The problem of false information - A contemplation on fingers and shadows
- May 7
- 3 min read
False information.
What is true is not defined. If you look at truth value of any statement, it appears there is just a dilemma about what amounts to a 100% truth. But, when we consider the collection of information that we have made over the years, this is vast. If we consider total number of books written, total number of articles published, pictures taken and drawings painted. Human civilization has achieved a pinnacle of information. Fact that no single person can go through everything and master even a single subject is evidence to this rapid expansion of information. As an example, few centuries ago, a doctor could master all the information necessary to treat any disease in a human being. Nowadays, there are doctors, specialized in Prostate cancer, or Rheumatoid arthritis, or dementia. As the information about prostate cancer, is as vast as all the medical information available about all the diseases in the body, few centuries back.
But, with this rapid expansion of information, there is a problem. As, speculations and false information also expanding at a rapid rate. Here I do not mean scientific information as truth. Science also uses speculation, as a method of finding new knowledge. As it doesn't look for 100% truth, but consensus by a significant margin, scientific truths also carry some margin of error. This is inevitable. But the problem is, they are more and more closer to the truth that, one can get entangled in this haystack of scientific, fictional and religious information and would not find a real truth about life during a lifetime.
As the information sphere is already large, and truth is a rare phenomenon, what is proliferating rapidly is not always truth. And there will be a point, that humans are totally unable to navigate meaning of life in their own time. Somebody might say AI, is the solution to the problem. As, AI can judge and screen through a lot of information. But the problem with AI, is that it also has the ability to create new knowledge. Yet, as the information fed to these AI machines are not all true, they will proliferate this false information. This is a real danger to human knowledge.
Contemplating Shadows.
I was taking a walk in my garden and noticed my shadow. It was there as the sun was shining and my body was in the way. There was earth to hold my shadow. If one of these factors were not there, there would be no shadow. Can I consider Shadow as an independent entity? Or part of extension of this body? It seems I cannot do much with the shadow. I cannot feel it. Then again, I can move it where I want and if necessary, use to shade a thousand ants. When I think about it, I can see there are a lot of false information about shadows, that I have learned over the years.
What is true for my shadow, is true for my fingers. With few differences. It appears fingers are there when there is no sun, or moon. But when I deep dive into chasms of reasons, I realize, Sun still is a reason for my fingers. Several steps away. If no sun there would be no life on earth, if no moon there would be no life on earth. I can easily connect sun and Moon as a reason for existence of my fingers. Then why there is a difference in perception about my shadow and my fingers? Shouldn't I consider fingers as my shadows? It seems, we are drowned in shitload of false information, approved by science and religion, and mathematics etc. Good luck for anyone who is trying to understand any truth in word, without being mindful.
A local instagram page posted a video of turtles on a dock and alluded to it being from a pond in town. My friend and I went to the pond to see the turtles, and noticed the dock has a railing, which the dock in the video did not. Hence, the video was not taken at the local pond. Out of curiosity I asked Gemini what was the location where this video was filmed. Gemini said, falsely, it was filmed at the local pond. So…A.I. does indeed propagate lies as truth.