Lately, there’s been much talk about the decline of “truth” and the rise of “falsehood” (also known as fake news). Leading figures, like former U.S. President Trump (and his counterparts in Israel), frequently use “truth” that is relative, biased, flexible, convenient, or simply loud—whatever suits them at the time.
On the other hand, experts lament: What about “the truth?” Isn’t he just a liar? What about public trust?
Here’s the news: There is no truth. There never was, and there never will be—at least not in the innocent sense we were raised to believe.
Want examples? Here you go:
- Religion—No need to elaborate—yet hundreds of millions of believers exist.
- Science—Newton was wrong, F=MA is only correct in certain cases, Einstein replaced him. And even Einstein is wrong (or so some scientists claim). Science is mainly about creating new lies that cover up old ones (ala Thomas Kuhn).
- Medicine—The FDA lied when it approved the Sackler family’s drugs, killing millions.
- Government—The U.S. invented weapons of mass destruction that never existed in Iraq.
- Academia—The president of Stanford cheated. The president of Harvard (to my shame as an alumnus) plagiarized without citing.
So what’s new? In the past, lying required much money (like the Sacklers or the U.S. government), prestige (Stanford, Harvard), or some magical power, like a Pope building a global network of pedophiles.
Today, Anyone with an internet connection can access simple AI tools and create a new image, a set of articles, or fake websites. Add a network of rumors and distribution like Facebook—the old villain—and TikTok—the new villain—and the result: the complete loss of the illusion of truth we once had.
We’ll need to build a new network (illusion?) of trust.
That is what we are trying to do in MindLi Ltd.
