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.

EPS Statement on DNA Phenotyping

Published on October 06 2022

Seen by Flat Eye team on October 06 2022

{Content in English}

To find the perpetrator of an unsolved sexual asault from 2019, the Edmonton Police Station in Canada decided to create a suspect sketch using DNA phenotyping. The police called on a specialized company, which claims it can not only obtain general characteristics like gender and skin color from DNA, but also precise details that enable it to create a physical representation of the suspect. In reality, the resulting portrait shared with the media was of a nondescript Black man, which led to concerns about unjustified racial profiling and racist arrests. Faced with a flurry of criticisms of the method on social networks, the Edmonton Police Station decided to remove the sketch from all the sites it had been published on and apologized for not having properly weighed the associated risks.

https://www.edmontonpolice.ca/News/MediaReleases/StatementonDNAPhenotyping

Note from the archivist: Could the rest of the world just take a break from using technology in terrifying ways for a minute, or even better, for about two weeks? We have a game to finish and it would be a shame to have to start over so close to release day!

[WT-38] See reference details

Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights

Published on October 04 2022

Seen by Flat Eye team on October 06 2022

{Content in English}

The White House has published a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, which outlines five major principles that aim to protect U.S. citizens in their interactions with automated systems: safe and effective systems, algorithmic discrimination protections, data privacy, notice and explanation, and human alternatives, consideration and fallback.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/

[AI-22] See reference details

References