Introduction
In today's digital age, we're constantly bombarded with information, images, and stories from the internet. But how much of what we see online is real, and how much is fake? Walter Scheirer's book, "A History of Fake Things on the Internet," delves into this fascinating and complex topic, exploring the origins of digital fakery, its impact on society, and what it reveals about human nature.
This book takes readers on a journey through the history of myths, memes, and manipulation, from ancient times to the modern digital landscape. It examines how our innate desire to create and share stories has evolved alongside technology, and how the internet has become both a powerful tool for spreading information and a breeding ground for misinformation.
The Story of Myth and Meme-Making
Ancient Roots of Memes
Imagine yourself in ancient Athens, where craftsmen gather to discuss their latest creation – a piece of pottery with a humorous twist. The pottery depicts an owl, representing the goddess Athena, but with an oversized helmet and a tiny spear. This playful image is an early example of a meme, a form of cultural expression that has existed long before the internet.
Memes like this helped spread and evolve myths throughout history. They were a way for people to make sense of the world around them, providing explanations for complex phenomena and giving structure to our understanding of life. These ancient memes, often in the form of comic pictures on pottery, were shared and modified over generations, showing that humans have always had a knack for creating and sharing amusing or thought-provoking content.
The Internet Age and Tribal Divisions
Fast forward to the late twentieth century, and we see the birth of the internet – a revolutionary tool that promised to bring people closer together. However, instead of uniting us, the internet has often been used to divide us into myth-based tribes through conspiracies and other forms of fakery.
Today's internet is filled with content of questionable truth. Misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories spread rapidly, taking advantage of the internet's ability to democratize information sharing. These digital narratives gain traction and fuel the creation of alternative realities for different groups of people.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence
As if the spread of fake information wasn't concerning enough, artificial intelligence (AI) is now being fed this content, potentially pushing society further into a world of illusions. AI algorithms, designed to keep users engaged, often end up amplifying divisive and sensationalist content. This leads to a collective distortion of reality, where the line between fact and fiction becomes increasingly blurred.
The Rise of Fake News
Hacker Culture and the "Better, Stronger, Faster" Ethos
The phenomenon of "fake news" is closely tied to the rise of hacker culture in the 1980s. This culture embraced the motto "Better, Stronger, Faster," representing a desire to push beyond the limits of technology, information, and societal norms.
Hacker culture was a diverse group, including:
- Countercultural figures seeking alternatives to mainstream society
- Trained engineers pushing technological boundaries
- Creatives finding artistic expression through computing
- Punk kids challenging authority
Together, these groups aimed to redefine what was possible in the digital world.
Hackers vs. Law Enforcement
As hacker culture grew, it inevitably caught the attention of law enforcement. This led to a battle not just over illegal activities, but also over the control and spread of information. Hackers, driven by various motivations – challenge, ideology, or thrill – found news media an attractive target for their exploits. Media outlets, with their wide reach, became stages for hackers to demonstrate their skills and spread their countercultural messages.
The Legion of Doom and Mythmaking
Groups like the "Legion of Doom" embraced myth-making, portraying hackers as modern-day digital outlaws. Their actions and the stories that grew around them exemplified the "Better, Stronger, Faster" ideal, reinforcing the image of hackers as figures capable of outsmarting traditional information gatekeepers.
The Blurring of Fact and Fiction
This backdrop set the stage for the manipulation of news media, highlighting how even the most reputable outlets could be exploited. The mainstream media's struggle to maintain credibility amid these challenges underscores the difficulty of discerning truth in an era where information can be so easily manipulated.
Over time, the lines between fact and fiction, reality and myth, have become increasingly blurred. The nature of myth is to evolve, and today's events and characters may be reinterpreted in the future, spawning new cultural mutations. This ongoing cycle reflects the dynamic interplay between technology, society, and the stories we tell, highlighting the enduring power of myths in shaping our understanding of the world.
The History of Photo Manipulation
Political Manipulation: The Case of Chairman Mao
After the death of China's leader Chairman Mao Zedong in 1976, two photographs circulated. One showed Mao's successors standing by his side, while the other was identical except for one crucial detail: the absence of the "Gang of Four" – a political faction involved in the Cultural Revolution. This deliberate alteration was an act of historical revisionism, aligning the perceived historical narrative with the government's political agenda.
This example illustrates how manipulated visuals have been used globally to reshape public perception, affecting how individuals and political entities are seen and understood. These visual modifications can boost or damage reputations, rewrite history, and influence political outcomes.
