Safe and Sound story
In a near-future dystopia, the United States is divided between high-tech, hysterically paranoid "safe" cities and "bubble" communities where invasive technologies are rejected. A "bubble" representative moves with her daughter for a year of negotiations and life in the big city. While the mother tries to negotiate better treatment of the bubbles, her daughter struggles to adapt to school life, its social oddities, and the pervasive technologies around her.
16 total · 2 choice · 9 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| official scapegoating in society | choice | Irene accused a city government official of using the people living in invasive-technology-free bubbles as scapegoats to justify their policy positions. In general, we are invited to reflect on the extent to which the city government was using threats from possibly nonexistent terrorists to justify the use of privacy-invasive technologies. |
| security vs. freedom | choice | The story confronts the viewer with this central question: To what extent should we accept privacy-invasive technologies in the name of security from threats such as terrorist attacks? |
| creeping authoritarianism | major | We saw hallmarks of a society that was sliding into totalitarianism. For example, Irene said that the government reported fake terrorist attacks in order to justify their own oppressive rule. And in class, the kids were indoctrinated with fear of terrorism. In the end, legislation was passed that made personal monitoring technology mandatory. |
| dystopia | major | We saw hallmarks of a society that was sliding into totalitarianism. For example, Irene said that the government reported fake terrorist attacks in order to justify their own oppressive rule. In class, the kids were indoctrinated with fear of terrorism. In the end, legislation was passed that made personal monitoring technology mandatory. |
| mass surveillance | major | The story is set in a near-future metropolis where virtually everyone wears a personal tracking device known as a Dex. |
| mother and daughter | major | Foster's relationship with her mother went downhill after they moved to the big city. |
| surveillance capitalism | major | Simi corp was using their wristband surveillance technology to further their own corporate goals. |
| teenage angst | major | Foster had the stereotypical fitting-in problems of a young person. |
| terrorism | major | Virtually everyone lived under the perception they were under constant threat from terrorist attacks. |
| unethical business practices | major | It turned out that Simi corp had manipulated Foster into attempting a suicide bombing on her school as part of a nefarious plot to prepare the way for their privacy-invasive technologies to become evermore accepted in society. In the end we learn that the Simi corporation was nefariously using its access to people in order to stage terrorist attacks and manipulate public opinion. |