Pursuing Truth |
I am really struggling with all the lies. Public figures, including especially politicians, say whatever suits their cause. They throw around invented statistics that have no basis in reality, tell stories of events that have never happened and make promises that they have no intention of implementing.
When I was a child, we were warned that a lie told often enough will be believed. Now, that observation has given birth to an art-form. Truth has lost any moral impetus in the public arena. There is no shame in being caught out in a lie. There might be a shrug of the shoulders or an expansion of the lie to make the original story seem innocuous. There is almost never an apology.
AI is notorious for inventing “facts” but, in reality, it is repeating or amplifying lies that humans have told. The most prominent or numerous statements become the “truth.” Images can be altered, videos doctored and documents forged.
The 20th Century philosopher, Karl Popper, tried to warn us that the scientific method of induction was flawed. He explained that we can see the same things thousands of times but cannot........