Il senso della realtà. Dalla tv all’intelligenza artificiale

Why are we so passionate about reality shows? What attracts us to listening to crime stories? How is it possible that conspiracy theories and fake news have such a following? And how has all this changed our sense of reality? Through four examples – reality television, true crime, conspiracy documentaries and videos created by artificial intelligence – this book offers a critical and political reflection on how the concepts of reality and truth are constantly being tested today. Every day, on social media and in traditional media, alternative but plausible truths challenge some of the cornerstones of Western thought (first and foremost the principle of non-contradiction), fuelling a culture that no longer knows how to distinguish between what is real and what is staged, invented, virtual or fictional. Whether it is the story of a celebrity couple told as a TV series, a real murder told as a noir, or viral videos created by AI, we are struck by their “interesting” content without questioning their correspondence to reality. And so artificial intelligence merely confronts us with a habit of unreality to which we have long been numbed. Drawing on contemporary pop culture (films, series, podcasts, viral content) and the teachings of Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard and Umberto Eco, this book denounces the loss of sense of reality to which we seem condemned, and attempts to offer the tools to get back down to earth before it is too late.