A picture of the balcony

A family in Ajman is choosing a holiday home for a long weekend. The listing has twelve photographs: a balcony over the water, white sheets, a kitchen that looks as if nobody has ever cooked in it. They book because of the balcony.

For most of our lives, that was a sensible thing to do. A photograph was the nearest thing to having been there. If someone doubted you, you showed them the picture, and the doubt was settled.

That arrangement is ending without much ceremony. Software can now produce a convincing image of almost anything in less time than it takes to describe it. A room that was never built. A view that actually faces the car park. A queue outside a shop that nobody ever stood in.

It is tempting to laugh at the clumsy ones, the extra fingers and the melting signs. The clumsy ones are the early ones. They will not stay clumsy for long.

What is really at risk is a habit. Show me and I will believe you. That test only ever worked because pictures were hard to fake, and that is no longer true.

None of this means the balcony is not there. It may be exactly as shown. The water may really be that colour in the late afternoon. The facts about the place are as solid as they ever were.

What has changed is that the photograph can no longer carry those facts on its own. It has gone from evidence to illustration, a thing that shows what someone wants you to see.

The balcony is either real or it is not. Looking at it on a screen has simply stopped being the way to find out.