AI Music Is Legit Art

Before we get started, please bookmark my music site and check it out after reading this article. And while you're at it, follow me on TikTok at @Crashout.Royalty. That's where you can find more of my music, videos, artwork, and whatever else I'm creating next.

Here's my most recent Hip-Hop release as of this publishing date...

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPLjkEnsM/

And here is my old organic Hardcore/Punk Band ILLITHED

https://mindtreasury.blogspot.com/2018/02/hardcorepunk-band-illithed.html

The AI Music Debate I May Never Have — Because I Value My Time

Hello, I'm the account "Crashout Royalty" for those that are unaware. Multidisciplinary artist and activist researcher JM Talboo AKA BishopNeoWinstonSmith leader of the music group and collective of artists known as #CrashoutAristocrats

Before the imagined debate ensues I want to first acknowledge positive conversations are happening as evinced by the screenshots below. 

I say this because what sparked me writing this is a lot shit talking is taking place online from those opposed to AI music. Makes me wonder if they are industry plants Ad hominem attacks are not an argument, I can talk smack and lay one down too lol but I'll focus on substance and positivity while they act like the miserable people they msst be.

What would happen if I actually debated someone who believes AI-assisted music is inherently inferior to human-made music?

I may never find out.

And that's okay.

One of the reasons I use AI in the first place is because I value my time.

So rather than spending hours arguing with somebody on the internet, I decided to run the entire hypothetical debate through my head.

Here's how I'd approach it.

Not by assuming I'd win every argument.

Not by rigging the experiments.

And not by pretending AI is automatically better than human creativity.

I'd simply ask that we actually examine the claims being made.

And there's an important distinction right from the beginning:

I'm not simply an "AI music maker."

I'm a multidisciplinary artist.

I make music. I write. I perform. I make videos. I make physical artwork. I make digital artwork. I work with photography, animation, costumes, props, locations and visual effects. I showcase other artists and artwork. I use technology. I collaborate with other people. And sometimes I use AI.

Sometimes I use none of it.

That's the bigger picture.

I Don't Like Being Pigeonholed

I've never been particularly interested in being shoved into one category.

Why would I limit myself to one medium just because somebody else wants a convenient label?

If I have an idea that works as a song, I'll make a song.

If it works as a video, I'll make a video.

If it works as an image, I'll make an image.

If it works as physical artwork, I'll make that.

If somebody else's artwork communicates something I want to showcase, I'll showcase it.

If a costume communicates the idea better than words do, I'll put on the costume.

If animation makes the idea stronger, I'll animate it.

If AI helps me accomplish something I couldn't otherwise accomplish—or lets me accomplish it faster—I'll use AI.

I'm not interested in technological purity.

I'm interested in communication and creation.

There Isn't One Way I Make Music

This is where I think a lot of conversations about AI immediately go wrong.

People talk about "AI music" as though there's one standardized process.

There isn't.

I've been making music for years.

I've been in a successful band.

I can perform.

I can rap live.

I've made music without AI.

And I still make music without AI.

AI is simply another set of tools I've added to a much larger creative toolbox.

Sometimes I might use an AI-generated beat and put my own real vocals over it.

Sometimes I might perform the vocals myself and use an AI voice filter as an artistic effect.

Sometimes AI might be involved in the music while the performance itself is completely human.

Sometimes I might use AI for production but write and perform everything else myself.

Sometimes AI is involved in several elements.

Sometimes it's barely involved at all.

Sometimes it isn't involved whatsoever.

So when someone says:

"You're just letting AI make your music."

My response is pretty simple:

Which song?

Which part?

The beat?

My vocals?

The voice effect?

The lyrics?

The concept?

The production?

The video?

The artwork?

What exactly are you talking about?

Because you're imagining one workflow that doesn't actually describe what I do.

I make music in a lot of different ways.

AI is one set of tools I sometimes use within that larger creative process.

The Same Thing Applies to My Videos

And then there's video.

I'm not simply making songs and attaching a generic video to them afterward.

The visual production is its own creative process.

And just like music, I'm interested in using every possible way of making the thing.

AI animation.

Real photographs.

Real video.

Digital imagery.

Physical imagery.

Stickers.

Effects.

Costumes.

Props.

Settings.

Locations.

Practical elements.

Digital manipulation.

Found imagery.

Whatever works.

Sometimes I'll create an entirely artificial image.

Sometimes I'll film something in the real world.

Sometimes I'll take a real photograph and build something around it.

Sometimes I'll make physical artwork and photograph or film it.

Sometimes I'll create digital artwork.

Sometimes I'll take physical artwork and use AI to animate it.

Sometimes Dawn makes physical artwork and I incorporate that into what I'm doing.

Sometimes I'll showcase another artist's work.

Sometimes I'll visit or showcase art in a museum.

Sometimes the strongest visual is simply something I happen to encounter in the real world.

And sometimes I'll combine several of those methods in one project.

That's not a contradiction.

That's the medium.

The Best Results Are Often Hybrids

Think about modern filmmaking.

Computer-generated imagery didn't eliminate practical effects.

Practical effects didn't eliminate sets.

Digital effects didn't eliminate actors.

Photography didn't eliminate painting.

And computer animation didn't eliminate live-action filmmaking.

In fact, some of the most effective visual work comes from combining different techniques.

You can have a real actor standing in a real environment while interacting with a digitally created world.

You can have a physical prop enhanced with computer effects.

You can have real footage combined with animation.

You can have photographs turned into moving imagery.

The best solution isn't necessarily:

"Use only the human method."

It may be:

"Use the right combination of methods for this particular idea."

That's what I'm doing.

The Image Can Say Something the Song Doesn't

There's another reason I care so much about the visual side.

The video doesn't have to simply illustrate the lyrics.

Sometimes it reinforces the song.

Sometimes it expands upon it.

Sometimes it provides another interpretation.

Sometimes it deliberately creates irony.

Sometimes it communicates a completely different but related idea.

You can say a thousand words with an image.

Sometimes more.

A single image can establish a mood, tell a story, suggest a political idea, create symbolism, or make someone question what they're seeing.

I might put something like a They Live flyer into a video.

Maybe the song doesn't literally say the same thing.

That's okay.

The image creates another layer of communication.

The audience makes the connection.

That's part of the artwork.

Visual Language Is Different From Verbal Language

An image isn't simply a paragraph without words.

Visual language works differently.

A costume can communicate satire.

A setting can communicate danger.

A photograph can communicate nostalgia.

A surreal image can communicate an emotional state.

A juxtaposition can create an argument without anybody speaking.

A symbol can make someone think about an idea without spelling out the conclusion.

And sometimes an image can communicate something in a way that a literal statement simply can't.

That's one of the reasons I'm interested in visual storytelling.

I'm not just making a music video.

I'm building another layer of the message.

Physical Art Counts Too

And this is another reason I don't want to be reduced to "AI artist."

I make physical art.

I work with physical objects.

