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Comment by Asdfbla | Hacker News Reader

I find the more concerning thing is not that people will believe that a fake is real, it's more that they won't believe something real is real anymore.

Already nowadays the whole thing about fake news and alternative facts has segments of the population flat out not believing the truth. This may very well be greatly exacerbated in the future where, regardless of the amount of evidence you bring, people will just disregard it as fake.

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If it can be faked, is it really evidence? I mean, you're worrying about people not believing assertions at that point. This is already something that can be faked just not by the masses yet and not easily. You should always look for multiple sources of anything and not just believe one source that shows you any evidence of something being true.

There was this essay posted on HN some time back, where the main thesis was that teaching people to be critical about media strengthened the positions of antivaxers, flatearthers and so on, because they did not rely on traditional media so they were then sort of considered more trustworthy. And now deepfakes etc throws just more fuel in the fire that burns trust, people end up more and more believing things that happen to make them feel good.

Believing 'the truth' is a huge can of worms here.

Verifying the legitimacy and accuracy of 'news' claims and representations has always been very difficult for the lay person. We are now well into an era when 'the truth' is even harder to find.

'Believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see' (Edgar Allen Poe) has now become 'believe nothing of what you see' too, at least until you have verified to your level of satisfaction...

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