son Parker so that Carrie can continue to spend time with him. However, Carrie can only communicate in a binary manner, having access to only 2 phrases to express happiness or unhappiness.
Discussion Prompts:
How can developers of digital immortality technology ensure that it is ethical from the get-go? Can something like this ever be “piloted” when lives are at stake? How can people ensure that digital lives do not last for true eternity, especially if those existences are mundane? How can humans keep control of their existences in concepts such as this?
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- 11 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Museum curator Rolo shows off the exhibition of Clayton, a former death row inmate whose consciousness became digital during one of Rolo’s experiments. Despite evidence of his innocence, Clayton was put to death, and his digitally immortal consciousness was subjected to torture inside Rolo’s museum, with guests being able to simulate the electric chair shock on the holographic Clayton and eventually putting him in a conscious but vegetative state. Clayton’s daughter Nish shows up to settle the score, trapping Rolo in an eternal state of torture in a small digital device.
- Kinolab
- 2017
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- 11 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Technological Tortures and Traps
Museum curator Rolo shows off the exhibition of Clayton, a former death row inmate whose consciousness became digital during one of Rolo’s experiments. Despite evidence of his innocence, Clayton was put to death, and his digitally immortal consciousness was subjected to torture inside Rolo’s museum, with guests being able to simulate the electric chair shock on the holographic Clayton and eventually putting him in a conscious but vegetative state. Clayton’s daughter Nish shows up to settle the score, trapping Rolo in an eternal state of torture in a small digital device.
Discussion Prompts:
How can one protect their digital consciousness after they pass away? Can anyone ever be fully trusted to handle codes or programs that represent someone else’s existence or consciousness? How does the existence of racial bias and violence make the concept of eternal digital consciousnesses far more harrowing?