As online and mobile applications and platforms spread across the world, societal agreements on shared reality are being shattered. Online bots, AI systems, and click farms are successfully impersonating human beings, and in some cases, human beings are posing as AI systems. This is the deeply confusing ‘post-real,’ where fake and malicious internet activity has generated profound changes in social and political processes off-line, in real life.

In this new undergraduate course I have developed, we will consider differing concepts of the truth, authenticity, and the real. We will explore present day deepfakes, bots, AI systems, and other counterfeits; scrutinize power and profits in the new ‘reality business’ that sells disinformation, conspiracy theories, alternative facts, and distrust; evaluate reading material, news sites, blogs, and social media platforms; and view artistic works, performances, and historical reenactments; in order to improve our understanding of how to thoughtfully navigate this new terrain.