Me, 1996: No, "Goodtimes" is a hoax, an email can't run computer code or give you a virus

Me, 2000, miserable: Microsoft did something weird and now emails can give you a virus. Bubbleboy is real

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Me, 2010: No, the "Enhance" bit from CSI is not real. There aren't algorithms that can add information to an image.

Me, 2025, miserable: Microsoft did something weird and now the "Enhance" button is real, but the details are fake. Law enforcement IS using it and innocent people will go to prison

@mcc The generalization, that a technology is impossible will not stop a tech company from making it and selling it to the police, seems to hold chillingly well.

@xgranade @mcc worse is that this one has a better chance of convincing a jury, too.

(unlike say the ants on a stick bomb detector)

@doephin @mcc So much has been written about the "CSI effect" in juries. Assuming that effect holds and is supported by evidence (an assumption I don't feel confident making in an unqualified sense), juries seem to believe whatever the fuck they saw on a Dick Wolf or whatever show, so long as someone with an impressive enough uniform tells them that it's true.
@xgranade @doephin @mcc I wonder if this is changing as the information environment breaks down, although also I worry that this will still somehow not result in better outcomes for innocent people

@kevinriggle @xgranade @doephin @mcc

In the 90s we used to think that when people had access to more information it would inevitably lead to a freer world, because truth would drive lies out of circulation in a sort of informational-reverse-Gresham's-Law.

Sadly the opposite seems to be the case: a decent-sized chunk of humanity sees truth in all its complexity and recoils from it, preferring a lie that preserves their simplistic preconceptions. Alex Jones and Rupert Murdoch made their fortunes off this.

And those people get to serve on juries.

@passenger @kevinriggle @xgranade @mcc "fun" fact- once when I did jury duty the judge asked "would you find the defendant guilty right now? If so raise your hand" pre-trial. Like we didn't even know the dude's name.

*Everyone* except me raised their hands.

yeaah. Trial by jury: definitely one of those "best of worst options"things