We know there is a lot of falseness online. That's easy to hide because of the distance that comes with this type of communication. And now AIs come to enhance it to the point people will likely become very reticent to almost anything they see or hear that comes through electronic means. That's good for the probable increasing emphasis on the in-person meetings, but a threat for the likely continued attempts to undermine online sources of truth.
Humans have a falseness detection ability. Some more developed than others. But they can sense when someone is bullshiting them. And they can sense when a person puts on masks instead of being truthful and act naturally.
Source (the AI didn't feel well today... only poor choices)
Sure, even face to face, we can be fouled. So this ability isn't infallible, not even close. The worse criminals live among us and we might never know.
How did I get to this topic today? I watched a few minutes of an interview with a public speaking expert.
Public speaking is easy for some people without any training, just by being themselves. But most people could use some guidelines and practice.
So, this public speaking expert knew her domain of expertise, but my falseness detection ability told me she is a faker... This is not her natural state, but a very well rehearsed role. And that would be fine, I guess, even if not perfect.
The bad thing is that she talked about masks and being natural, while she had her own set of masks on. Or so it seemed...
I was thinking as I was watching her how much it matters talent, natural inclination toward a domain in some cases. Skill can be trained, expertise can be obtained, but if those come on a fertile ground too, things can be truly exceptional instead of seeming unnatural.
I'll use her own example... She said why don't nutritionists say "eat more vegetables" and say "consume more vegetables" instead? It's something they often do in our country, I don't think it happens in English too... And she says, and I agree, that's unnatural. Why use "consume" when in your home you'd say "eat"? Maybe they want to sound pretentious, but they just sound broken.
To be honest, I don't think we can survive in this world as open books. So, all of us have some masks on at some point or in different circumstances. It's maybe when having a mask on becomes the natural state when things aren't ok. A person must feel very insecure to always wear a mask.
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I think a mask is needed to an extent and it depends on how anonymous people want to be. I do think it's better to be yourself but I think it's easy to make mistakes or controversies if you are a public figure.
Yeah, masks can be both a form of protection and a way to hide for bad actors. There are situations in life when everyone puts on a mask. Say you are panicking for some reason and you are with your young child. You'd try to put on a brave mask for them, to not scare them even more than they probably are.
I think being an open book is great and can help us tremendously with making our life simple, but I guess it's not always practical, in that good and evil coexist in this world. Being an open book could make us over exposed or vulnerable to unwanted influences.
That's one reason why you wouldn't want to be an open book all the time.
Another would be to protect people close to you. Say you had a bad day at work. You may want to shield your family from your job's frustrations, fights, insuccesses, if they don't need to know about them. So you put on a mask or more when you come home to hide your feelings and thoughts that may still be with you from work. In time, they may go away, being with your family, but without a mask they would notice right away that your day was awful.
So true! Not everyone close to us needs to experience even remotely that we had a bad day. Sometimes, it gradually disappears like a mist when we're surrounded by family :)
Public speaking is more of a talent thing in my opinion and that's why we can spot fakeness or something unnatural. As for her choice of words, you're right, it could just be a written speech.
It is a talent, but it can be trained too, and someone totally untalented for public speaking can improve this skill. You would probably notice they are not naturally great speakers, but if they need to speak publicly, training will help them.
Nature has selected us to be trustful at the first encounter, to consider that a person we meet for the first time is "natural until proven false" or "innocent until proven guilty". This natural propensity makes us vulnerable to those who'll know how to reinforce it: "Believe me, I'm always truthful " is the most powerful weapon for a liar.
I think you are right. Unless there are very obvious signals that suggest a person is not truthful and our past experiences didn't teach us differently, we may be inclined to trust the words coming out from a stranger's mouth. Especially true while very young, thus the advice: "Don't talk to strangers!".
Liars who use this as a weapon are very good at dissimulating their intentions and acting naturally while lying to you. That's why this ability of ours to tell who's lying is not very reliable. But as I said, some people are better at it than others.
Of course everyone has secrets. But what we condemn is pretense, someone pretending to be what they are not to gain praise or admiration from others or to take advantage of others or commit a crime. It's essential to develop the ability to see through the bullshit. It will help one escape a lot of troubles. Thanks for writing and have a great day.
That's true, but if we listen to some brainwashed responses we receive in recent years, we'd say that's not true, i.e. "I have nothing to hide.".
That's even critical nowadays, with the avalanche of distorted truths and lies. Not sure we'll be able to tell the difference for much longer, in some cases.
Artificial Intelligence is becoming successful very quickly and in the near future it will reduce human labor and help people to complete their work.