The Case for Physical Truth in a Digital World
Totem: a physical truth-measuring instrument
In an era where fake news, deepfakes, and algorithmic distortion dominate the information landscape, using physical user graphical interfaces to measure truth was not a nostalgic throwback but a deliberate act of resistance. Digital interfaces, for all their efficiency, are inherently malleable—pixels can be rearranged, data can be rewritten, and entire realities can be fabricated at the click of a button. In contrast, the physical world resists instant manipulation, and precisely this resistance makes it feel more trustworthy.
Historically, the most precise scientific instruments—barometers, voltmeters, Geiger counters—have relied on physical indicators to register unseen forces. A dial that moves, a needle that wavers, a strip of paper that records—these are tangible responses to data, immune to the seamless editing tools that define the post-truth digital age. This is why we designed TOTEM with physical user interfaces rather than an entirely digital experience. Physically tuning truth introduces friction, a necessary barrier that prevents effortless distortion.
The allure of digital tools is their immediacy, but this is also their greatest flaw. A social media feed can be rewritten in real-time. A breaking news update can be adjusted, retracted, or erased without a trace. Even numbers, the supposed language of objectivity, are no longer immune—AI can hallucinate data, images can be generated on demand, and video can be synthetically manipulated to rewrite history in high definition.
But physicality demands presence. A printed graphic is final. A mechanical dial registers an exact value. A tangible output—something that exists in the real world—cannot be altered with a keystroke. It creates an anchor, in reality, a checkpoint for verification at a time when certainty feels increasingly elusive.
Therefore, our decision to build a physical truth-measuring instrument was not just about aesthetics or functionality—it was a statement. A world flooded with digital misinformation requires new tools for trust, and sometimes, the best way forward is to look backwards—to the material, the mechanical, and the uneditable.
Truth should not be frictionless. In the battle against manipulation, physicality may be our best defence.
