HIST 1690 Deep Fake: A History (HPE, HTR)
Tuesday and Thursday: 10:10-11:25 plus discussion
Professor Casey Schmitt and Professor Claudia Verhoeven
In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries declared "post-truth" as the international word of the year. Since then, especially with the rise of generative AI, concerns about the meaning of truth have emerged as central in media, politics, and daily life. But does truth/post-truth have a longer history? And what can we learn from how philosophers, political theorists, artists, and people in the past engaged with concepts like truth and falsity? This history of Deep Fakes offers students a historical understanding of how and why humans have constructed and enacted categories of the real/fake, original/copy, and fact/fiction from the ancient world to the present day. Specific topics covered may include myth and history, conspiracy, imposters, forgeries, propaganda, realism, replicants, and hyperreality.
