Unreel
This month on Flash Forward, we go to a future where anybody can make a video of you doing anything they want. And that technology is cheap and easy to access. What happens?\n\xa0\n\xa0This episode we start by talking about the technology as it exists now. Hamed Pirsiavash the show to explain his research into generating videos using algorithms.\xa0\n\xa0\n\xa0So that\u2019s where the technology stands now. But once it gets better, there are all kinds of applications. Hal Hodson, a tech reporter at The Economist, tells us about how it could be used in movies. Right now, movie-makers use CGI to project faces onto other faces. Recently, in the latest Star Wars, the faces of Princess Leia and Grand Moff Tarkin from the original trilogy were projected onto actors faces for the few scenes in the new movie. Here\u2019s a look at how they did it.\n\xa0\n\xa0But in the future, they might not have to do any of this. They could simply generate the video they need using images of Leia and Tarkin\u2019s faces. Which also means that movie stars could wind up being in hundreds of movies a year, since they don\u2019t have to actually be there, on set, to act. And they could keep acting in movies long after they\u2019ve died, too.\xa0\n\xa0\n\xa0That\u2019s a fun thing to think about. Here\u2019s a less fun thing to think about: how people would use this technology to seek revenge and ruin people\u2019s lives. And to talk through the legal implications, I called Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer who specializes in revenge porn cases. She explains how these generated videos of the future would actually get around today\u2019s revenge porn laws.\xa0\n\xa0\n\xa0Then, to wrap it all up, I talk to Jenna Wortham, a writer for the New York Times Magazine and the co-host of an amazing podcast called Still Processing. In a world where online identities are not only personally valuable, but economically valuable, what does this do to us? When anybody can torpedo your finely crafted online persona with a fake video, do we all just give up? Do we try to erase everything from the internet about ourselves? Or do we lean into this and start making wild aspirational and experimental videos? Or maybe all of the above?\n\xa0\n\xa0Bonus: You will also find out what butter, The Falkland Islands, and Snakes on a Train have in common. According to Rose.\n\xa0\n\xa0Some further reading for this episode:\n\xa0\n\xa0The Attorney Fighting Revenge Porn\n\xa0Social Media Got You Down? Be More Like Beyonce\n\xa0The future of fake news is real time video manipulation\n\xa0The Butter Wars: When Margarine Was Pink\n\xa0The British Punk Band That Fooled Reagan, Thatcher and the CIA\xa0\n\xa0Introduction to Generative Adversarial Networks\xa0\n\xa0Teaching Machines to Predict the Future\n\xa0\n\xa0Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth, and is part of the Boing Boing podcast family. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. Special thanks this week to Wendy Hari, Jacki Sojico and Dan Tannenbaum. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.\xa0\n\xa0\n\xa0If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you\u2019ve spotted one of the little references I\u2019ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you\u2019re right, I\u2019ll send you something cool.\xa0\n\xa0\n\xa0And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! We have a Patreon page, where you can donate to the show. But if that\u2019s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help.\n\xa0\n\xa0That\u2019s all for this future, come back next time, and we\u2019ll travel to a new one!\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices