Todays human civilisations, particularly those cultures that steep themselves in digital media, are at the cusp of a concerning reality.
What if you couldn't tell what was real anymore?
I'm not talking about The Matrix, in which we all live inside a manufactured reality, unable to open our eyes and see the true world around us. No, I'm referring to a much simpler way to construct alternate realities. Everyday, you and I ascertain important events happening all around the world through millions of pixels. Those pixels being the visual foundation of our digital displays — computer monitors, smart device screens, LED TVs, and more. Screens have become irreplaceable in todays information transfer ecosystem.
These displays deliver our daily megabyte-sized version of trending reality. They are a crucial piece in what is about to unfold, but the screen is just an apparatus, its the final piece in the transmission of messages, concepts and ideals. Let us turn our attention to the messages.
Where are we now?
Hundreds of millions of people around the world have entrusted some form of media to be a personal source of truth. This media can take shape in the form of a TV broadcast, a YouTube video, a live streamed event or a viral news story. Decades worth of nightly news shows, broadcast entertainment, live breaking reports and most recently social media has accustomed us to believe that what's on the screen in front of us is real.
I'll pose the question though, when was the last time you questioned the media sources you've entrusted to inform your beliefs?
Someone who reads their news from CNN likely has an easy time questioning the authenticity of an article from Breitbart. And the opposite is true too, many CNN denouncers think CNN is ISIS. When was the last time you took a moment to question the source you have deemed competent and infallible?
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
We will always have a much harder time questioning the things our hearts have decided to esteem as worthy. And for many people today, they have unkowingly given their hearts over to digital mainstream media. Without blinking an eye or questioning a motive, we've become conditioned to believe that media equals truth.
Real News, Fake News
When something important happens half way across the world, how do you possibly verify it? You didn't see it with your own eyes, and most likely you don't have an eyewitness you can call. What about in your own city? After reading a story that took place locally, do you run out and jump in your car to go verify it in person? Do you seek out the people involved so you can sit down with them and get their personal testimony? For millions of people the answer is 'no'. They blindly accept what is presented to them at face value shaping their perspective of reality.
In the last 6 months, the term fake news has become increasingly commonplace. The current incarnation of fake news is quite simple to construct:
- Craft a narrative that fits your agenda
- Make up one or more lies to reinforce the narrative
- Create a piece of media that will deliver the false narrative to your audience
- Hit the publish button
That's it. That is how fake news is created today. Authors, anchors and tweeters simply have to present a few carefully crafted, deceptive words to an audience who's already bought in, and they've now birthed an alternate reality to millions of people. Whether you agree or not, media consumption is a form of mind control — you are literally being told and shown what to think, no verification needed.
Deep down, we don't want to believe the organizations telling us what to think might actually be selling us counterfeits. In time we need to become more discerning of the words we're being told, and begin to weed out and seek truth amongst the lies.
From Words to Pictures
The fake media of today is built on words. Words that bear nefarious lies. Those lies form profoundly consequential alternate truths. But talk is cheap, visual imagery is powerful. So what does the fake media of tomorrow look like?
A picture is worth a thousand words
We are seeing the transition from crafted words to crafted visuals. In late 2016, ABC news was caught staging a crime scene for a camera shoot. After being called out by CNN, ABC apologized on "Good Morning America" saying "This action is completely unacceptable and fails to meet the standards of ABC News".
Even more recently, CNN has come under fire for the possiblity of manufacturing their own visuals to tell a story. Whether you believe that CNN was in the wrong or not, it is very clear they are carefully coordinating and setting up a scene to convey their story. There is clear intent to control every aspect of how a narrative is presented.
While these scenes are filmed and coordinated live, there's a more powerful world of cinematic visuals and generated graphics that we have to look at with a discerning eye.
The Rise of CGI
Many of us have experienced computer generated imagery (CGI) of some sort in our lives. If you watch television or go to the latest action hero flick, you would be suprised how many scenes have been stitched together using some form of CGI. And much of it today, looks unbelievably real - it has to. If you've ever stuck around to watch the credits of a Marvel movie, you'll sit through hundreds of names of cast and crew dedicated to visual effects and CGI alone.
It's pretty mind blowing what a team of talented creatives and engineers can do, but let's take a moment to see what solo artists can accomplish on their own with readily available tools and resources. This imagery looks stunningly real, but they are indeed fake.
Peter Haagensen - Catwoman for 'The Dark Knight Rises'
© Per Haagensen - Catwoman #1 - "The Dark Knight Rises"
Hyun Kyung - Kristen Stewart
Dan Roarty - Happy Birthday Nana & The Blue Project
© Dan Roarty - Happy Birthday Nana, The Blue Project
The tools and computing power used to render these detailed visuals are growing cheaper and more accessible everyday. You can purchase RenderMan, the rendering software that Pixar has developed to render your own graphics. Need processing power to generate those frames? A rendering cloud is waiting and ready, credit card and PayPal accepted. The promises of grid computing put vast amounts of compute bandwidth at your fingertips to solve problems or in this context render graphics that might be inefficient otherwise. And the culmination of computing power that will make super computers of today look like calculators is quantum computing. Many people believe that quantum computing is just around the corner.
A Whole New World [Order]
It's truly amazing what a few individuals with some creativity, a little bit of time and readily available tools can create. But let's play with the scale and the motive shall we.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides currently holds the record for the most expensive movie budget at a cool $378 million dollars. Quick research shows that the total number of cast and crew is around 2,500 people. The movie is 137 minutes long and I'd venture to guess that there is some form of high fidelity, near photo realistic CGI in every minute of the movie. So for $300+ million, one could feasibly buy an entire team that can create 2 hours worth of high fidelity visual graphics.
If we set our sites on creating a 20 second video clip, plenty of time to convey an important event, it's not a far stretch to think that with todays tools and talent, we could get 100% photo realistic imagery and visual effects out of a 50 person team with a budget of $1 billion dollars. Imagery that would pass the visual truth test of hundreds of millions of people around the world. What could they possibly create?
A carefully crafted, stunningly rendered, maliciously designed reality of events. A fake reality, imperceptible from truth, for hundreds of millions of people who've dulled their minds and desensitized their reasoning by gorging themselves on mainstream media.
With proper planning, coordination and execution just about anything could be fabricated that would have such profound consequences, turning the tides of influential business men and women, political leaders, and world governments.
A couple billion dollars and an operations team is pocket change for corrupt governments that wish to manipulate their citizens, sowing confusion and causing uproar and chaos in the streets. It's childs play for malevolent leaders hell-bent on destroying their rivals and overthrowing other countries.
We are dangerously close to a reality where life altering, history changing events will be staged using high fidelity CGI and 3d renderings. made possibly by:
- The abundance of screens and the irreplaceable convenience they provide to gather information.
- Our strongly convicted acceptance of information sources as truth with little motivation to verify or check authenticity.
- The rise of fake news and narratives spreading socially and a shift from using fake words to fake visuals.
- Powerful open source and commercial tools as well as the exponential growth of available computing resources.
These things point us to one conclusion, the inevitability that the future will be faked, in which the consequences could be devastating.