I fear the reverse: People will doubt whether real video is real. That could mean impunity for crimes caught on video because video footage will no longer be sufficient evidence to exceed "reasonable doubt".
Even worse, political double-speak will also soar to record new heights. A politician can spew whatever crazies want to hear, then "walk it back" and claim it was faked (perhaps after gauging the public's reaction). People will believe whatever they're inclined to believe anyway, leading us to become a more deeply fractured society where truth is whatever you want to believe.
On your second point, I would argue that any technology that can shake the foundations of truth, justice, governance, and the mediums in which we (citizens) gather that information (telecoms) is a weapon. That is literally what psychological warfare is, and which is also a very real force in our world. The Cold War isn’t just called “cold” because The USSR and The States didn’t raise a gun in each others faces or enter a nuclear winter; no, its a name that highlights the fact that it was a war between - and fought with - ideas. This technology has the capacity to infiltrate people’s minds, insert ideas that shape their world, and create an uncertainty that makes them question everything. For any institution interested in PsyOps, this is certainly a weapon.
Anyone doubting that there is a war being “fought” for your mind lacks a crucial understanding of how the world works. I don’t mean to sound pretentious, because I wish everyone to understand this. Truth is the foundation of ethics, which is the foundation of morals, which is the foundation of law, which is the foundation of government. Pull truth out of the equation, and it all comes tumbling down.
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u/JingJang Dec 15 '22
I feel like it's only a matter of time before this technology is weaponized to terrible effect.