They're all three completely artificial. Each of them was computer-generated by a very talented digital artist. (Here are links to Max Wahyudi's portrait of actress Song Hye Kyo; the Flickr posting of the minimalist bathroom; and Piotr Fox Wysocki's online portfolio.)

I've mentioned before on this blog that you just can't trust images anymore. The idea of "indexicality" (that photographs have a 1-to-1 relation to some real moment, space, and event, even if that moment is long past, the space has been demolished or repurposed, and the event was memorable only to the photographer) is under attack from all sides.

The Spouse was recently advised to purchase a disposable camera to be kept in the glove compartment of our car so we can document the event in case of an accident. Why a cheap, low-quality disposable camera? We both have camera phones and also have a pretty nice digital camera. Because the police are hesitant to allow digital photographs as evidence in their investigations as they're so easily manipulated.

In short, the police don't believe your digital photographs are indexical. They're just not real enough anymore.

I had the same thought when Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money persuaded me to take the MyElectionChoices Presidential Candidate Compatibility Test. The test begins by asking you which issues will be most important in your final selection of a candidate for president. It then provides you with a selection of actual quotes from all of the candidates on the issues you had identified and asks you to indicate which ones you agree with. At the end, it tabulates which candidate has the most comments on record that you agree with.

It's a clever way to engineer a silly web quiz with "real-world" implications. But I don't believe it one bit.

In short, I've become so cynical that I don't believe that anything a presidential candidate says is indexical.

Sigh.

And if you're curious, I selected 3 issues and here are my matches:

• Mike Gravel (D) - 8 matches
• Hillary Clinton (D) - 7
• Barack Obama (D) - 7
• Bill Richardson (D) - 6
• Joe Biden (D) - 5
• Christopher Dodd (D) - 5
• Ron Paul (R) - 5
• John Edwards (D) - 4
• Dennis Kucinich (D) - 4
• Sam Brownback (R) - 2
• Mike Huckabee (R) - 1
• Tom Tancredo (R) - 1

(This post's title, by the way, comes from the movie Blade Runner, in which the Tyrell Corporation builds robot "replicants" that are, according to the company motto, "More human than human.")