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Remember the movie "Terminator"

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That's something with today's tech, you can make something most can't tell from real. And they say that in another couple years or so, real people, animals and who knows what else will fool all but those capable of tearing them apart and looking at what's inside the video. The interesting questions may what will it do to news coverage, fights between couples and families and so on.
 
A worse aspect of all this - the 'Net continues to become the Source of All Knowledge, people stop checking whether videos are true or not, and "deep fakes" become the norm. Recordings of any kind (books, videos, audios, and especially 'net posts, etc.) all dissolve into a fuzzy mass of people not knowing what's going on, and living with "Tell a lie over and over, and people begin to believe it."

Orwell's Ministry of Truth will remain a fiction, as we all become our own ministries of truth based on false information.

That's what's scary to me.
 
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Repetition is the key to success. :rolleyes2:
 
I've spoken to many people over the last few years who are for or against something and their reasoning is "I saw it on the internet", even when what they have decided makes no sense. For example, a guy who told me he and his family would not get vaccinated because he read a post that it was actually water filled with microchips and when everyone was vaccinated the Bill Gates would throw a switch and turn us all into zombie robots to conquer the world and make him king. Just an example of the Noah's Flood of opinions where we have to do our best to get all the facts to make a decision.
 
" ... we have to do our best to get all the facts to make a decision."

Amen to that! But it's becoming a lost art, as many people find something unusual, don't check the facts, and "forward to all their contacts".

end is near.jpg
 
NutmegCT said:
A worse aspect of all this - the 'Net continues to become the Source of All Knowledge, people stop checking whether videos are true or not, and "deep fakes" become the norm. Recordings of any kind (books, videos, audios, and especially 'net posts, etc.) all dissolve into a fuzzy mass of people not knowing what's going on, and living with "Tell a lie over and over, and people begin to believe it."

Orwell's Ministry of Truth will remain a fiction, as we all become our own ministries of truth based on false information.

That's what's scary to me.
Click to expand...
I agree with pretty much everything you said (except I don't think Orwell will remain fiction). What's worse, in my humble opinion, is that Big Tech is controlled by people with their own agendas and a handful of companies/ people control the flow of information - what you see and what you don't see or are not allowed to see. I've known people who were banned from Facebook or Twitter, for example, for the crime of posting simply an opinion the "fact checkers" decided was "misinformation," but that turned out to be true. What exasperates the problem is the fact that most people don't have time to do detailed research into everything they see and hear - and there is an overwhelming amount of stuff we are hit with daily. In this day and age, we all have to view everything we see on the net (or the news) with some skepticism and be willing to change our minds when new information comes to light. I have seen many videos on the net purporting to show some politician or another saying something astounding and alarming. Because it was so alarming I did my own research and discovered someone had edited a real video in such a way as to make it appear as if the person was saying something completely different, or all the context of their comments was lost. This video is a case in point. I'll admit that I was fooled at first, but when Tom indicated it was CGI, I did a bit of research and discovered it was indeed just a very good (and let's admit is was very good) fake. I should have had a clue seeing it was from "Bosstown Dynamics" - a not so subtle play on a legitimate robotics company, Boston Dynamics, which does make some pretty remarkable robotics, including humanoid robotics.

www.bostondynamics.com

Home | Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics is creating practical robotics to tackle your toughest automation challenges and change your idea of what robots can do.
www.bostondynamics.com www.bostondynamics.com

Most probably remember several years ago when a video was circulating that purported to show a stunt plane losing a wing, but somehow landing safely. It was a very good "fake" that fooled most people until it was revealed to be a very cleaver fake made by a German clothing company. They used frames of a similar "model" plane cut into the filming of the real plane, and probably some CGI as well. Remember this?


But back to Big Tech. If big Tech likes some public figure, then when you search, you will get all the glowing results at the top, and anything derogatory will be on page 10 of the search results. If they don't like someone, then all the bad stuff (even if it isn't true) will be front and center. If they support a certain issue, then search results that support their position will be at the top.

Our mainstream media is an even bigger concern to me. As bad as the net is, many people let the mainstream media do their fact-checking. They think if "Mr or Ms anchor on my favorite news show says something every night, seven days a week, it must be true!" I could list a dozen recent things the media has gotten 100% wrong. I don't want to get political so I won't list the things that they have gotten wrong, but trust me, they have. Suffice it to say they very often will promulgate a narrative that is based on their own agendas or personal feelings and not based on facts or fairness nor objectivity. And they influence how people think about things! I attended an "event" once (yes it was political so I won't characterize it other than it was an event I personally attended). When I saw the local news coverage of the event later that night, I was livid - it was so obviously biased it made me want to throw my TV out the window! They were not describing the event I witnessed first hand! Another example: Following a tragic shooting of several people by a man with mental illness who was not receiving treatment, I was once interviewed for my work with NAMI by one of our local stations. The reporter interviewed me for about 30 minutes. During the interview there were certain things I wanted to emphasize (and I told here "this is important for people to know"), such as the fact that the vast majority of people with mental illness are not going to engage in violence. But that night they played only about 30 seconds of a 30 minute interview and left out all of the stuff that I felt was important for people to know. They had a specific "angle" to the story which left the impression that anyone with mental illness is a potential mass murderer. To say I was not pleased would be an understatement.

Also, the media often lie by omission. There are some stories that are very worthy of being told that the media buries or downplays because it doesn't help their agenda, while other stories get hammered 24/7. (Bernard Goldberg, long time CBS correspondent/ reporter wrote a book called "Bias"). I've seen major newspapers who push stories that turn out not to be accurate, and when they are called on it and have to publish a "correction," said correction is a tiny little blurb buried on page D17. But the damage is done.

Conclusion - always be skeptical and don't believe everything you see on the internet or in the media. Neither are objective.
 
I always try to go multiple sources on each side of something that catches my eye. Plus involve what I've learned over my years to come not so much to a conclusion as an understanding of what probably points in the direction of truth. And I always keep in mind that search engines will recommend first based on what you're looking at and the history they have skimmed from your past activity so give similar items thinking you will be much more likely to open things that are along the vein as what you've already looked at.
 
" ... always be skeptical"

YES!

" ... go to multiple sources on each side of something"

YES!

We often get news from "news feeds" that cater to our likes and browsing histories. The media (print, digital, YouTube, social, etc.) are often desperate to catch our attention, and to please us. We don't often forward videos of airplanes flying, but we do often forward videos of airplanes "encountering problems" - whether they're real or not.

OK - back to my cave.
 
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