If anything can be faked...
... then nothing has to be believed!
As I reflect on my previous post about our collectively broken world, I realize there's another layer to this crisis that makes our situation even more dire; one that strikes at the very heart of what makes us human:
Our ability to distinguish truth from lies!
The "liar's dividend" is a concept that should terrify every thinking person on this planet. It describes the perverse benefit that liars receive when the public becomes aware that content can be easily manipulated. In essence, as we become more educated about deepfakes, AI-generated content, and digital manipulation, we paradoxically make it easier for bad actors to dismiss real evidence as fake.
This isn't just about technology: it's about the systematic erosion of our collective ability to agree on basic facts. The liar's dividend succeeds because it exploits our psychological vulnerabilities, our tendency toward confirmation bias, our tribal loyalties, our desire for simple answers to complex problems.
An is winning because we're fighting yesterday's war with tomorrow's technology while ignoring today's human reality. Until we address the fundamental crisis of trust and shared reality, all our technological solutions will be mere band-aids on a wound that continues to fester.