How to Fake So No One Notices - Issue 42: Fakes
▻http://nautil.us/issue/42/fakes/how-to-fake-so-no-one-notices
Immanuel Kant famously argued that lying is a parasite on truth-telling. But parasites must be self-limiting: Killing your host is an evolutionary dead-end, so a successful parasite must keep from pushing its growth to the utmost. Lying, then, is often caught in a balance between too little and too much. Fraud and fakery limit themselves, and nothing-but-the-truth is something nobody wants. Here are five examples of faking that isn’t too big, and isn’t too small, but just right. Fake purses and saints’ bones Holy relics were one of the most important trade items during the Middle Ages in Europe—mainly fragments of the bodies of saints and martyrs, but also objects connected with the life of Jesus or the apostles, such as fragments of the True Cross, Mary’s robe, and even one of the baby (...)