The Life Fair
11 June 2016 - 7 January 2017
9. Death
Everyone will die eventually, but maybe you will choose how and when. Your body can be frozen until the cure is found. Your avatar will live on forever. When you die, we will extract energy from your body. Death can be forced upon you as a form a punishment. Death can be something you choose for yourself. Life and death decisions can be taken by an algorithm. An algorithm we program for everyone.
9.1 DEATH MACHINE
A roller coaster engineered to take your life
Euthanasia Coaster
Julijonas Urbonas Celebrating the limits of the human body, this hypothetic euthanasia machine takes the form of a roller coaster. It is engineered to humanely - with elegance and euphoria - take the life of a human being. The rider is subjected to a series of intensive motion elements that induce various unique experiences: from euphoria to thrill, and from tunnel vision to loss of consciousness, and, eventually, death.
9.2 CRYONICS
Preserve yourself until a future medical technology can restore you
Alcor Life Extension Foundation The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is the world leader in cryonics, cryonics research, and cryonics technology. Founded in 1972, Alcor is a non-profit organisation located in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Cryonics is an experimental procedure that preserves a human being using the best available technology for the purpose of saving the person's life.
Alcor believes medical technology will advance further in coming decades than it has in the past several centuries, enabling it to heal damage at the cellular and molecular levels and to restore full physical and mental health.
9.3 ALGORITHMIC MORALITY
Self-driving cars programmed to kill
Corresponding researcher: Jean-François Bonnefon, research supported by: Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, France
Autonomous Vehicles Need Experimental Ethics: Are We Ready for Utilitarian Cars? The wide adoption of self-driving, Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) promises to dramatically reduce the number of traffic accidents.
Some accidents, though, will be inevitable, because some situations will require AVs to choose the lesser of two evils. For example, running over a pedestrian on the road or a passer-by on the side; or choosing whether to run over a group of pedestrians or to sacrifice the passenger by driving into a wall.
It is a challenge to define the algorithms that will guide AVs confronted with such moral dilemmas. In particular, these moral algorithms will need to accomplish three potentially incompatible objectives: being consistent, not causing public outrage, and not discouraging buyers.
This survey is intended to test public opinion in how to program AVs to minimise the death toll in case of unavoidable harm.
9.4 EXECUTED OFFENDERS
Hear their last words
amicus-alj.com
Amicus Amicus is a small legal charity which helps provide representation for those facing the death penalty in the United States.
Amicus believes the death penalty is disproportionately imposed on the most vulnerable in society, violating their right to due process and the concept of equal justice before the law. Amicus' mission is to provide better access to justice for those who could not otherwise afford it.
9.5 ETERNAL YOU
Live on as your virtual self
ETER9 ETER9 is a social network that relies on an artificial intelligence to create a community of human and virtual beings that can interact with each other eternally.
Each user has a virtual self, called a counterpart, which eternalises the user and gives them the permanent ability to interact within the network 24/7, even while the user is offline or no longer living. The counterpart absorbs all the information according to the posts and comments. The more actions a user makes, the more the counterpart learns, making the interaction progressively more effective. ETER9 makes it possible for users to connect both with human and virtual beings.
ETER9 is currently in a bata phase. It currently has over 50,000 registered users.
The platform is one of a growing list of AI-driven services that are seeking to address what happens in our digital afterlife.
9.6 MICROBIAL FUEL CELL
Harness your chemical potential
Auger-Loizeau
Afterlife Afterlife offers a technologically mediated service providing a tangible expression of life after death.
The speculative design projects suggests the harnessing of a person's chemical potential after biological death and the conversion of that potential into usable electrical energy. A microbial fuel cell uses an electrochemical reaction to generate electricity from deceased organic matter.
The service acts to provide conclusive proof of life after death, life being contained in the battery.