I showcase artwork other people create.

Dawn makes artwork that I can incorporate into the larger creative world.

I make digital artwork too.

And sometimes I'll take something that physically exists and use AI or other digital tools to animate or transform it.

So now we've got:

physical → digital → animated → combined with video → combined with music.

Where exactly are you going to draw the line and tell me which part is the "real art"?

That's the wrong question.

The better question is:

What did the artist create, and what was the artist trying to communicate?

Technology Has Always Disrupted Art

And this isn't even a uniquely modern argument.

We've been having versions of this argument for centuries.

Whenever a new technology changes who can create, who can distribute art, or what art can sound or look like, somebody eventually says:

"This is going to ruin everything."

Sometimes that person has a point.

Sometimes they're completely wrong.

Usually it's more complicated than either side wants to admit.

But the pattern is worth recognizing.

There were people who were suspicious of ordinary people having widespread access to writing.

Then came the printing press.

Suddenly information could be reproduced and distributed on a scale that was previously impossible.

Then came newspapers and mass publishing.

Then radio.

Then recorded music.

Then television.

Then home video.

Then the internet.

Then digital recording.

Then digital photography.

And now we're dealing with generative AI.

Every one of these technologies changed the creative landscape.

And every time, there were people who looked at the new technology and said, in one form or another:

"That's not real art."

"Video Killed the Radio Star"

There's a reason a phrase like "Video Killed the Radio Star" became culturally memorable.

It captured a real fear about technological change.

Radio didn't literally disappear.

The radio star didn't literally die.

Instead, the culture changed.

Television created a new requirement: artists could suddenly become visual personalities in addition to being voices.

That changed what a successful performer looked like.

And then television itself was eventually challenged by cable, home video, the internet, streaming and social media.

The old medium doesn't necessarily disappear.

The ecosystem changes around it.

That's an important distinction.

The Printing Press Didn't Destroy Human Culture

The printing press is another good example.

Imagine living in a world where books are expensive, labor-intensive objects that have to be copied by hand.

Then suddenly you have technology capable of reproducing text on an enormous scale.

You could reasonably be concerned about misinformation.

You could be concerned about low-quality writing.

You could be concerned about people flooding society with garbage.

You could be concerned about political propaganda spreading faster.

Those concerns wouldn't necessarily be stupid.

But the answer wasn't:

"Therefore, nobody should print books."

The technology created enormous new possibilities while also creating new problems.

That's often what technological progress actually looks like.

Newspapers and the Internet

The same thing happened when the internet disrupted newspapers.

People worried about what would happen to journalism.

Some of those concerns were absolutely justified.

The internet created incredible opportunities for independent publishing, but it also created misinformation, clickbait, declining traditional revenue models and all sorts of other problems.

So I'm not going to make the simplistic argument that every technological disruption is automatically good.

Sometimes we should be wary.

Sometimes older ways of doing things really do contain wisdom that we shouldn't throw away.

But that's different from saying:

"New technology exists, therefore everything created with it is artistically worthless."

Those are two completely different arguments.

The Guitar Didn't Stay the Guitar

Music has gone through this process constantly.

The acoustic guitar existed.

Then amplification changed what the guitar could do.

Then the electric guitar arrived.

And there were plenty of people who thought it was loud, obnoxious noise.

Then people figured out what could be done with it.

Entire genres developed around that sound.

The instrument didn't become objectively "better" than the acoustic guitar.

It became different.

And different artists wanted different things from it.

That's the key.

Three Chords vs. Stevie Ray Vaughan

I remember the kind of argument people made about bands like Nirvana and other grunge artists.

You'd hear the criticism:

"They only know three chords."

That's obviously an oversimplification, but the criticism illustrates something interesting.

Someone could look at Stevie Ray Vaughan and admire his technical ability, musicianship and complexity.

And that's perfectly legitimate.

But that doesn't mean the aesthetic of Stevie Ray Vaughan is automatically superior to the aesthetic of a stripped-down grunge song.

Sometimes three or four chords are exactly what the song needs.

Sometimes technical complexity is the point.

Sometimes simplicity is the point.

Sometimes virtuosity communicates.

Sometimes restraint communicates.

The question isn't:

"Which musician worked harder to master technical complexity?"

The question is:

"What is this artist trying to communicate, and does the chosen method communicate it?"

That's an important distinction for AI too.

A technologically complicated production isn't automatically better than a simple one.

And a technically simple production isn't automatically worse.

Complexity isn't the same thing as quality.

People Fear Change for Good Reasons Sometimes

This is where I don't want to turn the argument into some simplistic:

"Old people fear technology and young people understand progress."

That's bullshit.

People sometimes fear technological change for legitimate reasons.

Some technologies genuinely cause harm.

Some things that were once celebrated as progress turned out to have consequences we didn't understand.

Sometimes the people saying "slow down" were right.

Sometimes the people saying "this is going to cause problems" were right.

We should be willing to listen to them.

But there's another lesson from history:

Being concerned about a technology isn't the same as proving that everything created with that technology is worthless.

And that's where I think the AI conversation often goes off the rails.

Technology Changes the Definition of Possible

Every major creative technology expands the range of things an artist can do.

The microphone changed singing.

Recording technology changed songwriting.

Multitrack recording changed arrangement.

The electric guitar changed rock.

Synthesizers changed electronic music and eventually countless other genres.

Sampling changed hip-hop.

Digital audio workstations changed music production.

Digital cameras changed photography.

Computer graphics changed filmmaking.

The internet changed distribution.

Smartphones turned almost everybody into a potential photographer and filmmaker.

AI is doing something similar.

It's changing the distance between:

"I have an idea."

and

"I made the thing."

That's enormous.

So Let's Actually Test the Music

Suppose someone tells me that AI music is obviously inferior to human music.

Okay.

Let's test it.

I'd propose ten songs with broadly comparable themes.

Peace.

Humanity.

Love.

Freedom.

Overcoming hatred.

Making the world a better place.

Five would involve AI assistance.

Five would be entirely human-made.

The listener wouldn't know which was which.

But here's the important part:

I wouldn't initially ask them to identify the AI songs.

I'd ask them to judge the music.

Which songs communicate their message most effectively?

Which are best written?

Which are most emotionally powerful?

Which are most memorable?

Which would they actually listen to again?

Which make them think?

Which make them feel something?

Then, after they've made their judgments, we reveal how the songs were created.

Only then would we test their ability to identify AI involvement.

Because those are two completely different questions.

Can you identify AI?

And:

Does AI involvement make a piece of music worse?

Being good at the first doesn't automatically prove the second.

What If They're Really Good at Spotting AI?

Maybe they are.

That's entirely possible.

Maybe they've listened to enough AI music to recognize certain production characteristics that most people don't notice.

Great.

Let's test that too.

We could compare their results with other listeners.

Musicians.

Non-musicians.

People who listen to enormous amounts of music.

People who don't.

Maybe they absolutely crush the test.

