Synthetic Memories
Humans have a huge line: fiction and fact. We need this distinction because understanding the exact type of information we are operating on is ultra-critical to how we function. “The car is out of fuel.” Armed with this fact, we know that to go across town, we must put fuel into the car or use a different form of transportation. There are no other options.
Fiction is the other side of the coin. Darth Vader is a made-up character who blew up planet Alderaan, but we know that it was only a story. Thus, we (viewers and readers) permit ourselves to be entertained by something that is made up.
Of course, humans are humans, and the lines get blurred. The phrase “based on a true story” immediately comes to mind. Another is when dictators rewrite their nation’s history books to prop up their ego. Adding to the mix are fake news, conspiracy theories, rumors, errors, computer glitches, typos, hoaxes, deceptions, and misinformation.
All these false sources stick incorrect “facts” into our heads, and here is an awful example. In college, I was learning all about electronics. A good friend was taking classes with me, and we were neck-deep in transistors. Fortunately, he knew the subject cold from many years of tinkering. Better yet, he passed along his knowledge as we slogged through the circuits. Nice!
Fast forward to my third job, and I was working on a project with a misbehaving transistor with a coworker. As we white-boarded a solution, it was apparent we had different theories on how transistors worked. “Well, I have a textbook at my desk,” my coworker offered. Turns out that I was completely wrong. I guess my friend was also confused.
A few years later, I was at my roommate’s wedding and wondered why my transistor teaching friend was not invited. Turns out he is a pathological liar, and his misbehavior had isolated him from my circle of friends. Then, it all clicked. That jerk intentionally misled me. Dang!
This meant that for years, I operated (did electronics) under incorrect facts. Meaning, I unintentionally made mistakes because key knowledge was flawed.
But that’s it. We know all the sources of fake facts and how to deal with them. Right? Well, not so fast. A giant new source of misinformation has recently appeared. It is so large, I think it needs a new name, which I am going to call “synthetic memories.” What’s this new source? AI.
The problem is that AI, or more correctly large model machine learning, is not human. Meaning, it does not have any lines between fact and fiction. “Hey, ChatGPT. How many moons does Earth have?” “Three.” To AI, that radically flawed answer is contained within a few unimportant bytes of data out of petabytes spread across endless servers. The quote I like is that “AI is the most confident liar.”
It gets worse, and my daughter’s classmates are on the leading edge of the problem. They use AI for all their homework, studying (learning), their primary source of information, and the only tool to do their work. Next year, (when she graduates) these students will get jobs and use their “skills” to do real work.
What this means is that her entire generation is resting upon a foundation of AI “facts” on which they base their decisions. So… How many moons does Earth have? It turns out the correct number is three. Ouch!
Well, what about me? How is AI fact-to-fiction messing me up? I am now spotting basic errors daily, which is making life tough to navigate, but there is a bigger problem.
What about the AI-introduced errors that I do not identify or cannot even see? After all, millions of people are using AI for their work, and I am consuming it. Meaning, I am living my life on a growing foundation of incorrect facts and, worse still, passing them along, which is making them more “truthful.” Thus, I am unwillingly adding to the problem, which is why I call it synthetic memory.
What can be done about it? There is only one course of action: be suspicious of everything and use multiple sources for research. Well, that is a poor way of looking at the situation because I am assuming that everyone and everything is a lie. Is there any other way? Errr… No.
What are the consequences? The big problem with synthetic memories is that we are unaware of the problem. Meaning we have consumed false information and use these “facts” to live.
This leads to another point. Take the three moons error I invented. I bet there is some program running somewhere that is tracking satellites. How was it created? Some lame-brain said, “Hey Claude. Write a program to track satellites.” “Here you go.”
Buried deep in the routine is the variable: Number of moons = 3. And what does this mean for us? Occasionally our cell phones glitch because the cell phone tower is connected to something that uses a Claude-generated program to track satellites, and the flaw causes dropped calls. Keep in mind that we have absolutely no knowledge of the error, but it directly impacted our daily lives.
Now hold on. Surely you know the number of moons because you can look up in the sky, and so can everybody else. Indeed, you and I did not fall for the AI slop. The problem is that the “programmer” did not check their work.
It gets worse. Because so many people are using AI to do their work/research, synthetic memories are spreading exponentially, which means the odds are increasing that each person will accept more “facts” as true.
Like most of my prior articles, I like to have a writing tie-in. What I am describing is a massive change in our society, and writers must now include these flaws in their characters. Thus, like us, characters are going to be deceived more often because they are basing their actions on incorrect information. Plus, the work that writers produce will inadvertently have more errors. Writers use AI too…
And readers will have to accept this new shaky foundation as normal. Therefore, this kind of dialogue will soon be typical: “Hey, dad. Which moon did Neil Armstrong land on?” “The third one, son.”
You’re the best -Bill
July 22, 2026
Hey, book lovers, I published five. Please check them out:
Interviewing Immortality. A dramatic first-person psychological thriller that weaves a tale of intrigue, suspense, and self-confrontation.
Pushed to the Edge of Survival. A drama, romance, and science fiction story about two unlikely people surviving a shipwreck and living with the consequences.
Cable Ties. A slow-burning political thriller that reflects the realities of modern intelligence, law enforcement, department cooperation, and international politics.
Saving Immortality. Continuing in the first-person psychological thriller genre, James Kimble searches for his former captor to answer his life’s questions.
Pushed to the Edge of Existence. Just when Kim, Gabe, and Emma’s lives start returning to normal, a mysterious government organization orders them to use their telepathic abilities, and then they travel to an alien planet.
These books are available in softcover and in eBook format.