How is a deepfake of Will Smith nursing a hedgehog different than a photo of the real Will Smith holding a real hedgehog - one that was set up and shot as part of an ad campaign for the WWF or some other entity?
We have been living with fakes, also known as "lies" and "stories", for as long as there have been humans. The only difference is that for most of history the lies had been limited to being verbal and later written and now they are photographs and videos.
We were never honest but when someone says something we always know that he may lie but when we see a photo or a video we tend to trust our senses. This was a good rule for the real world but in the virtual one it stopped working and we should acknowledge that .
Wow! This should be mandatory daily reading, especially for young bros in the US of A who voted for Trump because they thought he was "funny," only to find out that their wages are being garnished to pay off their student loans. To paraphrase Mike Tyson, It's always fun until someone punches you in the face.
As long as you can differentiate between the real world and the digital one . If you can smell it and touch it it is much more likely to exist than if you saw it in a post somewhere .
Solid breakdown of how deepfakes differ from imagination. The distinction between actively crafting a fantasy vs passively consuming a prefab fake is underrated. That point about the seaside daydream being therapeutic while mass-produced deepfakes just plug holes without healing anything is sharp. I kinda caught myself reflexively scrolling past deepfakes without really thinking about the cognitive residue they leave behind, treating memorylike patterns the same as actual recollection. Makes me wonder how many poeple realize they're building neural pathways for events that never happened.
Mental illness is often predicated on fake realities or perceptions. We believe someone dislikes us, hates us, or is following us, and when we cannot prove it true or false, it haunts us. This has been happening forever, and we address it compassionately with therapy. In the world of deep fakes, our reality is being messed with. We see and hear people talking about things that didn't happen. Discussing a horrible subject as a positive thing, which blows our mind, until we're told, Oh, that was fake. This is a scary scenario, to mess with our minds and reality as if it were a joke. A little humor. Imagine getting a fake call that sounds 100% like your daughter, screaming and asking for help as the line goes dead. April Fools! Yeah, AI is a Godsend. Sure, but for whom?
"... living in this shaky reality with a sense of resignation, perhaps even serenity, with no resistance or protest..." Etgar, who are we kidding, we KNOW it is already here. And we face it with frog costumes and ineffectual whimpers. If I were a believer, I would be praying 12 hours a day for us.
Haha I could see where this was headed well before the punchline! But it's a good point, and very well made.
This story actually reminds me a little of the answer you gave years ago to my question about what it was like to be a writer in Israel. You said that Israel wasn't always a good place to live, but it was a great place to write because it made you need fiction almost as a coping strategy, as a Plan B for the failure of Plan A, reality. Nobody writes about a grilled sandwich, you said, because it is easy to just go ahead and make a grilled cheese sandwich. But people write about love because it may be a way of exploring the thing that didn't happen. When things don't work out the way you wanted, you at least have something to write about.
But comparing the answer you gave me years ago to the story you just posted also emphasises how subtle the distinction can be between fiction and self-deception. They're both coping strategies, after all, and they're both rooted in forms of escape into non-reality. I think it's the notion of "exploring the thing that didn't happen" versus the more facile, childish notion of "wish fulfilment" that might separate the fiction of a short story from the fiction of porn or a political meme. When you give serious thought to "exploring the thing that didn't happen", you lend it a degree of dignity with the intensity of your consideration, and - perhaps more importantly - the possibility that even within the space of your imagination it will still go horribly wrong. On the other hand, porn and political memes give us fantasies that are "easy." They are thoughtless responses to an oftentimes thoughtless world. They mirror and exacerbate the ugliness that created them.
Your story doesn't explicitly describe the most dangerous category of fantasy, although it's essentially implied in the story's conclusion. That is, things get really frickin' dangerous and ugly when we mistake the "easy" fantasy for the "exploratory" one - that gives rise to all kinds of religious and political extremism. We think we're being mature, serious, thoughtful, and virtuous, when in fact we're just acting like dangerous, vicious children.
The first words for my day's tasks were 'Etgar Keret, Fake?'...and then this pops up in my box.
I am newly subbed and was not aware of this author until 3 days ago when I received the following:
Hi
I recently came across your work, and I was really struck by the honesty in your storytelling and the way you blend personal experience with universal truth. As a fellow author, I deeply appreciate writing that challenges and moves readers the way yours does.