Maybe everybody does.

Maybe nobody does.

Maybe some people are extremely good at it and others are terrible.

Whatever happens, that's useful information.

I'm not afraid of an experiment simply because it might produce a result I don't expect.

That's what makes it an experiment.

And if somebody really is exceptionally good at recognizing AI music, I'd rather find that out than pretend otherwise.

But identifying the technology is still not the same thing as proving that the art is inferior.

Then Let's Remove the Blindfold

Now let's make it personal.

Take one of my songs.

Let's use something like Naptown.

I'll perform the song for you myself.

Live.

No AI.

Just me.

Then I'll play you the AI-assisted version I created.

Now tell me which vocal performance you prefer.

Maybe you'll prefer mine.

I'd actually expect that in some cases. I'm a performer. I'd hope my live performance has strengths that an AI-generated performance doesn't.

Maybe you'll prefer the AI version.

That's possible too.

And here's the funny part:

Either result is interesting.

If you tell me my live performance is better, I'm not going to throw a fit.

I'll probably say:

"Yeah. I'm a performer. I'd fucking hope so."

But then we have to ask what we've actually demonstrated.

The Part People Leave Out: Reality

Maybe when I made that song, I didn't have a studio available to me.

Maybe I was going through some difficult shit in my life.

Maybe I didn't have the money for studio time.

Maybe I didn't have musicians available.

Maybe I didn't have the time to sit there and record thirty takes of the same line.

Maybe AI allowed me to turn an idea into a finished song that otherwise would have remained an idea.

That's not a hypothetical benefit.

That's how technology works.

People sometimes look at the final product and completely ignore the circumstances that made the product possible.

If my human vocal performance is slightly better but the AI-assisted version allowed me to actually finish the song under circumstances where the alternative was not making the song at all, then what exactly have I lost?

And what have I gained?

I gained a finished song.

I saved time.

I saved money.

I didn't need a studio.

I didn't need to coordinate multiple people.

I didn't need to spend hours and money getting another take every time I flubbed a line.

And I could move on to the next idea.

That matters.

What If They Prefer the AI Version?

Now let's turn the tables.

Suppose they listen to both versions and say:

"Honestly, I like the AI version better."

I'm not going to pretend I lost.

I'm going to say:

"Well, shit. Great."

Because I wanted the song to communicate.

If I had something I genuinely wanted to say, and the technology helped me say it in a way that somebody found more enjoyable, understandable or emotionally effective, then the technology accomplished something useful.

I don't need the human version to win every comparison.

The song winning is enough.

And What If They Say the Human Version Is Better?

That's useful too.

Maybe the human version has something the AI version doesn't.

Maybe I have a vocal characteristic that can't be replicated.

Maybe the human performance has a particular imperfection that makes it more compelling.

Fine.

Then I've learned something about the strengths of human performance.

That doesn't prove AI has no value.

It proves that humans and AI can have different strengths.

That's called having different tools.

The Mother's Day Problem

There's another experiment that I don't think an AI critic can solve with a simple production argument.

Suppose I make a tribute song for my mother.

She's getting older.

I have things I want to say to her.

I use AI to help turn those thoughts into a song quickly.

She hears it.

And she cries.

Now somebody tells me:

"Yeah, but it was made with AI."

Okay.

So?

Does that make her tears less real?

Did the emotional response somehow disappear because I used a machine to help construct the song?

Did the love I was trying to express become less genuine?

Did the words suddenly stop meaning what they meant?

No.

The technology doesn't get to rewrite the emotional experience that happened afterward.

My mother didn't cry because she performed a philosophical analysis of my production process.

She cried because I made something for her that meant something to her.

That's important.

Efficiency Doesn't Equal Emptiness

There is a strange assumption that if something becomes easier to produce, it must become less meaningful.

But that's not how technology has historically worked.

A camera didn't make photography meaningless.

Digital editing didn't make filmmaking meaningless.

The synthesizer didn't make music meaningless.

The electric guitar didn't make songwriting meaningless.

Recording technology didn't make live performance meaningless.

Technology repeatedly changes the distance between an idea and its final form.

And that's exactly what AI does for me.

I have more ideas than I could possibly execute using traditional methods alone.

AI reduces the distance between:

"I have an idea."

and

"I made the thing."

That's not necessarily a reduction in creativity.

Sometimes it's an expansion of creativity.

The Real-World Economics Matter Too

Artists don't create in a vacuum.

People have limited money.

Limited time.

Limited access to musicians.

Limited access to studios.

Limited physical energy.

Limited opportunities.

Sometimes you're dealing with family obligations.

Sometimes you're dealing with work.

Sometimes life is simply kicking your ass.

A person might have ten songs in their head and only enough money to record one.

What happens to the other nine?

AI can sometimes change that equation.

Maybe it doesn't produce the same result as a professional studio.

Maybe it does.

But if it allows someone to create something that otherwise wouldn't exist, that's not automatically a negative.

The alternative isn't always "human-made masterpiece."

Sometimes the alternative is:

nothing.

And I'd rather have another imperfect song in the world that genuinely communicates something than have a great idea remain trapped in somebody's head because they couldn't afford the conventional production process.

I'm Not Claiming AI Does Everything

I don't need to claim that AI is superior to humans.

I don't need to claim that AI can replace musicians.

I don't even need to claim that every AI-generated song is good.

Some are garbage.

So are some human-made songs.

Human beings have been making terrible music for a very long time.

The existence of bad AI music doesn't prove that AI music is inherently bad any more than the existence of bad human music proves that humans shouldn't make music.

What matters is what happens when a particular person uses a particular tool to create a particular piece of work.

And Sometimes I Don't Use AI At All

This is worth emphasizing because it destroys the idea that I'm somehow dependent on AI to make music or art.

Sometimes I use it.

Sometimes I don't.

Sometimes I use it heavily.

Sometimes I use it for one small component.

Sometimes I might use AI for a beat but have real vocals.

Sometimes I might have real vocals and use an AI voice filter as an artistic effect.

Sometimes the music is human and the imagery is AI.

Sometimes the music is AI-assisted and the video is AI-assisted too.

Sometimes I'm mixing all of these things.

Sometimes I'm using physical art.

Sometimes I'm using digital art.

Sometimes I'm filming reality exactly as it exists.

Sometimes I'm taking something physical and transforming it digitally.

Sometimes I'm working entirely without AI.

The point is that I choose the tool based on the project.

I'm not pledging allegiance to a machine.

I'm making art.

The Human Is Still Here

This is the part that gets lost in a lot of these arguments.

When I use AI to make music, I'm still here.

I'm deciding what I want to say.

I'm choosing the subject.

I'm writing and shaping ideas.

I'm directing the process.

I'm deciding what works and what doesn't.

I'm rejecting things.

I'm rewriting things.

I'm making artistic choices.

Sometimes I'm performing.

Sometimes I'm using real vocals.

Sometimes I'm combining human performance with AI.

