Sures Kumar Thoddu Srinivasan

Beyond Blood imagines a legal system of inheritance based on the significance of objects to the individuals as opposed to the genetic connections to one another. Science fiction writer Bruce Sterling predicted that every object would be tracked and logged by a computer system. He called these objects SPIMES. By tracking people and objects over the span of number of years, computers will be able to infer the significance of objects to a particular individual. It can then designate assets based on different parameters, which can be altered by the policy makers.

Howard Hughes, an american billionaire, died in 1976 without leaving a will. Unmarried and without children at the time of his death, Hughes’ US$2.5 billion estate was eventually split in 1983 among 22 cousins whom he had never visited, and never liked. Beyond Blood uses the film Aviator, which depicts the life of Howard Hughes, to create a fictional computational model for generating a will on Hughes’ behalf. In this alternative history of the life of Howard Hughes, every asset and object is a 'spime' that senses human interactions and is tracked and logged by computer systems.

This process video shows three possible alterations made to the algorithm and their sample outcome.

This project aims to question the ideology behind the inheritance laws currently in practice, particularly the idea of ‘only family members’ having the right to the assets of the deceased. It also hints a possible world where objects tell us more about their relationship to someone.