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It's starting to seem like the universe has some fundamental order for things that we can escape temporarily, but that are inescapable in the long run. 1. Phot
by ballenf 9y ago
It's starting to seem like the universe has some fundamental order for things that we can escape temporarily, but that are inescapable in the long run.
1. Photo and video evidence was a game-changer for establishing facts and chronologies. As we've seen, it's becoming harder and harder to distinguish fake photos and videos from real. It's not a stretch to predict a time when we'll only be able to make probabilistic statements about the veracity of photos or videos. (E.g., "60% liklihood of being undoctored.") This is probably already true about photos, although the expense of making a perfect fake is still pretty high, in terms of expertise.
I'd argue the "natural state" is one where word-of-mouth and first-hand accounts are the most authoritative evidence we can have (other than physical evidence like DNA left behind). And even physical evidence left behind can't tell us what the person did while there or how an event transpired.
2. Tracking communications. In the digital age, we've some people have come to assume that all digital text is untrackable and anonymous. Your "11001110" is the same as mine. Historically, it was pretty difficult to transcribe information without leaving traces of the origin of that info. These zero-width characters plus all the other text fingerprinting methods, and ubiquitous tracking in communication logs make it nearly impossible, again, to communicate with others without leaving a trail. And then there's the writing style analysis which makes it tough to write anything without leaving telltale fingerprints.
So, I'm proposing that we are returning to the "natural state" of things. Probably overstating things a bit, but still an interesting thought to consider.
- dctoedt 9y ago> ... the "natural state" is one where word-of-mouth and first-hand accounts are the most authoritative evidence we can have (other than physical evidence like DNA left behind) First-hand accounts aren't always reliable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyewitness_testimony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyewitness_testimony
- andrewmcwatters 9y agoI think they're proposing more that these accounts are authentic, not necessarily reliable. It's common sense that eyewitness testimony isn't 100% reliable.
- heartbreak 9y agoNeither is DNA for that matter. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/a-reasonable-doubt/480747/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/a-reaso...
- goldenkey 9y agoDNA is pretty ironclad. What that article shows is that people in authoritative positions are fallible.
- stouset 9y agoFirst-hand accounts are quite literally one of the least reliable sources of truth regarding many kinds of events. Brains fill in a lot of gaps with heuristics.
- jonahhorowitz 9y agoPhotographers have been begging the big camera makers (Nikon/Canon) to add cryptographic signatures to photos from their cameras for years, but so far they've resisted doing so.
- sharpercoder 9y agoThis is strange, considering the competition going on in this industry.
- hrktb 9y agoCa/Nikon’s main targets are people who shoot fast, a lot and publish very quickly (e.g. sport photographers) and people who will spend an awful lot of time post processing (wedding, art, commercial shootings) I’m not sure there’s enough benefits for spending processing time, effort and resources on cryptography on any of these fronts. Now smartphone apps taking “secure” pictures have been there for a while, for use cases like crash site photo for insurance claims for instance. They do fill the niche I think.
- bllguo 9y agoLike others pointed out, the "natural state" is even further from ideal. I'm not an expert on cryptography at all, but I think signatures would help in certain situations (and /u/jonahhorowitz brings this up above me). More advanced media - the next step beyond videos, maybe involving 3D or VR - would make fabrication harder. I'm sure there are solutions out there.