What is Truth?
Diogenes Searching for an Honest Man (1640–1647) by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione held at the National Gallery of Art
Diogenes of Sinope is best known for his search for an honest man — and for truth.
He was most likely a student of the philosopher Antisthenes and, in the words of Plato (allegedly), was “A Socrates gone mad.” He was driven into exile from his native city of Sinope for defacing currency (though some sources say it was his father who committed the crime and Diogenes simply followed him into exile). He made a home for himself in Athens in the agora, living in a rain barrel and surviving off gifts from admirers, foraging, and begging….By holding a literal light up to people's faces in broad daylight, he forced them to recognize their participation in practices that prevented them from living truthfully. [Source: WorldHistory.org]
Having never taken a philosophy course in college, it is perhaps a bit cheeky of me to opine on the nature of truth. Given this gap in my education, I will resort to the source of all modern truth -- Wikipedia -- to find a working definition of truth. Even though the Wikipedia article on truth is far too complex and long for me (I nodded off at the section on the “Correspondence Theory of Truth”), I did manage to jot down the first sentence: “Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.”
President John Adams once said, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." In the modern era, though, I’m concerned that “being in accord with fact or reality” ain’t what it used to be. And I’m not sure how we will find our way back.
Something has changed in the era of social media. We have morphed into a society that increasingly chooses what to believe rather than discerning what is factual. It is no longer necessary to have facts; very passionate positions on a host of issues are now determined by “something I heard from a guy on the internet.” Kurt Andersen’s Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire is a bit over the top for me in some places, but he hits the core problem of modern “truth” head on:
The American experiment, the original embodiment of the great Enlightenment idea of intellectual freedom, every individual free to believe anything she wishes, has metastasized out of control….We have passed through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole. America has mutated into Fantasyland. [Andersen, Kurt. Fantasyland (p. 5 and 6). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition].
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
We’ve always been a society that places a high value on visual evidence. “Just show me the contract.” “Show me the picture.” “I want to see the video.” But what happens if these traditional indicators of “truth” can no longer be trusted? Determining what is real and what is fake is increasingly difficult, if not impossible for the average person. If you start down the path of searching for “fake news,” here are the suggested searches that pop up from Google., clearly implying that there is a lot of action out there.
At the simplest level, a clickable piece of fake news, attributable to a news organization, is available in less than 10 seconds with a few entries (I won’t provide the URL to this site here — there is no need to encourage even more fake news.) Here’s the form….And the output…
Voila! Is it identifiable as a fake, yes. Could it be distributed around world millions of times before the creator is called on it? You betcha.
Fake videos are particularly problematic (Reimagining Information Authenticity). To illustrate how the scale of the problem multiplies as previously expensive and complicated technologies are consumerized, I did a search on “fake video.” Here are just a few of the search results, from just the last seven days.
Tom Cruise Test Shows People Can’t Detect Fake Videos Even When They Know They Are Fake
Truth or Fake - Fake videos using robotic voices and deepfakes circulate in Mali
No, this isn't footage of China launching a fake sun into space
Watch: Delhi Police warns of fake video to create discord in Sikh community
I send myself drinks from fake secret admirers on first dates so they know I'm in demand
And on and on the list goes…
The problem of “truth” is infinitely compounded by amplification of fake information through algorithmically determined “news” that is delivered straight to our laptops and phones -- and consumed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and on, and on (Can Facebook Be Fixed?).
Before the Internet, crackpots were mostly isolated and surely had a harder time remaining convinced of their alternate realities. Now their devoutly believed opinions are all over the airwaves and the Web, just like actual news. Now all the fantasies look real. [Andersen, Kurt. Fantasyland (p. 9). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
What is truth? What is real? What is authentic? Yes, deep questions. But these questions are not that far removed from questions information governance professionals have wrestled with for years. What is the latest version? What is the final version? How can we prove who signed this?
Just some of the issues I look forward to discussing at the MER Conference in May in Indianapolis. Registration is open. Don’t wait.