“Fate has ordained that men who went to the moon to explore in peace will remain on the moon to rest in peace.”
Thus begins President Richard Nixon’s televised address to the nation 51 years ago, just after the historic lunar landing attempt by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, which tragically went wrong.
“In ancient times, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do the same thing, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood,” Nixon continued. “Others will follow him and will surely find their way home. The search for man will not be denied. But these men were the first, and will continue to be the first in our hearts.”
You can see Nixon reading these words, which were written by speechwriter William Safire, in this dramatic and disturbing video. The most disturbing thing about it, of course, is that it is false and very compelling.
Armstrong and Aldrin actually landed safely on the moon on July 20, 1969. They also returned safely to Earth, with teammate Michael Collins, who had remained in orbit while moonwalkers explored the lunar surface. .
Related: Apollo 11 at 50: A Complete Guide to the Historic Moon Landing
The new video is part of a digital storytelling project by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Advanced Virtuality Center called “In the Event of a Lunar Disaster.” That was the title of Safire’s Apollo 11 contingency speech, which the success of the mission recorded in a landmark note.
The new project drags the discourse back into the light, making it the centerpiece of a “full fake,” one with manipulated audio and video.
The 7-minute video begins with actual footage of Apollo 11, which the team members misleadingly edited to create the impression that the epic moon landing failed. Then comes Nixon’s speech. It was actually read by a voice actor, but you would never know. The team used deep learning technology and artificial intelligence to reproduce Nixon’s voice and facial movements.
The project team members did not go to all these lengths just for laughter. They wanted to show the danger of media disinformation, which is already deep and will only grow as deepfake technology gets better and better.
“This alternative story shows how new technologies can obfuscate the truth around us, encouraging our audience to think carefully about the media they encounter on a daily basis,” project co-leader Francesca Panetta, creative director at XR, said in a statement. at MIT Virtuality.
“In Case of Moon Disaster” debuted last year as an art installation, featuring a reproduction of a living room from the 1960s. The project has been selected by various film festivals and received a Creative Media Award from the Mozilla Foundation.
The team just launched a website that shows the video, explains how it was made, and delves into fake technology in detail and the risks it poses.
“We hope that this project encourages the public to understand that manipulated media plays an important role in our media landscape, and that with greater understanding and diligence we can all reduce the likelihood of being unduly influenced by it,” said the co-director. Halsey Burgund, a member of the MIT Open Documentary Lab, said in the same statement.
Find out more at http://moondisaster.org.
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
