The other day I had an interesting philosophical conversation about the nature of reality, and how easily we are fooled by the stories we believe. However, without going into the whole simulation theory, or the "I think, therefore I am" discussion, I brought up a simple example of an online meeting with colleagues. While we sit there talking in Teams or Zoom, we believe we are talking to the other person, but what we are really talking to, is an avatar of them. They are not there, a screen is. What we are seeing is a character they are speaking through.
But the story continues past this, as overlay images can be put on, like funny hats, cat ears, makeup, or different faces entirely. Yet, there is a curious part of us that doesn't recognize the person on the screen as a character, but we see it as the person. Even the person on the other end who applies the filter, will reference the character as themselves. They are both sitting on the chair, and they are living in the screen.
And we trust. Because seeing is believing.
But of course, as we know how good the deep fakes are getting, how long will it be until we are projecting ourselves, presenting ourselves, multiplying ourselves, as someone other than who we actually are? For instance, if I am in a meeting speaking to a group of colleagues around the world, but the AI is translating what I say into the localized language, and it is manipulating my avatar to move accordingly, is it still me speaking? After all, I have no control over the translation, and I don't have the skills to verify it is correct. This means anything that is misrepresented, gets attributed to me by the audience, even though I never said it.
This might seem like a silly conversation to be having, but I believe that we are increasingly getting fooled into believing we are getting something, that we are not. As I explained to my friends the other day, it is similar to chewing gum, which sets our stomachs getting ready for food that will not arrive. Or it is like eating an orange-flavoured candy, expecting it to give us a dose of vitamin-C in the same way an orange would.
The story is not reality, just like the word is not the thing. However, we seem to be increasingly blurring the lines of the story, conditioning our bodies, brains and emotions to accept the substitute that mimics what we want, as the reality that satisfies us. As I have said many times for many years, no matter how many times you swipe and enjoy a one-night stand, it is not likely to ever feel our need for intimacy. Similarly, a lot of the online experiences we rely on to fill our lives with content, aren't giving us the mental or physical nutrition we need, even though it feels like we are learning something and getting somewhere.
If scrolling images of fit people made us fit, many of us would be pretty ripped up, right? But, there we are thumbing through content as if it is going to change us toward that end, when the reality is likely the opposite. We are getting fatter on average and I would suggest, stupider too, despite having access to the best information, a wide range of foods, gyms, trainers and all kinds of home support gadgets. It is not that the gadgets don't work, it is that *we don't work. We are getting stupider for the same reasons, because despite "knowing" so much at our fingertips, most of us aren't actually using that knowledge well. And if we aren't using it to improve our conditions, what is the point of knowing it?
Just to finish the thoughts up for the night, if the heavily filtered Instagram models are considered reality, what happens when all of our interaction is "enhanced" with artificial intelligence? A lot of those models are mentally suffering, which I put down to the gap that is formed between their online persona, and the reality they have to live with, and this is just images for the most part. Insert video, voice and content enhancements that happen on-the-fly, and that gap between who we are and what is presented, becomes a chasm.
I don't believe our brains, bodies, or emotions are evolved to deal with this split, and I believe that a lot of the emerging mental health issues are because we are unable to reconcile the differences between the many digital realities of ourselves that we project, and the reality of our analogue selves, the one who looks into the mirror in the morning, unfiltered.
We are becoming multiple avatars of ourselves, further making who we are in reality, an unfamiliar stranger, who isn't a fraction of the person our proxies claim to be.
Is authenticity dead?
Or just another story.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
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