Seeing Is Almost Believing

We've already seen photoshopped images that have been used in
political
campaigns.  Sometimes they are used to discredit opponents.
 

href="http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry2.asp">

However,
still images never will have the emotional impact that videos
have.  Already, there is technology that allows for some
fairly realistic rendering of emotional expressions, on video
characters that are entirely fabricated.  




rel="tag">Pendulum Studios has released a

href="http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/feature-incredible-3d-tech-demo-shows-realistic-facial-animations">facial
expression
animation demo:

type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always"
allowfullscreen="true" height="300" width="480">




So during the next election cycle, we can look forward to all kinds of
video fakery.  



It occurs to me that there is something ironic about information
technology.  It does make it easier to get more information,
faster, from more places.  But it also makes it easier to
create more disinformation, and disseminate it more widely, more
rapidly, and more convincingly.