Category Archives: Deception in Art and Software

Deception in art and software often use the same techniques, to convince you that something appears to you differently than it really is. The more abstract the art or software, the more difficult it is to perceive the deception.

Art has been using deception for millennia. These artistic deceptions are generally well understood, even if their biological origins are not. They have been studied for millennia.  Deception is part of the creation of modern art. Art often plays with reality in order to express a more fundamental truth in the story it is telling. Sometimes art can create an experience that seems real, but is a complete fiction.

This is not true for software deceptions. Faust knew what his pact with the devil was, software users often do not.

What is the nature of software deception?

Some deceptions are simple. The offer of free service is not really free. The services you use take the data they get, and sell it to somebody else, or use it to send you personalized ads that try to convince you that you need something. Occasionally this is quite invasive as when you look at a website, and the corresponding ads appear on your phone.

The fundamental illusion stems from the fact that all experience occurs in the brain, even if it appears to happen in the body.  We may feel pain or heat in our finger, but the reaction occurs in our brain that tells us that there is pain or heat in the finger. Emotional pain shares some of the same mental circuitry with physical pain.  That is why embarrassment or disgust is often felt in the body. This is why physical and psychosomatic pain can be difficult to untangle.

Trick the brain, you can trick the body into an experience. Virtual reality uses the same technique as film – sending images and sounds to the brain faster than it can process them. This fools the brain into reacting to these stimuli exactly as they were really occurring.  Consider  Pokémon Go, a software game superimposed on the real world that has led to often catastrophic consequences. It uses the same illusions that art does to create its own illusions.

Trick the brain into getting an immediate reward, and the behavior gets addicting.  We may continually need to breathe to stay alive, mobile phones are not that vital.  Many of us, nonetheless, feel naked when we go outside without a cell phone.

The most damaging attempts appeal to parts of our mental models that are most amenable to being attacked, or try to subtly change those models.  Most humans want to feel connected to other humans, even loners want to be connected sometimes. In sort of a mental ju-jitsu, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and other programs use our strengths and desires against us. — at least what was one time a strength from a more primitive time of existence.