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It’s Technology’s job to solve the misinformation and disinformation threat that it has created.
Euclidian (“plane”) geometry is the foundation of many modern-day disciplines, including architecture and engineering. It is astounding to think about how much of the world is dependent on seven axioms and five postulates universally accepted as true and cannot be proven, and the theorems deduced from them.
Awe-inspiring buildings, computer-aided design (CAD) for industrial machines – the things humanity can accomplish when the world agrees on “the truth”. We do not live in such a world today, and technology is to blame. The reckless drive for personalization and “a segment of one” has created a horrific landscape of filter bubbles and confirmation bias, made all the more worse by breathtaking manipulation technology like deep fakes.
There is hope; technology is fighting back. Consortiums to combat media manipulation like the Content Authenticity Initiative and Project Origin have been launched. Social media companies are (finally) taking accountability for the content they promote after a rough start. And technology companies like Microsoft have developed tools to identify manipulated content. It is a happy irony that the same technologies used to produce fakes are also being used to detect them.
Let us hope then in this never-ending battle between “real” and “fake” that technology can return to its rightful place as “hero” in the digital narrative. That we realize “what is asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof” (google this quote for a perfect illustration of the thoughts reflected here). And that we regain our sensibilities, stop debating that the sky is blue, and focus on solving the much larger challenges of the world on a foundation of a shared understanding of the truth.
Learn more about our excellent series “Real Fake” (thoughts on deep fakes, tech culture, and all the buzzwords you are hearing) here.
