Real Fake

Get on a rollercoaster of disinformation and media manipulation. From lying hieroglyphs to computer-generated influencers and the future of deepfakes. People have always felt the need to play with reality, but never before has it been so easy and believable as now. How do we keep a grip on the information society now that artificial intelligence is getting involved in the manipulation game? Unlike most books about fading realities, Real Fake looks beyond the doom scenarios. Using inspiring restoration stories and a new set of Reality Ethics, the authors of Real Fake outline a hopeful future for the playful human. "Real Fake educates, terrifies, and stimulates simultaneously. Nascent synthetic media technology has the potential to create mayhem or happiness for society -- the authors brilliantly paint a picture of how this battle will play out over the next ten years. And most interestingly, they predict the "democratization of creativity" -- how the new digital tools will unleash a dynamic and vital era of marketing, commerce, and art." George F. Colony, CEO, Forrester "As someone who has studied authenticity (real vs. fake) and the rise of digital technology (real vs. virtual), no one has intertwined these topics in as interesting, insightful, and indispensable a narrative as the authors of Real Fake. Digital technology is giving us something akin to superpowers. Will we use them to obliterate the distinctions between authenticity and inauthenticity, reality and virtuality, human and machine? Or will we find a path into a future that preserves what makes us human while ennobling our technology in service to our innate needs? Real Fake says yes." -- B. Joseph Pine II, co-author, The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money "An extremely authentic book!" Daisy Williams, virtual human