Sometimes I'm using AI for parts of the production.

Sometimes I'm using it because I simply don't have the resources to do something another way.

The fact that a machine participates doesn't mean the human disappeared.

So What Exactly Makes It "Fake"?

At some point I'd stop talking about individual songs and ask the fundamental question:

What exactly makes an AI-assisted song illegitimate?

Is it the sound?

Then let's listen.

Is it the songwriting?

Then let's compare the songwriting.

Is it the emotional impact?

Then let's see what listeners actually experience.

Is it the amount of human labor?

Okay. Let's discuss what the human actually contributed.

Is it the fact that a machine was involved at all?

Now we're no longer talking about whether the music is good.

We're talking about a philosophical objection to the tool.

That's a legitimate position for somebody to have.

But it's important to call it what it is.

The Tool Doesn't Have to Win

This might be the most important part of the whole argument.

I'm not trying to rig these experiments so that AI wins.

Every single comparison is a crapshoot.

Maybe the human song wins.

Maybe the AI song wins.

Maybe the results split right down the middle.

Maybe the person I'm debating identifies every AI song correctly.

Maybe they completely screw it up.

Maybe they identify AI correctly but still prefer several AI-assisted songs.

Maybe they can't identify them at all.

Maybe my live performance beats the AI version.

Maybe the AI version beats my live performance.

I'm willing to live with any of those outcomes.

Because I'm not trying to prove that humans are obsolete.

I'm trying to challenge the idea that the presence of AI automatically determines the value of the finished work.

The Same Principle Applies to the Visuals

If somebody tells me:

"That image doesn't count because AI made it."

My answer is basically the same.

Okay.

Let's look at the image.

Does it communicate?

Does it create the intended mood?

Does it tell a story?

Does it make you curious?

Does it reinforce the music?

Does it create a useful contrast?

Does it make you feel something?

And if the answer is yes, then the fact that AI participated tells me something about how it was made.

It doesn't automatically tell me whether it worked.

Likewise, if I take a real photograph, add stickers and effects, animate part of it with AI, put it over my music, and then combine it with footage I shot myself while wearing a costume in a real location, what exactly is the "real" part?

All of it.

Because all of those are materials I intentionally assembled into a finished piece.

The Question I'd Eventually Ask

At some point I'd ask:

"What exactly are we trying to measure?"

If we're measuring whether somebody can recognize AI, let's measure that.

If we're measuring vocal performance, let's compare vocal performances.

If we're measuring songwriting, let's judge songwriting.

If we're measuring emotional impact, let's see what actually moves people.

If we're measuring efficiency, let's discuss how much time and money different production methods require.

If we're measuring artistic authenticity, then we'd better define what we mean by authenticity.

But let's stop treating all of those questions as though they're the same question.

They're not.

My Position Isn't "AI Is Better"

My position is much simpler.

AI is another tool.

Sometimes it's the right tool.

Sometimes it isn't.

Sometimes human performance is better.

Sometimes AI-assisted production is better.

Sometimes the combination is better than either one alone.

And sometimes I don't use AI at all.

The fact that I can make music and art in different ways is not a weakness in my argument.

It's the argument.

I've already made music without AI.

Now I have additional tools.

Why would I voluntarily pretend those tools don't exist?

I'm a Multidisciplinary Artist

That phrase might sound fancy.

Maybe it is.

But I think it's accurate.

I'm not limited to one artistic medium.

I don't want to be.

I've never liked being pigeonholed.

I'm interested in whatever medium best communicates the idea.

Sometimes that's a song.

Sometimes that's a photograph.

Sometimes it's a painting or physical object.

Sometimes it's a digital image.

Sometimes it's a video.

Sometimes it's animation.

Sometimes it's a costume.

Sometimes it's a combination of all of them.

Sometimes it's somebody else's artwork that I think deserves to be seen.

Sometimes it's Dawn's artwork.

Sometimes it's something I encountered in the real world.

Sometimes it's AI-assisted.

Sometimes it isn't.

That's not inconsistency.

That's creative freedom.

Everything Is Material

There's another philosophy behind all of this.

I tend to see almost everything as material.

An argument can become an article.

A strange experience can become a song.

A photograph can become a visual.

A physical object can become artwork.

A piece of artwork can become animation.

A conversation can become an idea.

A walk can become a video.

A costume can become a character.

A location can become a setting.

A random image can become symbolism.

Even an annoying argument with somebody on the internet can become useful.

That doesn't mean I'm exploiting every moment of my life for clicks.

Quite the opposite.

Sometimes the desire to create content actually gets me out there living more life.

Maybe I want to film something, so I take the dogs for a walk when I otherwise might have stayed home.

Maybe I'm outside and the sun hits the snow just right.

Maybe Harley's shadow falls across a church.

Maybe I capture that.

Now I've had a novel experience.

I've spent time with my dog.

I've gotten outside.

I've created something.

I've broken up the routine.

And I've given myself another memory.

The content becomes a reason to participate in life rather than a substitute for living it.

And sometimes those novel experiences are valuable precisely because they make time feel more substantial in retrospect.

So even the act of creating can feed back into the life that I'm creating from.

That's the loop.

Life produces art.

Art encourages me to experience more life.

Those experiences produce more art.

And around and around it goes.

The Entire Toolbox

That's ultimately why I reject the idea that I need to choose between:

human creativity

and

technology.

Why?

Why can't I have both?

Why can't I use my own voice and an AI beat?

Why can't I make physical artwork and then animate it digitally?

Why can't I photograph something real and add artificial elements?

Why can't I use a costume, a real location, practical props and computer-generated imagery in the same video?

Why can't I showcase another artist's work alongside my own?

Why can't Dawn make something and I incorporate it into a project?

Why can't a museum inspire a video?

Why can't a fictional image communicate a real idea?

Why can't a machine help me turn an idea into something I can actually show people?

Why would I deliberately limit the toolbox?

So What Am I Actually Asking?

I'm not asking anybody to worship AI.

I'm not asking anybody to abandon traditional art.

I'm not asking anybody to pretend that AI-generated material is automatically brilliant.

I'm asking for something much simpler:

Judge the work.

Judge the song.

Judge the performance.

Judge the image.

Judge the video.

Judge the message.

Judge the emotional impact.

Judge the craftsmanship.

Judge the choices.

And then, if you want, ask how it was made.

But don't reverse that order and decide whether something has artistic value before you've even looked at it.

Because ultimately, I don't think the most important question is:

"Was AI involved?"

I think it's:

"What did you do with it?"

And if somebody still wants to debate me after reading all of this?

Fair enough.

Bring your arguments.

I'll bring mine.

But remember:

I value my time.

So if you want to debate me, you're gonna have to pay me.

Have a nice day.

Debunking Armchair Skeptics...

The mainstream scientific establishment is overall very much against creationist theory. Why then are they so opposed to studying Bigfoot?  🫈 Seems odd.  I'm not making a statement. I'm simply posing a question. If someone wants to give me an answer please do email with it at: jmtalboo@gmail.com 

But do not say it's because there is no scientific evidence for the existence of Sasquatch, because that simply is not true!

