It takes less than a week until the election that will decide the fate of America and the world.
And George Clooney has taken the field. The 63-year-old actor, a supporter of Democrat Kamala Harris against Donald Trump, is not seen in the documentary by Austrian director Friedrich Moser. But, along with Grant Henslow, he is the executive producer of How to Build a Truth Engine, a project he holds dear to his heart. Namely, how to build an engine of truth, against misinformation and fake news, which according to Clooney and his film are seriously endangering "our civilization, in danger of extinction".
The Oscar-winning star has no doubts: "There has never been a more important moment in history to talk about disinformation," Clooney said ahead of the documentary's screening.
"Friedrich guides us through this very complex world, going into incredible detail. It's like a train traveling at slow speed, everyone knows that, but no one can stop it. But, this time we won't be able to pretend that they didn't warn us".
“Disinformation and lies are now becoming acceptable,” warns Peter Cochrane, professor of Science and Technology at Cambridge University, at the start of the film, “I feel like I'm re-reading Sun Tzu's Art of War, when he claims that in order to defeat you must confuse the enemy with misinformation. This is what is happening even today."
In an age where social media like X has slowed down the tools to prevent fake news, and where X's own owner, Elon Musk, is handing out all kinds of broccoli to his 100 million followers
As the movie "How to Build a Truth Engine" tells us, disinformation and conspiracy theories have reached colossal levels not seen since the 1930s. The documentary, in addition to gathering opinions from prominent experts and researchers, demonstrates how the flow of information and "therefore the minds of people and reality" can be scientifically "hacked".
There are different techniques, as American journalist and free speech activist Susan Benesch points out. For example, consciously creating, with other users, so-called "echo chambers" to obsessively repeat hoaxes and infect other Internet discussion circles, repeating fake news that thus turns into "superorganisms" living and organic".
Or, misinformation fabricators exploit our brain's mechanisms, such as the brain's underlying "reward system," which is caught off guard when it can no longer predict events and is instead drawn to imaginary or false reconstructions of events. .
Or again, say the investigative teams of the New York Times, there are state disinformation apparatuses, especially from Russia, as the film and its experts show in the cases of the massacre of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, or in the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad.
It's a disturbing journey that explains how our minds can be manipulated and misled by misinformation on a scientific level. What should be done?
In the first place, the role of journalism remains central, "the only subject that now has the means, the capacity and the resources to try to defend the truth". And then armed with a lot of daily patience: "Creating lies is simple and often very fast. However, restoring the truth takes a lot of time and passion," says Tim Tangherlini, a professor at Berkley: "It's up to us to protect it. We can no longer act as if nothing happened."
*This article was published by Bota.al and reposted by Tiranapost.al
