When a generated photo or video becomes indistinguishiable from reality, does reality just collapse? How do we know what’s real anymore, and if society deems an image/video as false, how do we know it isn’t just a government cover-up?

Just a few words into a Gen-AI program and there will be a video on the news of you commiting a terrorist bombing of a pre-school, even tho you were never anywhere near there. They can send the secret police to murder people, then post a video of the people they’ve killed as “resisting arrest” or “trying to shoot the officers on scene”, even tho they were unarmed and cooperative.

Like… do governments just get to shape the world as they see fit?

  • phonics@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    truth is just the most common belief. not 100% factual.

    it was once truth the world was flat, then the sun revolved around the earth. then the world was round. next will be the earth is a tesseract. then finally truth will be earth is a hexigon the bestigon and we can finally rest.

    • Steve@communick.news
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      2 days ago

      That’s not a widely used definition of Truth.
      At the very least, it’s one I’ve never heard before.

      • phonics@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        it has to be the definition though. human understanding is limited, therefore what we believe is fact, can theoretically be ‘wrong’ and disproven in the future by new advancements in science. so ‘truth’ is just belief in fact.

        • Steve@communick.news
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          1 day ago

          The common definition of Truth is along the lines of “That which matches reality”.

          It doesn’t matter what’s popular, or common knowledge. Sure humanity learns more about reality as time goes on. What people believe to be true changes. But that doesn’t mean what we believe is true. Something doesn’t become true because enough people believe it. Peoples beliefs simply get closer to the truth as more is learned about reality.

          • phonics@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            whos to define reality? was it not truth that the sun orbited the earth? reality is also the most popular theory. string theory could be truth. president names in epstein files could be truth. if someone doctors the list before it hits the courts, and its voted on as true, it becomes truth to society while not matching reality.

            i think we are circling the same idea from different angles. kinda fun, thanks for the critical thinking sparring.

            • Steve@communick.news
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              1 day ago

              Nobody defines reality. We discover reality. Reality defines us.
              Reality doesn’t care about any idea, hypothesis, or theory.
              Reality is ignorant of courts, votes, or opinion.
              Reality is what is, and we make up stories that may or may not agree with reality. Makes no difference to reality.

              • phonics@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                so truth then would also be absolute? and not a human perception?

                i feel like humans use truth more relatively. perhaps there should be distinctions between absolute truth and relative truth in the english language.

                some people ‘believe’ aliens to be true. believe in a truth. you shouldnt have to believe a truth if it has no counterpoint. like if gravity is truth. you shouldn’t be able to believe in it. it should just happen to you.

                • Steve@communick.news
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                  23 hours ago

                  Some people ‘believe’ aliens to be true. believe in a truth.

                  They believe in an idea. They believe that idea is true.

                  In my experience, when people talk about some subjective Truth, they say things like “my truth” or “feels true”. They aren’t making a claim beyond their subjective perceptions. And while their perceptions are true, (meaning those perceptions happened to them), those perceptions aren’t necessarily an account of real external events. That’s how stage magic works. It looks like one thing, but what it looks like isn’t reality.

                  And saying you shouldn’t be able to believe in something because it’s real, sounds very strange. Maybe you mean, you shouldn’t need to believe in something because it’s real?