The human consciousness leaving our bodily form in order to move beyond the human lifespan.
Digital Immortality (29)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
FILTERreset filters
Themes
Additional Filters:
-
- 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
Close btn
-
- 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?
Black Mirror: Clayton is Reborn-
- 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
Close btn
-
- 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?
Movie Title:
-
- 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
Close btn
-
- 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?
-
- 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
Close btn
-
- 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:
-
- 20 min
- AI & Society
- 2022
A high-level breakdown of popular ethical and legal considerations regarding postmortem data use. It aims to discern the extent to which users are comfortable with their data being used posthumously. Important findings include most users wanting their data automatically deleted after their death. A majority of users find that using their data in passive ways is acceptable, and there is a higher degree of tolerance among younger and heavy internet users when it comes to how their data is used.
- AI & Society
- 2022
Close btn
-
- 20 min
- AI & Society
- 2022
Using Deceased People’s Data
A high-level breakdown of popular ethical and legal considerations regarding postmortem data use. It aims to discern the extent to which users are comfortable with their data being used posthumously. Important findings include most users wanting their data automatically deleted after their death. A majority of users find that using their data in passive ways is acceptable, and there is a higher degree of tolerance among younger and heavy internet users when it comes to how their data is used.
Discussion Prompts:
Is it ethical to collect data about a new technology considering that most if not all participants don’t have a working understanding of the technology?
How might users ensure their privacy rights are preserved after they die? Should there be some kind of system of payment for personal data after death?