Well that's the human brain for you. It's very good at extrapolating new information from things it's seen and heard that may not be true, without actually telling you that it's basically making shit up as it goes. It's yet another reason why education matters.

I can’t tell if that’s a tongue in cheek criticism of the panic over AI hallucination. Bravo either way.

Would this be different in a world without writing? We generally synthesize incoming information into a knowledge base and a set of beliefs - I'm not convinced we're less susceptible to that when all knowledge is oral.

What's the difference between having read something last year and believing it, vs having heard someone tell you something last year and believing it? Would people stop in a conversation and go try to find the source of their information if they had to track down a specific person?