That image, above, came from a column in the October 21, 2025, edition of The New York Times. In both the hard copy and online editions, the column, by Bobbie Johnson, was titled, "What Is Sora Slop For, Exactly?"
Anyone who read my earlier blog posting ("Who Needs The "Real World"?) will probably remember that Sora is an online AI program that allows users to place themselves into created videos that seem to depict "realities" that aren't, in fact, "realities" at all. Johnson indicates that such fake "realities" are "slop." Here is his statement about Sora:
At a time when we are surrounded by fakes and fabrications, Sora seems precisely designed to further erode the idea of objective truth. It is a jackhammer that demolishes the barrier between the real and the unreal. No new product has ever left me feeling so pessimistic (emphasis added).
I have written a lot of blog postings about "truth," including a very brief reference to the question posed by Pontius Pilate, just before he turned Jesus over to a mob to be crucified. "What Is Truth?" was the question posed. I think, though I do not guarantee it, that clicking on this link will give you a listing of a number of my past blog postings on the topic of "truth."
I have a good bit of skepticism about claims, by anyone, that they know "the truth." On the other hand, the implication of what Pilate said is that there may not, in fact, be any "truth" at all. Sora, the way Johnson sees it, will lend credence to such a worldview.
On the one hand, we determine, in many ways, what our "reality" will be - what will constitute "truth" in the world that we create. In the social, political, economic, and even physical world that we collectively construct, "truth" is subject to change - though not by simple assertion, to be sure. On the other hand, there is such a thing as "objective truth." For instance, I am, objectively speaking, about 5'4" or 5'5" in height, not six feet plus. I am "short," in other words. Perhaps I would have been happier, I sometimes think, to have been six feet plus. I gather that Sora could demonstrate that I actually am, perhaps as I am depicted in a video that I have created, using the program to show me racking up multiple points in a pickup basketball game against Victor Wembanyama, who is reliably thought to be 7'5" in height.
I continue to believe that my "Two Worlds Hypothesis" points to an important insight about "reality," and thus about "truth." In the world that we human beings create, through our collective activities, we can determine what the "truth" will be. "Possibility" is the category that rules the human world - what I call the "political world." In "our" world, we can create "the truth." This provides us, obviously, with an incredible opportunity for us to create the kind of world that most of us might agree we want.
In the "World of Nature," on the other hand, or in "The World That God Created," as I sometimes call it, "reality" and "the truth" precedes us, and that reality, and that "truth" is not something that we can reconfigure or ignore. Our so-called "Climate Crisis" is a demonstration that there are "realities" that will determine our fate, as we interact with the Natural World. If we ignore the fact that human activities are heating the earth, and that this human-caused global warming will lead, inevitably, to consequences to which we will have either to adapt, or perish, then we will (collectively) be opting to perish.
As for Pontius Pilate, his question actually asks whether or not we should give credit to claims (like the claims made by Jesus) that all of what we do, ultimately, is in the hands of a God who loves us, and that we live, ultimately in a world that God created.
We have a choice about how we handle our response to that basic question posed by Pilate - "What is Truth?" However, if we ignore "Truth" as the presiding reality in both "our world" and the "World of Nature," we are consuming cans of "slop," not substance. Thanks to Bobbie Johnson for pointing this out.
He is not the only one doing so, of course!
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