Flat Eye presents a possible future which may be neither desirable nor avoidable.

To create this world and make it credible, MONKEY MOON took inspiration from the present. There is no lack of sources: online articles, social media videos, scientific journals and more. On the team's private chat, one observation came up again and again: ""when reality goes beyond fiction."" Things that may seem a long way off or even impossible in the game may in fact have already happened, and some of the game's narrative threads were directly inspired by these true stories.
As archivist for the project, my mission, toward the end of the development process, was to gather all of these articles to create this coherent bibliography. It provides a closer look at what inspired Flat Eye, of course, but also at our present--a time of such rapid, constant change that we don't even realize it's happening anymore.
The goal of this snapshot of the world is to place Flat Eye's major themes (artificial intelligence, the future of work, social change, etc.) in their context. The bibliography sorts articles into several different categories (with frequent overlaps) and provides a summary for each. If you're only after the links and references, you'll find it all at the bottom of the page.

September 2022. The archivist.

Mon boss est un algorithme

Published on October 15 2019

Seen by Flat Eye team on April 08 2020

{Content in French}

This French podcast episode interviews two click workers: Julie and Nassim. Julie worked as a "microtasker" training Microsoft's AI, Cortana. She listened to conversations and corrected mistakes. Nassim was a Deliveroo deliverer whose hours and pay were determined by the company's algorithm.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/les-pieds-sur-terre/mon-boss-est-un-algorithme

Note from the archivist: One of the first articles shared by the team, and one of the first forum posts: "So Flat Eye".

Dollars for data

Published on July 21 2020

Seen by Flat Eye team on July 30 2020

{Content in English}

In this episode of the podcast FlashForward, repentant data broker Richie Etwaru explains his quest to make full ownership of personal data a basic human right.

https://www.flashforwardpod.com/2020/07/21/dollars-for-data/

Note from the archivist: "Fascinating and so in sync with the game's themes," says a developer on the Monkey Moon forum.

References