Honestly, I’m just as easily fooled as anyone. I see movies that morph faces, that use younger faces on older actors, and that distort shapes according to some dream-like realities. Am I looking at the real or the surreal? And now, with AI advancing rapidly, I have to ask whether or not I will become more befuddled by “What Is.”
Knowing what scenes in manmade images, moving or still, are manipulated is a problem when we need to separate the real from the unreal or surreal as a matter of survival, economic health, or effective behavior. And in a world of multiple news sources and wannabe news-breakers seeking attention either for personal aggrandizement or agenda-driven policies, alternative realities can shape the future of both individuals and the societies they compose.
So, what are we to do with the realities imposed on us by an elite group in control of the news, or at least, in control of the mass dissemination of knowledge that might not be “true.” Take, for example, a New York Times’ article by Kendra Pierre-Louis. The headline reads “Ocean Warming Is Accelerating Faster Than Thought, New Research Finds.” * Reading that headline is about as much as the average reader will read. Who among the laity cares for the details?
But according to an examination of the “scientific report” on which the article is based, conducted by Nicholas Lewis, “The paper does not directly claim that ocean warming is accelerating faster than thought; that is the headline of the New York Times article about the paper [by Cheng et al (2019)].” **
In a back-and-forth discussion between Lewis and the team of researchers, the authors of the original paper fail to refute Lewis’s criticisms “concerning factual errors and misleading statements.” But anyone who read the New York Times would see a report on “settled” science. Once proclaimed in headline form, forever in the minds of readers. That’s one way that alternate realities become part of our psyche, both individual and societal.
How many of us are Nicholas Lewises? How many of us would take the time to re-examine a “reality” to see whether or not it had substance? Right! Not many of us. First, we’re too busy to re-examine all we see or hear; second, we’re ill-equipped intellectually to do the re-examining because we lack the special kinds of skills and knowledge behind scientific research. So, one reporter, possibly with an agenda of “the-world-is-about-to-end-because-of-climate-change” and one editor can headline a scary conclusion not supported by the very journal article from which they derived the headline.
From movies to newspapers, we live in a world of alternate realities as difficult to escape as the mythical labyrinth designed by Daedalus for King Minos. Our reality is now alternate reality.
* https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/climate/ocean-warming-climate-change.html Accessed October 1, 2019.
**Cheng, Lijing, John Abraham, Zeke Hausfather, and Kevin E. Trenberth. How fast are the oceans warming? Science 11 Jan 2019, Vol. 363, Issue 6423, pp. 128-129. DOI: 10.1126/science aay7619.
*** https://www.nicholaslewis.org/is-ocean-warming-accelerating-faster-than-thought/
Accessed October 1, 2019.
Knowing what scenes in manmade images, moving or still, are manipulated is a problem when we need to separate the real from the unreal or surreal as a matter of survival, economic health, or effective behavior. And in a world of multiple news sources and wannabe news-breakers seeking attention either for personal aggrandizement or agenda-driven policies, alternative realities can shape the future of both individuals and the societies they compose.
So, what are we to do with the realities imposed on us by an elite group in control of the news, or at least, in control of the mass dissemination of knowledge that might not be “true.” Take, for example, a New York Times’ article by Kendra Pierre-Louis. The headline reads “Ocean Warming Is Accelerating Faster Than Thought, New Research Finds.” * Reading that headline is about as much as the average reader will read. Who among the laity cares for the details?
But according to an examination of the “scientific report” on which the article is based, conducted by Nicholas Lewis, “The paper does not directly claim that ocean warming is accelerating faster than thought; that is the headline of the New York Times article about the paper [by Cheng et al (2019)].” **
In a back-and-forth discussion between Lewis and the team of researchers, the authors of the original paper fail to refute Lewis’s criticisms “concerning factual errors and misleading statements.” But anyone who read the New York Times would see a report on “settled” science. Once proclaimed in headline form, forever in the minds of readers. That’s one way that alternate realities become part of our psyche, both individual and societal.
How many of us are Nicholas Lewises? How many of us would take the time to re-examine a “reality” to see whether or not it had substance? Right! Not many of us. First, we’re too busy to re-examine all we see or hear; second, we’re ill-equipped intellectually to do the re-examining because we lack the special kinds of skills and knowledge behind scientific research. So, one reporter, possibly with an agenda of “the-world-is-about-to-end-because-of-climate-change” and one editor can headline a scary conclusion not supported by the very journal article from which they derived the headline.
From movies to newspapers, we live in a world of alternate realities as difficult to escape as the mythical labyrinth designed by Daedalus for King Minos. Our reality is now alternate reality.
* https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/climate/ocean-warming-climate-change.html Accessed October 1, 2019.
**Cheng, Lijing, John Abraham, Zeke Hausfather, and Kevin E. Trenberth. How fast are the oceans warming? Science 11 Jan 2019, Vol. 363, Issue 6423, pp. 128-129. DOI: 10.1126/science aay7619.
*** https://www.nicholaslewis.org/is-ocean-warming-accelerating-faster-than-thought/
Accessed October 1, 2019.
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