The Evolution of Photo Manipulation Techniques
The practice of altering photographs dates back to the 1800s. An early example is a portrait of US President Abraham Lincoln, where his head was placed on the body of Southern politician John Calhoun. As photography advanced, so did the techniques for altering images – from piecing together separate negatives to using sophisticated digital tools like Photoshop. The motivations behind these alterations ranged from harmless (like removing blemishes) to malicious (such as propaganda).
The Psychological Impulse Behind Photo Manipulation
Photo manipulation isn't merely a result of technological advancement. It stems from a deeper, psychological impulse – humanity's ongoing quest to reshape reality and create a simpler, more palatable narrative. This pursuit is similar to the creation of myths, which serve to distill complex phenomena into understandable stories. Just as myths have been used to explain the inexplicable, photo manipulations attempt to present a reality that aligns with a desired narrative or ideology.
In this light, the practice of altering images can be seen as an extension of an ancient tradition: the reimagining of our world. Photo manipulations serve as visual myths, shaping perceptions and memories, and revealing how, throughout history, humans have sought to craft their reality into something more aligned with their desires and beliefs.
How We Bring About What We Fear
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Digital Fakery
In the early days of digital imagery, experts in media forensics warned of a future where high-quality digital photo fakes would challenge our perception of reality. Today, their prediction seems less like a warning and more like a blueprint of the digital age, as deepfakes and sophisticated photo manipulations routinely deceive observers. Ironically, their warning may have contributed to bringing about the very situation they feared.
This phenomenon is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy – a prediction that, in being made, actually brings about the outcome it forecasts. It's not just a quirk of human psychology; it's embedded in the progress of science and technology. Innovations often chase the horizon of their creators' imaginations, inadvertently birthing the very future they envision.
Brute Facts vs. Institutional Facts
Philosopher John Searle made a distinction between two types of facts:
- Brute facts: Those independent of human beliefs or institutions (e.g., water freezing at 0°C)
- Institutional facts: Those that exist as a function of societal consensus (e.g., the value of money)
Self-fulfilling prophecies belong to the realm of institutional facts. They come about because a critical mass of people alter their behavior based on a particular belief, thereby weaving it into reality.
The Evolution and Challenges of Media Forensics
The field of media forensics developed to discern truth in an era where seeing is no longer believing. Forensic experts have developed techniques to detect anomalies in pixels, metadata, and lighting. However, they face an uphill battle as technology democratizes the tools needed to create convincing fakes. This has led to a culture of skepticism where any image can be dismissed as a potential forgery.
This skepticism has significant implications:
- In academia, the integrity of visual evidence has become crucial, as faked images in research papers could profoundly influence public policy.
- Misinformation, once seeded, can grow to affect legislation, sway public opinion, and even destabilize societies.
The irony is stark: in preparing for a future of falsified visuals, media forensics may have contributed to a world where doubt is cast on the authentic. In this landscape of doubt and unprecedented technological capacity, the field must now develop tools not only to detect forgeries but also to reinforce the credibility of genuine media.
The Horror of the Internet
Videodrome: A Prophetic Vision
The 1983 film Videodrome presents a disturbing blend of technology, violence, and erotic imagery, capturing the era's anxiety about the growing influence of mass media. The film's protagonist discovers a broadcast signal featuring torture and murder, leading to a hallucinatory descent into a world where reality and television violently merge. Videodrome eerily foreshadows the rise of shock content on the internet, illustrating the unsettling potential for media to shape perception and reality.
The Evolution of Shock Content: From Freak Shows to Rotten.com
Following in the tradition of P.T. Barnum's freak shows, which capitalized on public curiosity about the grotesque and unusual, websites like rotten.com emerged as controversial bastions of shock content. Founded by someone who understood the allure of the macabre, rotten.com became infamous for hosting graphic and often disturbing images. Like Barnum's exhibits, it didn't shy away from presenting humanity's darkest aspects to a willing audience.
4chan and the Power of Anonymity
Building on the foundations laid by predecessors like rotten.com, 4chan.com took the concept of shock content further by allowing users to post anonymously. This anonymity removed social barriers of accountability, inviting a flood of extreme and often disturbing content. 4chan became a digital arena where the basest human impulses could be expressed without consequence.
