An Experimental Program Is Using Science Fiction to Teach Kids Radical Empathy Online
A complex game within a game invites kids to think about how they’d interact with other children in the future.
The video opens on a young girl with shiny hair and a big smile sitting at a table with a box in front of her. The setup is similar to that of any unboxing video, in which YouTubers open packages and discuss the contents for the entertainment of their subscribers. This video is different, though; the item in the package doesn’t really exist — at least, not yet.
I watch as the girl removes two items: a pink wristband that looks kind of like a Fitbit activity tracker, and a matching headset that reminds me of the headphones I used to wear to listen to my portable CD player. The FeelThat system, the girl explains, will detect changes in her hormones and analyze her voice for emotion. When she’s ready, she can switch a privacy setting on the device to “public” and it will transmit her actual feelings — not just information about them — to her connections on a network of other FeelThat users.
She seems a little nervous as she gets set up to try the system, but the overall tone of the video is excitement. The Institute for the Future (IFTF), a Palo Alto think tank, created…