I just wanted to reach out to say how much I admired your work. It's inspiring to see writing that’s both fearless and artful.
It is definitely a fake. I didn’t recently come across your work but I’m sure it is why more honest than this imposter message. Why would anyone do this? It’s mean.
We've lived in the world of fakery - -'virtual reality' for - how long? It's a scenario imagined by great British 20th century prophets like George Orwell and Aldous Huxley.
But I bet they never once thought that the 'virtual' - 'almost' but not 'quite' - global village would develop in the ether and leave humanity dangling in gimcrack mid-air.
Indeed! Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard examines this in academic form; basically saying that derivitives of reality have diverged into a hyper-reality, thus rendering originals inert because they're either ignored or forgotten. This is then accepted as the new reality and the pattern continues. What's most interesting to me is the book being published in 1981. Which is, obviously, well before the internet was anything like it is today. So yeah, as you already stated ... we've been in it for awhile.
thank you for this. I think we are dipping our toes into a new world. Aside from the obvious, I have to be extra vigilant to see what is fake and what is real and sometimes I don’t know anymore.
So interesting. In a way the imaginary scenario and the fake one don't 'feel' alike at all. The fake is there to hook you, trick you, the imaginary one consoles and soothes. Yes, in a way it's a lie - I made it all up in my imagination (wherever that is) - but it's my lie, my story, and I know it. I'm not kidding myself or being kidded. The fake one, if I know it's a fake it annoys me. If I don't know, but find out eventually, well then I feel stupid and conned and maybe a bit humiliated. Very different. Very interesting to think about. Thanks once again for being there.
Exactly, Elibec - we are all walking around feeling stupid, conned, humiliated. I am as vigilant as an adult can possibly be, I am educated, and I am smart -- and I am enraged when I am so easily duped. I no longer go to youtube for anything. It is a start.
How is a deepfake of Will Smith nursing a hedgehog different than a photo of the real Will Smith holding a real hedgehog - one that was set up and shot as part of an ad campaign for the WWF or some other entity?
We have been living with fakes, also known as "lies" and "stories", for as long as there have been humans. The only difference is that for most of history the lies had been limited to being verbal and later written and now they are photographs and videos.
We were never honest but when someone says something we always know that he may lie but when we see a photo or a video we tend to trust our senses. This was a good rule for the real world but in the virtual one it stopped working and we should acknowledge that .
Wow! This should be mandatory daily reading, especially for young bros in the US of A who voted for Trump because they thought he was "funny," only to find out that their wages are being garnished to pay off their student loans. To paraphrase Mike Tyson, It's always fun until someone punches you in the face.
I am totally lost by now! How do I distinguish between reality and AI? You did your best to explain. I’m still lost.!
As long as you can differentiate between the real world and the digital one . If you can smell it and touch it it is much more likely to exist than if you saw it in a post somewhere .
Solid breakdown of how deepfakes differ from imagination. The distinction between actively crafting a fantasy vs passively consuming a prefab fake is underrated. That point about the seaside daydream being therapeutic while mass-produced deepfakes just plug holes without healing anything is sharp. I kinda caught myself reflexively scrolling past deepfakes without really thinking about the cognitive residue they leave behind, treating memorylike patterns the same as actual recollection. Makes me wonder how many poeple realize they're building neural pathways for events that never happened.
scary
Mental illness is often predicated on fake realities or perceptions. We believe someone dislikes us, hates us, or is following us, and when we cannot prove it true or false, it haunts us. This has been happening forever, and we address it compassionately with therapy. In the world of deep fakes, our reality is being messed with. We see and hear people talking about things that didn't happen. Discussing a horrible subject as a positive thing, which blows our mind, until we're told, Oh, that was fake. This is a scary scenario, to mess with our minds and reality as if it were a joke. A little humor. Imagine getting a fake call that sounds 100% like your daughter, screaming and asking for help as the line goes dead. April Fools! Yeah, AI is a Godsend. Sure, but for whom?
"... living in this shaky reality with a sense of resignation, perhaps even serenity, with no resistance or protest..." Etgar, who are we kidding, we KNOW it is already here. And we face it with frog costumes and ineffectual whimpers. If I were a believer, I would be praying 12 hours a day for us.
Haha I could see where this was headed well before the punchline! But it's a good point, and very well made.