Evidence isn't absolute proof of course, but otherwise what a load of absolute rubbish! There are plenty of highly-credible scientists in the most relevant of disciplines who correctly think otherwise and therefore this statement is BUNK! 

1. Dr. Jeff Meldrum — Anatomy, Anthropology & Locomotion

Jeff Meldrum is an anthropologist and anatomist at Idaho State University whose specialties include foot morphology, locomotion and the evolution of bipedalism in humans and other primates.

His examination of alleged Sasquatch footprints is particularly relevant because the evidence falls directly within his areas of expertise.

Meldrum has repeatedly emphasized that his argument is not that the evidence constitutes absolute proof, but that it warrants investigation. His book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science examines footprints, dermal ridges, photographs, hair, DNA and other evidence.

2. Dr. Jane Goodall — Primatology

Jane Goodall hardly needs an introduction.

The legendary primatologist has publicly expressed an open mind toward the possibility of Sasquatch while acknowledging that existing evidence has not satisfied most scientists.

That's an important distinction.

She isn't saying, “Bigfoot has been proven.”

She's saying the question shouldn't simply be dismissed.

3. Dr. Grover Krantz — Anthropology & Human Evolution

Anthropologist Grover Krantz studied alleged Sasquatch footprints and handprints from an anatomical and evolutionary perspective.

His work included analysis of alleged dermal ridge patterns and the unusual anatomical characteristics claimed in some footprint casts.

Again, agreement with Krantz isn't required.

The relevant fact is that an academically trained anthropologist considered the physical evidence worthy of detailed analysis.

4. Dr. John Bindernagel — Zoology

Canadian zoologist John Bindernagel devoted substantial attention to the possibility of a large, undiscovered North American primate.

His work examined the ecological question of whether such an animal could theoretically exist in North America and whether the reports deserved scientific investigation.

His work is another example of someone with relevant scientific training treating Sasquatch as a zoological question rather than merely a campfire story.

5. Jimmy Chilcutt — Fingerprint & Primate Dermatoglyphics

Jimmy Chilcutt is particularly interesting because his expertise is directly relevant to one of the strangest categories of alleged Sasquatch evidence: dermal ridges.

Chilcutt worked in law enforcement as a fingerprint examiner and has examined alleged Sasquatch track casts for fingerprint-like ridge patterns.

His conclusions regarding some casts were controversial, but they were based on an area of forensic examination in which he had professional experience. Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science specifically discusses his examination of dermal ridge evidence.

6. Dr. Henner Fahrenbach — Hair & Physical Evidence

Dr. Henner Fahrenbach investigated alleged Sasquatch hair and other physical evidence and also conducted statistical work concerning reported Sasquatch characteristics.

Hair attributed to Sasquatch has been subjected to multiple forms of analysis, including DNA testing. Some samples have ultimately been identified as human, which is important evidence against simply assuming every unusual hair represents an unknown animal.

But the existence of the investigations themselves demonstrates that physical samples have been collected and subjected to scientific examination.

7. Dr. Daris Swindler — Primatology & Anatomy

Daris Swindler was a prominent primate anatomist associated with Washington State University.

He examined the controversial Skookum cast, along with other researchers including Meldrum and primatologist Esteban Sarmiento.

Whatever conclusion one reaches about the cast, the fact remains that trained primate specialists were brought in to examine it anatomically.

8. Dr. Esteban Sarmiento — Primatology & Human Evolution

Esteban Sarmiento, a primatologist and researcher associated with the American Museum of Natural History, was another specialist involved in examination of Sasquatch-related physical evidence.

His participation is particularly relevant because primate anatomy and evolution are directly related to evaluating claims of an unknown large primate.

That doesn't make every interpretation of the evidence correct.

It does make the subject difficult to accurately characterize as something that qualified scientists have simply never investigated.

9. Dr. George Schaller — Wildlife Biology

George Schaller is one of the world's most respected wildlife biologists and conservation scientists.

Schaller has expressed skepticism about whether the existing evidence establishes Sasquatch, but he has also recognized the value of critically examining the evidence.

In his comments about Meldrum's work, Schaller described Meldrum as bringing scientific rigor to the question and praised his footprint analysis.

That's an important example because scientific engagement doesn't require accepting the final hypothesis.

10. Dr. Robert Benson — Bioacoustics

Robert Benson examined alleged Sasquatch vocalizations using computerized acoustic analysis.

His area of expertise is particularly relevant to reports involving unexplained sounds and vocalizations.

Again, the existence of an acoustic analysis does not automatically establish that the sounds came from Bigfoot.

But it demonstrates that alleged Sasquatch evidence has been subjected to specialized scientific analysis rather than simply accepted or rejected based on someone's personal opinion.

11. Dr. Craig Newton — DNA Analysis

Craig Newton was involved in DNA testing of biological samples associated with the Skookum site.

The results and limitations of such testing are part of the larger debate over alleged Sasquatch biological evidence.

And this is precisely why DNA evidence needs to be discussed carefully.

Some alleged Sasquatch samples have produced ordinary human or known-animal results. Others have generated questions about contamination, sample quality, identification and interpretation.

That's evidence to investigate—not automatically proof of an unknown primate.

12. Dr. Russell Ciochon — Paleontology & Human Evolution

Russell Ciochon is a paleoanthropologist whose work includes fossil primates and human evolution.

His involvement in Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science provided another perspective on the possible relationship between reports of giant unknown primates and extinct primates such as Gigantopithecus.

This does not mean Gigantopithecus has been demonstrated to be Bigfoot.

It means that questions about unknown or extinct primates can be examined through legitimate disciplines such as paleontology, anatomy and evolutionary biology.

So, the vast majority of relevant qualified scientists not looking for this possible missing link for evolutionary theory they vehemently defend are proving themselves to be quite dogmatic. Maybe pseudoscience is their religion? 

Undebunking Bigfoot

Debunking Pseudo-Skepticism Regarding the Topic of Sasquatch

Best Evidence & Content that Counters Pseudo-Skepticism Regarding the Topic of Sasquatch

• Debunking Bigfoot Debunkers
• Highly Probable, Possible, Inconclusive, and Widely Rejected Sasquatch Videos and Photos
• Best Evidence for the Existence of Sasquatch - Forensic, Audio, Video, Photo, Statistical Data

One More Thought...

Some people have suggested that Bigfoot could actually be connected to the Nephilim mentioned in the Bible.

I'm not saying that's true.

But if you're looking for ways to put some of these creationist ideas to rest, perhaps it's time to get on the Bigfoot case ASAP.

After all, if Sasquatch turned out to be a real, previously unknown primate, that would be a pretty damn interesting development for evolutionary science.

So what are we waiting for?

Investigate the Bigfoot. 😂

And Since We're Talking About Bigfoot...

