Imagine otherwise
The Egg
Enter a short fictional conversation that makes the boundary between one life and another difficult to keep.
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell; story by Andy Weir; narration by Steve Taylor · Short film
A way in
Watch from the beginning without reading a plot summary. Let the premise operate as fiction; you do not need to agree with it to follow its consequences.
Free on YouTube; ads may appear. English captions can be turned on in the player. The story includes a fatal road accident, reincarnation, and references to perpetrators and victims of mass killing.
Afterward
Why we chose it
A life ends, and a conversation begins. Andy Weir’s story proposes an unusual relation between the self and other people; Kurzgesagt gives the premise an animated form. The invitation is to inhabit a fiction long enough to consider its consequences, without treating it as an account of how the universe works. Its question can outlast the plot: what, exactly, makes another person’s experience matter to you?
What it may shift Where you place the boundary of concern for another life.
Would the story still give you a reason to care about other people if its account of the universe were false? What reasons do you already have to care about another person’s experience?