This story actually reminds me a little of the answer you gave years ago to my question about what it was like to be a writer in Israel. You said that Israel wasn't always a good place to live, but it was a great place to write because it made you need fiction almost as a coping strategy, as a Plan B for the failure of Plan A, reality. Nobody writes about a grilled sandwich, you said, because it is easy to just go ahead and make a grilled cheese sandwich. But people write about love because it may be a way of exploring the thing that didn't happen. When things don't work out the way you wanted, you at least have something to write about.
But comparing the answer you gave me years ago to the story you just posted also emphasises how subtle the distinction can be between fiction and self-deception. They're both coping strategies, after all, and they're both rooted in forms of escape into non-reality. I think it's the notion of "exploring the thing that didn't happen" versus the more facile, childish notion of "wish fulfilment" that might separate the fiction of a short story from the fiction of porn or a political meme. When you give serious thought to "exploring the thing that didn't happen", you lend it a degree of dignity with the intensity of your consideration, and - perhaps more importantly - the possibility that even within the space of your imagination it will still go horribly wrong. On the other hand, porn and political memes give us fantasies that are "easy." They are thoughtless responses to an oftentimes thoughtless world. They mirror and exacerbate the ugliness that created them.
Your story doesn't explicitly describe the most dangerous category of fantasy, although it's essentially implied in the story's conclusion. That is, things get really frickin' dangerous and ugly when we mistake the "easy" fantasy for the "exploratory" one - that gives rise to all kinds of religious and political extremism. We think we're being mature, serious, thoughtful, and virtuous, when in fact we're just acting like dangerous, vicious children.
How very curious...
The first words for my day's tasks were 'Etgar Keret, Fake?'...and then this pops up in my box.
I am newly subbed and was not aware of this author until 3 days ago when I received the following:
Hi
I recently came across your work, and I was really struck by the honesty in your storytelling and the way you blend personal experience with universal truth. As a fellow author, I deeply appreciate writing that challenges and moves readers the way yours does.
I just wanted to reach out to say how much I admired your work. It's inspiring to see writing that’s both fearless and artful.
Warm regards
Etgar keret
It seemed plausible...until...it didn't.
Is any clarification possible?
This seems like a common scam - see Sherman Alexie's note:
https://substack.com/@shermanalexie/note/c-197890102?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=511zzt
Thank you Martin… Interesting experiences...
It is definitely a fake. I didn’t recently come across your work but I’m sure it is why more honest than this imposter message. Why would anyone do this? It’s mean.
Thank you....
The motive was not immediately apparent. It IS mean...
I did also see a false facebook profile independent of this.
Very glad to have discovered your work, however...despite the strange circumstances.
All the Best...
Debra
We've lived in the world of fakery - -'virtual reality' for - how long? It's a scenario imagined by great British 20th century prophets like George Orwell and Aldous Huxley.
But I bet they never once thought that the 'virtual' - 'almost' but not 'quite' - global village would develop in the ether and leave humanity dangling in gimcrack mid-air.
Indeed! Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard examines this in academic form; basically saying that derivitives of reality have diverged into a hyper-reality, thus rendering originals inert because they're either ignored or forgotten. This is then accepted as the new reality and the pattern continues. What's most interesting to me is the book being published in 1981. Which is, obviously, well before the internet was anything like it is today. So yeah, as you already stated ... we've been in it for awhile.
Those French philosophers are always a step ahead⚡️
thank you for this. I think we are dipping our toes into a new world. Aside from the obvious, I have to be extra vigilant to see what is fake and what is real and sometimes I don’t know anymore.
It’s not you. It is a feeling that it seems as if everyone I know share
So interesting. In a way the imaginary scenario and the fake one don't 'feel' alike at all. The fake is there to hook you, trick you, the imaginary one consoles and soothes. Yes, in a way it's a lie - I made it all up in my imagination (wherever that is) - but it's my lie, my story, and I know it. I'm not kidding myself or being kidded. The fake one, if I know it's a fake it annoys me. If I don't know, but find out eventually, well then I feel stupid and conned and maybe a bit humiliated. Very different. Very interesting to think about. Thanks once again for being there.
Exactly, Elibec - we are all walking around feeling stupid, conned, humiliated. I am as vigilant as an adult can possibly be, I am educated, and I am smart -- and I am enraged when I am so easily duped. I no longer go to youtube for anything. It is a start.