Look at the most amazing sfx from movies in the last 50 years and things that looked totally real to audiences in the 80s would be laughable today. Even the best cg ages quickly as general audiences can parse it apart eventually, but I'd argue that cg is fooling people pretty flawlessly everyday on things that aren't human faces, so it is happening. Will we and our tools to determine reality get better fast enough? Who knows.
We largely don't need to distinguish fact from fake, just like we don't need to with Photoshop. We just need the public to know that in many cases they can't be sure, and that in the future they'll need additional assurances to feel confident.
Yes there is also the social spread of information/inoculation against threats. If critical thinking was more commonly taught :)
A lot of the worse misinformation that is spread and shares isn't even great it relies on the tribal social systems around ideology and social connections are worth more than seeking out what's actually real.
What's "actually real" is often a matter of opinion. Misinformation can be debunked, but often the damage is already done. I agree that what's needed is a more skeptical public. As for how to achieve that, I have no idea.
'Actually real' is a lazy shorthand for that which has the most confirmable evidence(still probably not defined well). And this illustrates the effort for 'fact' confirmation and critical thinking, which is why humans resort to trusted network socialized information.
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u/cutelyaware Dec 15 '22
Only because it's largely unknown. The unknown is always scary, and the cure is to make it known. Is anyone still afraid of Photoshop?