The Rise of Artificial Realities: How AI Risks the Loss of a Shared Reality

The Rise of Artificial Realities: How AI Risks the Loss of a Shared Reality

We live in an age of unprecedented access to information. With the tap of a finger, we can instantly summon almost any fact, video, or image. Yet, for all this informational abundance, we seem to have lost something profound - a shared sense of reality.

AI technologies threaten to further erode this collective foundation of truth. As neural networks become more advanced, they empower us to construct customized worlds that cater to our personal preferences. While enticing, these artificial realities may ultimately isolate us in bubbles of misinformation and self-delusion. To preserve the integrity of public discourse, we must navigate the coming age of artificial realities with care, wisdom, and courage.

The seeds of artificially constructed realities are already being planted. With deepfake technology, users can fabricate photos and videos of public figures saying or doing things they never actually said or did. The effect is jarring - seeing is no longer believing. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

As AI improves, customized information environments will surround us in our homes, cars, and devices. Echo chambers will be replaced by “reality chambers” - personalized virtual worlds that align with our perspectives. On social media, narratives will be tailored to our ideological leanings.

In entertainment, plotlines will adjust to our preconceptions. The news will cover current events but through the lens of our biases. Branding and advertising will play to our aspirations and insecurities—the soothing cocoon of the reality chamber beckons.

At first, this is seducing. Who wouldn’t want to craft their own virtual paradise? To block out contrary opinions? To see the world as we wish it could be? But over time, the costs become apparent.

Without shared touchstones of fact, we lose the ability to communicate with those who inhabit different reality chambers. Common ground dissolves into mutual incomprehension. When truths cannot be verified outside our distorted bubbles, conspiracy theories and denialism flourish. Public discourse descends into partisan rancour.

Not only will reality chambers divide us, they will impoverish our minds. When AI caters to our cognitive biases, our reasoning skills atrophy. We forget how to critically evaluate information and incorporate other viewpoints. Our intuitions become more charged by emotion than reality. We surrender nuance for the comfort of simplistic narratives.

Cut off from external input, our inner lives whither. Creativity springs from the collision of ideas. But without diverse intellectual stimuli, mental stagnation sets in. Our passions cool as AI caters to our whims. Meaning itself becomes elusive within virtual paradise.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky once said, “Man cannot live without miracles.” We need shared sources of awe and wonder to fuel our dreams and bind us together. The artificial realities of the future may entertain us, but they will not inspire us like the raw astonishments of the real world. There, we still find truths that resist illusion.

How can we safeguard these experiences in the age of reality chambers? First, we must cultivate an ethic of Truth with a capital “T.” True facts exist independent of our limited perspectives - we do not “make” truth; we discover it. Journalists must report reality not just “as they see it” but as it is.

Second, we must teach future generations to think critically and evaluate information sources. Curricula should focus more on reasoning skills than rote knowledge. Students must learn to escape their cognitive blindspots through exposure to alternate viewpoints.

Third, technology companies should design systems that burst filter bubbles rather than reinforce them. Social media feeds should juxtapose contrary opinions, not just display posts users already agree with. Search engines should provide balanced selections of sources, showing high-quality content across the political spectrum.

Finally, we must remain vigilant against the temptations of the reality chamber and its promises of a customized, comfortable world, for our shared reality makes us human. We must have the courage to face the universe on its own terms, in all its messy glory.

Michel Foucault said, “Truth is meant to save you first, comfort you afterwards.” If we sacrifice truth for artificial comfort, we will fracture into tribes without a common cause. But with clarity of vision, we can build a future where diversity of perspective enriches public life rather than dividing us into parallel worlds.

The choice is ours. We can be lured into the escape pods of artificial realities or awaken to the stimulating challenges of a shared world. One path leads to isolation and confusion. But the other beckons us to the stars.