Something else occurs to me that’s pretty goddamn terrifying - we think of technologies like the Internet, digital photo/video, etc as being an excellent conduit of information…but what if the very thing that’s supposed to make us smarter and more knowledgeable is having the exact opposite effect? What if there’s a “tipping point” where technology that’s *too* advanced is detrimental to the very essence of human perception?

When it was extremely expensive/difficult to fake a photo, you could take it for granted that most of the photos you saw were genuine. Now, “real or photoshopped” is a constant question one has to ask.

At the moment, it’s too difficult/expensive for laypeople to create extremely convincing fake video of real people doing things they haven’t actually done…but what happens when that technology becomes as ubiquitous as photoshop is now?

Kooks, cranks, and conspiracy theorists will be emboldened as never before, because they can a) easily create fake “evidence” for their nutbaggery and b) dismiss the real evidence as being “fake” (e.g. flat-earthers claiming all NASA imagery is photoshopped).

The phrase “to live in an alternate reality” will take on an even more terrifying meaning.