Here are two recent songs from my music featuring lyrics about Bigfoot, along with videos and pictures of me with Bigfoot.

Follow/subscribe on TikTok: @Crashout.Royalty

Bigfoot song #1 — TikTok

Bigfoot song #2 — TikTok

10 of the Most Fascinating Alien Abduction Cases

Alien abduction stories are among the strangest and most controversial accounts in UFO history. Some involve multiple witnesses, unusual physical evidence, medical examinations, or stories that have remained remarkably consistent over time. Others have been challenged by skeptics who point to hypnosis, sleep paralysis, false memories, cultural influences, or ordinary explanations.

Whether these experiences were encounters with extraterrestrial beings, unusual psychological events, something else entirely, or some combination of factors remains an open question.

Here are 10 of the most fascinating cases.

1. Betty and Barney Hill — 1961

The Betty and Barney Hill case is probably the most famous alleged alien abduction story in American history.

On the night of September 19, 1961, the Hills were driving through New Hampshire when they noticed a strange light in the sky. They stopped to watch it and eventually reported seeing a large object.

After arriving home, they realized they had lost several hours of time.

Under hypnosis conducted later, Betty and Barney described being taken aboard a strange craft and examined by humanoid beings. Betty also described what became known as the famous "star map," which she believed showed where the beings came from.

The case has been debated for decades. Critics have questioned the use of hypnosis and suggested that some details may have been influenced by dreams, memory, or suggestion.

Nevertheless, the Hill case became the template for many abduction stories that followed.

2. Antonio Villas Boas — 1957

Several years before the Hill case became famous, Brazilian farmer Antonio Villas Boas reported an extraordinary encounter.

In October 1957, Villas Boas said he was working in a field at night when he saw a strange glowing object. According to his account, beings emerged from the craft and forcibly took him aboard.

He described being examined and eventually having a bizarre sexual encounter with one of the occupants.

Villas Boas reportedly became ill afterward and sought medical attention.

The story is controversial, but historically important because it predates the explosion of American alien-abduction stories. It is sometimes considered one of the earliest modern accounts of a person claiming to have been taken aboard a UFO.

3. Pascagoula Abduction — 1973

On October 11, 1973, two Mississippi shipyard workers, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, reported an extraordinary encounter near Pascagoula.

The men said they were fishing when they heard a strange buzzing sound and saw a glowing object nearby.

According to their account, strange beings emerged and somehow transported them into the craft. They described the creatures as having unusual appearances and claimed that they were subjected to a bizarre examination.

The case became particularly famous because Hickson and Parker were interviewed by authorities shortly afterward.

At one point, investigators reportedly left the two men alone in a room while a recording device continued running. The men continued discussing the experience, apparently unaware that they were being recorded.

Skeptics have questioned the story, but the immediate aftermath remains one of the most intriguing aspects of the case.

4. Travis Walton — 1975

The Travis Walton case is one of the most famous alleged UFO encounters ever reported.

On November 5, 1975, Walton and several coworkers were working in Arizona's Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest when they reportedly saw a glowing object.

Walton approached it and was allegedly struck by a beam of light.

His coworkers fled, believing he had been killed.

Walton disappeared for five days.

When he returned, he claimed that he had been aboard a UFO and had encountered strange beings.

The story received enormous publicity and became the basis for the book and later movie Fire in the Sky.

Skeptics have suggested the incident was a hoax or involved financial motivations. Supporters point to the number of witnesses, the initial reports to authorities, and Walton's disappearance as reasons they believe the story deserves serious consideration.

It remains one of the most debated abduction cases in UFO history.

5. Allagash Abductions — 1976

In August 1976, four young men were camping near Maine's Allagash Waterway when they reportedly experienced something strange.

The men later claimed that they saw a large glowing object over the lake while they were fishing at night.

They said they later discovered that they had lost track of time.

Years afterward, under hypnosis, two of the men reportedly described being aboard a UFO and undergoing examinations by strange beings.

The case is controversial because the detailed memories emerged during hypnosis rather than immediately after the event.

That makes the Allagash story particularly interesting from a psychological perspective as well as a UFO one.

Did hypnosis recover buried memories—or create convincing ones?

There is no universally accepted answer.

6. Betty Andreasson Affair — 1967

The Betty Andreasson case is one of the more elaborate alleged abduction stories.

Andreasson, a Massachusetts woman, reported that strange beings entered her home in January 1967.

She later described being taken aboard a craft and encountering unusual beings, including a creature resembling a bird.

The story became especially famous because of its enormous amount of detail.

Investigators conducted extensive interviews and hypnosis sessions, and the resulting account became the subject of books and paranormal research.

Critics have questioned the reliability of the memories and the methods used to obtain them.

Believers, however, regard the case as one of the most detailed examples of alleged contact with nonhuman entities.

7. Linda Cortile Case — 1989

The Linda Cortile case became one of the strangest alleged abduction stories of the late twentieth century.

Cortile claimed that she was taken from her apartment in New York City and transported aboard a UFO.

What made the story especially unusual was the claim that multiple people witnessed part of the event.

Among those associated with the case was former United Nations official Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, although the circumstances surrounding the alleged witness testimony have been heavily disputed.

The case became increasingly complicated as investigators gathered additional accounts.

Supporters considered the alleged independent witnesses significant.

Critics argued that the investigation became tangled in suggestion, inconsistencies, and extraordinary claims.

The Cortile case remains fascinating largely because of the number of people who eventually became connected to the story.

8. Kelly Cahill Encounter — 1993

In August 1993, Australian woman Kelly Cahill and several others reported seeing a strange object near Melbourne.

Cahill described a large craft and unusual humanoid beings.

She later reported experiencing missing time and other disturbing memories.

One of the most interesting aspects of the case is that another person reportedly came forward independently with a somewhat similar account of the event.

Cahill's story subsequently became a prominent Australian abduction case.

As with many such accounts, the evidence is disputed, and there are questions about memory and interpretation.

Still, the combination of multiple witnesses and the reported physical and psychological effects makes the case noteworthy.

9. Ariel School Incident — 1994

The Ariel School incident in Zimbabwe is different from most alleged abduction cases because the witnesses were children.

On September 16, 1994, dozens of students at the Ariel School near Ruwa reportedly saw a strange object near the school grounds.

Some of the children said they saw beings near the object.

Several later described messages or impressions involving the environment, humanity, and the future of Earth.

What makes the case particularly interesting is the number of children who reportedly described similar experiences.

Skeptics have suggested that the children may have influenced one another or interpreted an unusual event through the lens of their expectations.

Others consider the consistency of some of the accounts remarkable.

The incident remains one of the most discussed mass UFO experiences involving children.

10. Betty Hill's Star Map

The final entry deserves special attention because it represents one of the most famous pieces of alleged "evidence" to emerge from an abduction story.

During hypnosis following her 1961 encounter, Betty Hill described seeing a star map aboard the alleged UFO.

