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.
The products of the future already exist in some R&D lab somewhere, in an academic article, or in a creative mind. And sometimes, they're already among us. They turn up when we're not looking, and suddenly we don't understand the world we live in anymore. It looks nothing like the world we thought we knew. Welcome.
Watch a Mother Reunite With Her Deceased Child in VR
Published on February 07 2020
Seen by Flat Eye team on February 09 2020
{Content in English}
For a South Korean documentary on the power of virtual reality, a mother who lost her daughter to an incurable disease was reunited with the girl in VR. The documentary shows clips of her interacting with the model and alone in a green room.
https://futurism.com/watch-mother-reunion-deceased-child-vr[WT-6] See reference details
I spent a week in a VR headset, here's what happened
Published on March 07 2019
Seen by Flat Eye team on October 15 2020
{Content in English}
Short documentary about a journalist who wore a VR headset for 168 hours, his take-away and relationship to reality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGRY14znFxY[WT-8] See reference details
References
Watch a Mother Reunite With Her Deceased Child in VR, Futurism February 07 2020, seen on February 09 2020 {Content in English}
https://futurism.com/watch-mother-reunion-deceased-child-vrI spent a week in a VR headset, here's what happened, Youtube March 07 2019, seen on October 15 2020 {Content in English}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGRY14znFxY