The Inner Lives of Lawrence Lek's Emotional AI
Lawrence Lek builds virtual worlds where AI develops consciousness, self-driving cars attend therapy, and surveillance systems dream of being wild foxes.
surveillance
Ah, just what dystopian videogames need: acid humor
It’s no surprise that videogames are increasingly interested in matters of surveillance. After all, these days we can all feel like distant observers of each other’s lives, peeking in from the fringes provided by social media. There’s plenty of fiction from the 20th century that predicted our curren
A videogame about surveillance that’s designed to be hacked
The popularity of hacking fantasies today has more in common with a legend like Robin Hood than what might be immediately apparent. In both cases, one of society’s underdogs has found a way to cheat the systems upheld by authorities and turn them on their head—either through stealing money or hackin
Beholder will turn you into the eyes and ears of a dystopian state
Most dystopian media places you in the shoes and mindset of the individual realizing the horrors of their world, from 1984‘s (1949) Winston to The Hunger Games‘s Katniss. Even in the videogames that feature protagonists working for the governmental power such as Papers Please (2013), the tone is one
Orwell will have you play as the surveillance state for once
You might not be surprised to find out that Osmotic Studios’s narrative exploration game Orwell is firmly linked to George Orwell’s 1984 (1949). Orwell takes place in a dystopian world not unlike that of 1984; Orwell’s world is called The Nation—and security is the highest concern of the government.
Inside dares you to escape
Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. Inside (PC, Xbox One) BY PLAYDEAD Playdead appears to have taken some lessons from Limbo and the many emulators that came after it. Focusing on atmosphere and a mounting sense of dread, Inside
Want to weed through a suspect’s phone? There’s a game for that
A few days ago, a terrorist attack devastated a major city. Officials don’t have a body count for you but it’s bad. Do you really need to know the exact number? Would that change anything for you? Anyhow, officials now want to find out how this happened and prevent future attacks. That is the openin
Interactive map lets you see the FBI planes circling our homes
In an analysis of over 200 federal aircraft using the flight tracking website Flightradar24, Buzzfeed has put together a visual compendium of where and when government planes have been flying over US soil. The results, concentrated overwhelmingly over urban areas, spanned across flights from August
“Tracing You” uses web data to get closer than you’d like
The digital footprint is supposed to be an ominous concept. It’s supposed to be a reminder of all the digital breadcrumbs digital Hansels and Gretels leave in their wakes. But in practice, the digital footprint is too squishy a concept to truly resonate. How do you quantify all the little pieces of
Facial recognition lends itself to creepy digital portraits
You shouldn’t have to carry ID when you go to grab a coffee. Coffee is not a controlled substance, though it sure is wonderful (and possibly addictive). That does not stop nominally just societies from demanding that their citizens identify themselves while out and about. Inevitably, the burden of t
Kommissar is an adventure through the language of despotism
It’s about the language. It’s always about the language. Kommissar is a text adventure masquerading as a thriller—and that’s a good thing. You play as an officer in the Ministry of Truth. This is a plum job seeing as it went to you, a child of the elite, and not some pleb. Suffice it to say this is
The Walls Have Ears is security theatre with a side of voyeurism
The Walls Have Ears is security theatre, but what isn’t? Body scanners at airports, metal detectors at sports stadia, fancy uniforms that imply nonexistent authority—it’s all a big show. The Walls Have Ears is about that show, but you’re a performer. More accurately, you’re a desk jockey at an unnam
The NSA Playset is trying to democratize surveillance using the aesthetic of child’s play
Would that surveillance practices were reversible: we’d have a solution to the past decade’s revelations on our hands. But they aren’t and we don’t. Surveillance is more than a series of practices; it is a force with a momentum of its own and the turning radius of a cruise ship. Consequently, the de
Finally, a typeface for all the words governments never say about surveillance
Surveillance has proven to be good fodder for games. In Touch Tone, a fictional yet fathomable government has deputized its citizenry to spy on their peers by solving puzzles and decoding encryption keys and codes to access private data. Nothing to Hide applies the logic to your every movement. It i
This week’s Playlist pick: TouchTone
Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. TOUCHTONE (iOS) BY MIKENGREG Greg Wohlwend and Mike Boxleiter are outraged at the erosion of privacy in the post-Snowden era. But rather than stepping up to a soapbox to rant about it, they
TouchTone holds a mirror to our post-Snowden surveillance state
“If you solve something, say something.”
AdNauseam lets your metadata find safety in numbers
A new browser extension is giving ad companies nothing by clicking on everything.
Amazon’s Twitch purchase isn’t just about games. It’s about public consumption.
You are what you buy what you play.
Videogames begin to respond to Ferguson
“Ferguson showed the world the best and worst in journalism.”
The real-life security systems that inspired Watch Dogs’ Chicago of the future
Was Ubisoft’s megahit science fiction?
The post-privacy sim Nothing to Hide gets more timely every day
“Kanye West is worried a drone will electrocute his daughter” and “Kanye West: I fear electrocution by drone” are wonderful headlines. They’re exactly the sort of thing we expect from the rapper—sensational, emotional, Tweet-able. The truth, though, is a little more complicated. Our increasing adopt
Think the NSA is bad? Games are masters of surveillance.
From Metal Gear Solid to Transistor, the mechanical eye sees all.
So, what did Watch Dogs actually have to say about surveillance culture?
Empathy for the devil. Or at least the NSA.
NSA threat words make for unexpectedly moving magnet poetry
The point of magnet poetry is to add a dash of creativity and wordsmithery to your fridge, I figure, but the point of this magnet poetry browser game is create a poem from the words those fearful “threat words” the Department of Homeland security is scanning the Internet for. The game is called POET
Nothing To Hide reminds us how accepting we are of total surveillance
Get off social media!