WEEKLY WHINE

Alleged fakery

I may not be who you think I am.

Actually, I am who you think I am, unless you think I am George W Bush. But the fact remains that these messages could be composed by someone else. You would have absolutely no clue unless the forger was unable to replicate my style. If the forger could replicate my style, the forger may well be capable of replacing me altogether. In that case, perhaps I could retire to Venezuela knowing that my job is being done back here in Pasadena. But you can be sure that I'll be here for some time to come, mostly because I haven't an incentive to go do something else. [Translate: I haven't any money.]

Seriously though, I wouldn't spuriously abandon GoobNet for the simple reason that I could. If I got money, I might do something silly like move GoobNet to its own server [wouldn't you just love to access it at http://www.goob.net/?]. Regardless, you can't be sure when somebody else is making changes to it. If somebody does make changes to it, I will probably notice.

A recent example of digital forgery is that Turkish guy, Mahir Cagri. Known to most as simply "Mahir", he's just some rando-Turkish-guy whose site was adjusted by a hacker. Suddenly, the improvements made him popular, and before you knew it, you could buy mouse pads depicting Mahir on a beach with the caption I KISS YOU!!!. So you don't need skill to be recognized. [Actually, we've already learned that lesson from Hollywood, but now we know it's true on the Web as well.]

So things aren't always as they seem. If they were, we'd never have fun. I claim that fake things and otherwise adjusted things make life interesting and worth being alive for. Things that are not fake are, by their nature, what you expect them to be. As a result, you get no surprises. I've often told you how important surprises are in life, so don't try to weasel out of this one that way. In truth, fakery is just another way to get a surprise. It's likely that Mahir was rather surprised to discover his fan clubs and Internet fame.

Impersonation is another genre of comedy; many funny people impersonate other people. [Some do it badly, which is also funny.] Generally, it's funny to see someone act like something else. Silly voices make it better. Impersonation is just a subset of acting, though.

Acting is one form of pretending to be a different type of person. As an example, imagine a film about, say, Julia Roberts going around just being Julia Roberts. You know, reading the paper in the morning, being on talk shows, and performing all manner of Julia Roberts-like activities. Ho hum. Now imagine a film wherein Julia Roberts is somebody most decidedly unlike Julia Roberts - a prostitute. You may well have seen Pretty Woman, in fact, eliminating the need for you to imagine it.

So we have learned that fakery is fun if done properly. As with all activities, though, it must be in good taste. As long as care is taken, we can all enjoy the benefits of fakery. In fact, you can even try this at home. Use a fake name, a fake voice, and a fake set of beliefs. Try it for a day or so, because that's about how soon your friends will get sick of it. I invite you to send your results to GoobNet at goober@its.caltech.edu. Unless, of course, you think this is a fake.