She later produced a drawing of the map.

In the years that followed, supporters argued that the pattern corresponded to stars in the Zeta Reticuli system.

The supposed match became one of the most famous arguments for the reality of the Hill experience.

Critics have disputed the interpretation, pointing out that patterns of stars can sometimes be matched to multiple configurations and that the process of identifying the alleged correspondence was subjective.

Nevertheless, the "Betty Hill star map" became an important part of UFO folklore and helped establish the idea that alleged abductees might return with information that could potentially be checked against the real world.

The Mystery Remains

Alien-abduction stories occupy an unusual place in modern folklore.

Some people who report these experiences appear completely sincere. Others have been exposed as hoaxes. Some accounts contain remarkable similarities, while others differ dramatically.

There are also legitimate psychological explanations that deserve consideration.

Sleep paralysis, false memories, hypnosis, dreams, cultural expectations, and the workings of human memory can produce experiences that feel completely real to the person experiencing them.

But acknowledging those possibilities does not automatically prove that every case has been explained.

That is where the mystery remains.

The most reasonable approach may be to resist both extremes.

We don't have to assume that every strange experience was caused by extraterrestrials.

But we also don't have to assume that every unexplained experience has already been completely understood.

The fascinating question is not simply, "Were they abducted by aliens?"

It is:

What actually happened to these people?

And that question is still open.

Until we know more, the stories remain some of the strangest mysteries in UFO history.

10 of the Most Fascinating UFO Sightings in History

10 Heartwarming Stories of Heroism and Humanity on 9/11

When we think about September 11, 2001, we naturally think about the terrible things that happened that morning.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed. Thousands more were injured. Families lost husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. The images of the burning towers and the people fleeing through the streets remain among the most painful pictures in American history.

But September 11 was also a day when ordinary people demonstrated extraordinary courage.

Some ran toward danger while everyone else was running away. Some stayed behind to help strangers. Some took enormous risks to rescue people they had never met. And thousands of complete strangers suddenly began helping one another simply because there was nobody else to do it.

Twenty-five years later, those stories deserve to be remembered too.

Here are ten of the most inspiring examples.

1. Rick Rescorla: The Man Who Wouldn't Leave Without Everyone

Rick Rescorla had already seen what terrorism could do to the World Trade Center.

He was working in the South Tower when the complex was bombed in 1993. Afterward, he became convinced that another attack was possible.

So he prepared.

Rescorla, a former Army officer and Vietnam veteran, conducted evacuation drills with employees of Morgan Stanley. He developed procedures for getting people out quickly and efficiently.

When the first plane hit the North Tower on September 11, Rescorla didn't panic.

He grabbed a bullhorn and began directing people out of the South Tower.

He sang songs from his military days to keep frightened employees calm as they moved down the stairs.

Nearly 2,700 Morgan Stanley employees escaped the building.

But Rescorla didn't leave.

He kept going back up the tower looking for anyone who might still be trapped.

He was last seen heading upward.

He knew the danger.

He went anyway.

2. Welles Crowther: The Man in the Red Bandana

Welles Crowther was a 24-year-old equities trader working in the South Tower.

He was also a former volunteer firefighter.

When the tower was struck, Crowther began helping people escape.

Survivors later remembered a young man wearing a red bandana over his face to protect himself from the smoke.

Crowther repeatedly went back into the building.

He helped people find the stairs. He carried injured people. He guided others toward safety.

He could have concentrated entirely on saving himself.

Instead, he kept returning for other people.

That red bandana eventually became one of the most recognizable symbols of individual heroism on 9/11.

Crowther didn't survive.

But the people he helped never forgot him.

3. Moira Smith: The Police Officer Who Kept Going Back

NYPD Officer Moira Smith was among the first police officers to respond to the World Trade Center.

She was 38 years old and the mother of a two-year-old daughter.

Smith could have concentrated on getting people away from the disaster.

Instead, she became one of the people helping organize the evacuation.

Smith was among the first to respond and was last seen evacuating people from the South Tower. She helped save hundreds of lives before the tower collapsed.

She was later awarded the NYPD's Medal of Honor, the department's highest honor.

Smith kept returning to the danger.

Eventually, she didn't make it out.

Her story is particularly heartbreaking because she had a young daughter waiting for her at home.

But it is also a reminder that heroism isn't always one dramatic moment.

Sometimes it's simply continuing to help people when you're terrified yourself.

4. Stephen Siller: The Firefighter Who Ran Toward the Towers

Firefighter Stephen Siller had already finished his shift when he heard about the attacks.

He immediately turned around.

By the time he reached Manhattan, access through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel had been closed.

So Siller did something almost unbelievable.

He put approximately 60 pounds of firefighting equipment on his back and ran through the tunnel toward the World Trade Center.

He was 34 years old.

He had a wife and five children.

He knew something terrible was happening.

And he ran toward it.

His story eventually inspired the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which continues to honor first responders and military members.

Sometimes courage isn't complicated.

Sometimes it's simply knowing where you're needed—and going there.

5. Brian Clark and Stanley Praimnath: Two Strangers Who Became Friends

This may be one of the most beautiful stories of 9/11 because it didn't end when the two men escaped.

Stanley Praimnath was on the 81st floor of the South Tower when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the building.

He became trapped beneath debris.

He called out for help.

Brian Clark, who was higher up in the building, heard him.

Clark had every reason to keep going.

He was trying to escape the burning tower himself.

Instead, he followed the voice.

He found Praimnath and helped free him.

The two men then made their way down the damaged stairwell together.

They escaped only minutes before the South Tower collapsed.

They had been complete strangers that morning.

They became lifelong friends afterward.

In one of the darkest moments imaginable, one stranger simply refused to leave another stranger behind.

6. Frank De Martini and Pablo Ortiz: Going Upstairs When Everyone Else Was Going Down

Frank De Martini and Pablo Ortiz worked for the Port Authority in the North Tower.

After the plane hit, they helped people escape.

But then they did something extraordinarily dangerous.

They went back toward the upper floors to search for people who might still be trapped.

The two men and their colleagues helped clear debris and open a stairwell so people could get out.

De Martini and Ortiz eventually died in the building.

They weren't firefighters.

They weren't police officers.

They were ordinary World Trade Center workers who decided that their responsibility didn't end with getting themselves out.

They went back for other people.

7. The Passengers of Flight 93: Ordinary People Who Decided to Fight Back

Flight 93 is one of the most extraordinary stories of September 11.

The passengers learned through telephone calls that other planes had already been used as weapons.

They realized that their airplane was probably intended for another target.

And they had to make a terrible choice.

Do nothing and hope for the best—or attempt to take control of the aircraft.

Passengers including Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick communicated with loved ones and others on the ground as they discussed what to do.

They ultimately decided to fight back.

Todd Beamer famously prayed with telephone operator Lisa Jefferson before preparing to act.

The words associated with the passengers' decision became famous:

“Let's roll.”

The plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania rather than reaching its intended target.

