TECHNOLOGY
Survival In An Internet World
Artificial Intelligence, from dark sci-fi to current reality
Wilma Rudolph won the 100-meter final in the Rome 1960 Olympic Games at 11.18 seconds; she then won the 200 meters at 24.13 seconds. At the time, she was the fastest woman in the world.
I knew this. Walter “and that’s the way it is” Cronkite knew this. The world knew this. The world has known this since September of 1960. But no longer.
A while back, reminiscing about my childhood and my childhood heroes, I wanted to take a look at those Rome 1960 finals and found them on YouTube in a new, improved fidelity video of the events.
Only.
Only.
Wilma Rudolph didn’t win the 100-meter sprint. It was won by the British Sprinter Dorothy Hyman at 11.18 seconds. Wilma Rudolph came in second at 11.43 seconds. There was a surprising subtitle to this video event, “White Wins Again.”
Not believing what I saw, I watched it again, and though I am not sure how they would have gone about manipulating the original, grainy footage to show Hyman winning, they had.
And Hyman won. White won again.
I called up the 200-meter final.
Again, it was also won by Dorothy Hyman, with a time of 24.13. Wilma Rudolph came in third at 24.82. And again, the subtitle, “White Wins Again” clarified things for us.
To make sure I was not dreaming, I watched both events again, and again, with the same results: Dorothy Hyman and Wilma Rudolph switched places in the results — and in the videos. Because — and that was the not-so-subtle message — Hyman was white and Rudolph was black.
I looked elsewhere for 1960 Rome Olympics footage for the real event and did eventually, after some determined digging, find the original 1960 footage showing Rudolph winning both events. This result, however, could only be found on page 26 of the Google search results, every other single video was the AI-generated, fake “Whites Wins Again” version.
Now, both I and Walter Cronkite and a good part of my generation, know the truth, but not so my grandchildren and all of their friends, for today, were they to do their often rushed and cursory search, they will find the results at the top of the Google results: White Wins Again.
This is our new world, the Internet World.
Yes, the above example is sheer fiction. If you Google the 1960 Roman Olympics 100-meter women’s final, Wilma Rudolph still won, but — and that’s the crucial question — for how long?
Today, Twitter (now rebranded as “X” which, rather aptly, methinks, used to mean pornography, as in X-rated movies) remains replete with misleading opinions and rants.
Facebook, ditto.
Click-through-hungry news outlets will sensationalize and exaggerate anything to catch and hold (as in kidnap) your attention — their income and financial health depend on it. That is why accounts given of events may or may not be true. Fox News is the poster child for misleading “News” designed to capture viewers’ attention and stir their thirst for the absurd and outrageous; and videos shown of sensational events may well have been AI-“Improved,” it’s almost impossible to tell these days.
Also, bad news (which is more of an attention magnet than good news) seems to outrank good news by a ratio of 10:1 today.
It is now getting to the point where it is very hard, if not impossible, to determine who or what to trust.
The altruistic dreams and hopes lauded about the Internet at its inception have backfired catastrophically — not a good reflection on our species.
So, who or what to trust?
History is Written by the Victors
The current peril, however, is not entirely new, for it is more or less a proverb that history is written by the victors; their version of events — true or not — becomes the official, historical record of what “actually” occurred as then presented in official, government-sanctioned, history books — which, interestingly but not surprisingly, may differ significantly from one nation to the next about the same event.
Some of my high school teachers actually warned us of this: our history books did not necessarily tell us the full truth, or even parts of it. The glorious history was always sung by the victors.
But today’s world makes our history books out to be paragons of truth and virtue, for now we can no longer trust what we hear or see online. It’s getting to the point where we can only trust what we perceive with our own eyes and ears — though even that is often tainted by our own opinions about what we see or hear.
See Only The Seen
In the Bāhiya Sutra, the Buddha taught the recluse Bāhiya, who had asked him for advice and the way to end suffering:
“In what is seen there must be only what is seen, in what is heard there must be only what is heard, in what is sensed there must be only what is sensed, in what is cognized there must be only what is cognized. This is the way, Bāhiya, you should train yourself. (My italics).
“And since for you, Bāhiya, in what is seen there will be only what is seen, in what is heard there will be only what is heard, in what is sensed there will be only what is sensed, in what is cognized there will be only what is cognized, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not be with that; and since, Bāhiya, you will not be with that, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not be in that; and since, Bāhiya, you will not be in that, therefore, Bāhiya, you will not be here or hereafter or in between the two — just this is the end of suffering.”
This is one of my favorite teachings of the Buddha where he, in short, tells us to disregard our own bias or reactions to, views and opinions about, or craving or aversions concerning what we perceive. To only perceive what is actually there. No ego involved.
This order is very, very tall since we all carry busloads of internal bias that more often than not color our perceptions.
But assuming that we can see what is there in front of us, can hear what is within hearing and nothing else, well then we can trust our perceptions.
Not so online which is so replete with bias and opinion that it virtually oozes this stuff. And add to that Artificial Intelligence, which even today really could generate a fake 1960 Olympics women’s 100-meter final — if some right-wing geek put his mind to it — to give Wilma Rudolph silver instead of gold.
That’s the sad news. Here’s some even sadder: I do not see a solution to this Internet dilemma, not anytime soon, anyway. Fake news, believable AI-generated videos, vitriol, greed, hatred, delusion — add whatever noun scares you the most — is the Internet today, and I don’t see it improving.
It is a vehicle for business, so greed is not going to go away.
It is a vehicle for venom, so hatred is not going to go away.
It is a vehicle for fantastic opinions so delusion is not going to go away.
Medium editors sift out the garbage
But let me say here that I find Medium, our common vehicle, to be one of the most reliable platform around and that the editors appear to sift out most garbage, and let us all thank them ever so much for that.
In my experience, most, if not all, stories and articles on Medium are well-intended and seek to help — sweetly transcending the me, me, me fray of the Internet in general.
Trust your gut more than your screen
As for solutions, as for how do we live with the current state of the Internet.
I once had reason to pose this problem to a friend of mine: How do you tell the perfect fake from the real? How do you know the lie masquerading as truth to be a lie?
Answer: You just know.
The spirit has that ability. The awareness that is life itself, when alert, awake, and diligent, knows a truth when it sees it, and we are all of that spirit. That’s the good news.
So, what I can offer as a solution is to stay vigilant, stay aware of the rampant pitfalls and lies.
Which is another way of saying:
Trust your gut more than your screen.
© Wolfstuff