Marshall McLuhan's Media Theory
Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan theorized that the medium through which content is delivered shapes society more than the content itself. According to this theory, the internet acts as a catalyst for an innate human inclination to seek ever more shocking stimuli to provoke a response. This quest for intensity reflects a deep-seated desire to feel more deeply, to ensure media continues to impact the body and mind in an increasingly desensitized culture.
The Impact of Horror Content
The pursuit of horror, whether fabricated or real, can lead to a diminished quality of life and isolation. However, horror as a genre has its place in myth, acting as a mirror to societal fears and helping process collective anxieties. The consumption of meaningless violence challenges individuals to take responsibility for their engagement with media. It presents a choice: allow these fake nightmares to erode one's well-being or confront them as part of the human experience – mere stories that need not drag us into the abyss.
Personal Agency in Media Consumption
The rise of shock content on the internet underscores the necessity for personal agency in media consumption. While the platforms that host such content may not discriminate, users have the freedom to choose their response. They can either indulge in these digital spectacles or seek out narratives that uplift rather than degrade, thus taking control of the myths that shape their lives.
Whether to Fear or Hope
The Power of Imagination
Imagination is the lifeblood of the human experience, a crucible for innovation, art, and understanding the cosmos. When imagination is stifled, our world shrinks. We lose the ability to dream beyond our constraints, to innovate, and to empathize with experiences beyond our own. A society devoid of imagination is like a night sky without stars – dark and without wonder. It's a world where invention isn't possible.
Alarmist Warnings vs. Reality
Throughout history, alarmist warnings have often overshadowed the potential of new inventions, forecasting doom where there was opportunity. Yet, most of these cautionary tales have either not come to pass or have lost their sting over time. The Y2K bug is a classic example – predicted to cause global chaos at the turn of the millennium, it instead fizzled out, leaving little more than a ripple in its wake.
The Internet: Challenges and Opportunities
While the internet has undoubtedly unleashed challenges and controversies, it's also been a cradle for opportunity. For instance:
- Online educational platforms have democratized learning, allowing access to knowledge that once required entry to esteemed institutions.
- Inspiring initiatives, such as the Ice Bucket Challenge, raise awareness about important causes like specific medical conditions or community needs, while also raising funding for research and support.
Hope for a Better Future
Despite the challenges, there remains a steadfast hope that humanity's better nature will prevail, steering our technological capabilities towards a brighter future. It's through the lens of hope that we can envision a digital landscape where technology amplifies our collective strengths and fosters a more equitable, creative, and connected world.
Conclusion
"A History of Fake Things on the Internet" takes readers on a journey through the complex landscape of digital fakery, from its ancient roots to its modern manifestations. The book reveals that myth-making and meme creation are fundamental aspects of human culture, shaping our interpretations of reality throughout history.
Key takeaways include:
The human drive to create and share stories has existed long before the internet, as evidenced by ancient memes on pottery.
The internet, while promising to connect us, has often been used to divide us into myth-based tribes through conspiracies and misinformation.
The rise of fake news is closely tied to hacker culture and the ethos of pushing technological and societal boundaries.
Photo manipulation has a long history and reflects our deep-seated desire to reshape reality according to our beliefs and desires.
The warnings about digital fakery may have inadvertently contributed to creating the very future they predicted.
Shock content on the internet is an extension of humanity's fascination with the macabre, challenging us to take responsibility for our media consumption.
Despite the challenges, the internet has also been a force for positive change, democratizing education and fostering global awareness campaigns.
While not all alarmist predictions about technology come true, the internet has indeed proved to be a double-edged sword, unleashing both inspiring initiatives and dubious content. Yet, amid the chaos of fake news and shock content, there's hope that humanity's collective imagination will harness technology's vast potential for the greater good.
The book encourages readers to approach the digital landscape with a critical eye, recognizing the power of myths and memes in shaping our perceptions. It also emphasizes the importance of personal agency in navigating the online world, reminding us that we have the power to choose which narratives we engage with and perpetuate.
Ultimately, "A History of Fake Things on the Internet" is a call to embrace the positive potential of technology while remaining vigilant against its misuse. It's a reminder that in the digital age, as in all of human history, our ability to create, share, and believe in stories remains a powerful force – one that can either divide us or bring us together in pursuit of a better future.
As we move forward in this ever-evolving digital landscape, the book leaves us with a sense of cautious optimism. It suggests that by understanding the history and psychology behind fake things on the internet, we can better navigate the complexities of our digital world and work towards a future where technology serves to enlighten rather than deceive.