We will never know exactly what would have happened had the passengers not fought back.

But we do know that they refused to simply surrender.

Their courage saved lives.

8. The Boat Captains Who Turned New York Harbor Into an Escape Route

Not all of the heroes of 9/11 were firefighters or police officers.

Some were boat captains.

After the attacks, Lower Manhattan was essentially cut off.

Roads, bridges and tunnels were closed. Hundreds of thousands of people were stranded.

Then civilian boat operators began arriving.

Ferries.

Tugboats.

Tour boats.

Private vessels.

Anything that could carry people.

They started transporting stranded New Yorkers across the harbor.

The evacuation became one of the largest maritime evacuations in history.

Nearly 500,000 people were transported from Lower Manhattan in less than nine hours.

And they weren't all being evacuated by government emergency agencies.

Ordinary mariners saw people who needed help and went to help them.

No one needed to tell them that they were heroes.

They simply brought their boats.

9. Lisa Jefferson: The Stranger Who Stayed on the Phone

Todd Beamer's story is famous, but one part of it is sometimes overlooked.

His final conversation wasn't with his wife.

He tried to reach her but couldn't connect.

Instead, he reached an airline telephone operator named Lisa Jefferson.

She stayed on the phone with him.

For approximately 15 minutes, she listened as Beamer described what was happening aboard Flight 93.

She also prayed with him.

She became, in effect, the last person on the ground to speak with him.

Jefferson couldn't save Beamer.

She couldn't stop the hijacking.

But she could do something else.

She could make sure that he wasn't alone.

And sometimes, when there is nothing else you can do, simply staying with another human being is an act of profound kindness.

10. Lauren Grandcolas: A Final Message of Love

Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas was flying home to California after attending her grandmother's funeral.

She was also three months pregnant.

During the hijacking of Flight 93, she called her husband.

He didn't answer.

So she left a message.

She told him there was a problem with the plane.

She told him she was okay.

And she told him she loved him.

Lauren couldn't know what was going to happen.

She couldn't know whether her husband would ever hear her voice again.

But in the middle of an unimaginable crisis, she thought about the people she loved.

Her final message wasn't about herself.

It was about love.

The Other Side of September 11

There is a reason stories like these remain powerful a quarter-century later.

They remind us that September 11 wasn't only a story about evil.

It was also a story about people.

People who ran toward burning buildings.

People who carried strangers.

People who went back upstairs.

People who opened boats to complete strangers.

People who stayed on telephones with frightened passengers.

People who said goodbye to their families.

People who sacrificed themselves so others might live.

And people who simply looked around, saw somebody who needed help, and decided to help them.

We should never minimize the horror of September 11.

But remembering the victims doesn't require us to remember only how they died.

We can also remember the courage that surrounded them.

The kindness.

The selflessness.

The ordinary people who became extraordinary when the moment demanded it.

And perhaps that is one of the most important lessons of September 11.

We don't always get to choose the circumstances in which we are tested.

But we do get to choose how we respond.

On one of America's darkest days, thousands of people chose to help someone else.

That is worth remembering.

That is worth teaching our children.

And that is worth carrying forward.

The UFO Files Are Pouring Out: Six Government Drops, Hundreds of Records, and Some Serious Egg on the Debunkers' Faces

By JM Talboo UnDebunkingUFOs.blogspot.com

Something unusual has been happening in the U.S. government's UFO/UAP record system this year: the files have started coming out.

Since May, the Department of War has been publishing declassified and historical Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena records through a program called PURSUE — the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters. And this isn't one big document dump. It has been a rolling series of releases.

One small correction is worth making at the outset: despite some discussion online about a "seventh batch," the government's numbered PURSUE archive currently shows six official releases, beginning May 8 and continuing through September 18, 2026. The current archive indexes roughly 450 records, with the exact count depending on how duplicate/media records are counted. The government's own PURSUE site confirms the six numbered releases and says additional files are being prepared for rolling publication.

And some of the material is genuinely interesting.

Release One: May 8

The first release was the monster that started the current wave.

It contained well over a hundred records, including documents, military and government imagery, video and audio material from agencies including the Department of War, FBI, NASA and State Department.

The significance wasn't necessarily that it contained one definitive "smoking gun."

It was the sheer breadth of the material.

Government agencies had accumulated UFO reports for decades, and suddenly researchers had a much larger body of primary-source material to examine.

It also established something that would become a recurring theme in the later releases:

The government is willing to publish the existence of a case without necessarily being able to explain the object in the footage.

That distinction is important.

"Unresolved" does not mean "extraterrestrial."

But it also means the government hasn't established an ordinary explanation for that particular case.

Release Two: May 22

Two weeks later came the most video-heavy release of the series.

The second batch contained dozens of records, overwhelmingly video and audio material. The government's archive lists the May 22 release separately and provides the underlying files for researchers to examine.

This batch generated considerable attention because people could actually watch the sensor recordings rather than simply read decades-old UFO reports.

But there was an important catch: not every piece of footage should automatically be treated as independently authenticated proof of extraordinary technology.

That caveat matters.

The government possessing a video is not necessarily the same thing as the government confirming every interpretation that somebody has attached to that video.

In other words:

The files are evidence. The conclusions still have to be investigated.

Release Three: June 12

The June release shifted some of the emphasis back toward historical records.

It included dozens of documents along with video, photographic and audio material from agencies including the CIA, Department of War, FBI and NASA.

Historical material is particularly important because it allows researchers to go back to the original paperwork instead of relying on somebody's 30-, 40- or 70-year-old summary of what supposedly happened.

That is a big deal for UFO research.

A modern skeptic can say, "That's not what happened."

A modern believer can say, "The government covered it up."

But when the original government paperwork is sitting there in public, everybody has to deal with the actual record.

And that's exactly where this subject should have been heading all along.

Release Four: July 10

July brought another substantial collection of documents, videos, images and audio.

The government archive identifies records from agencies including the CIA, Department of Energy, Department of War, FBI and NASA.

Some of the newly published military videos are particularly useful for understanding why UAP analysis is so difficult.

Objects can appear to jump, flicker, disappear or change apparent size when an infrared sensor changes modes, adjusts contrast or changes magnification.

That doesn't make the footage worthless.

Quite the opposite.

It means researchers need to understand what the sensor was actually doing before deciding what the object was doing.

That's one of the most interesting aspects of the disclosure effort: we're getting to see not only alleged UFOs, but also the limitations of the instruments used to observe them.

Release Five: August 7

The fifth release contained another batch of records, including documents and numerous videos and images. The government's archive dates it to August 7.

This one received attention for historical reports involving triangular objects, among other unusual observations.

The larger significance, however, is that the government record increasingly contains reports from military personnel, intelligence personnel, FBI personnel and other officials.

That complicates the old stereotype that UFOs are simply stories originating with people who don't know what they saw.

Of course, government personnel can be mistaken.

Military personnel can misidentify aircraft.

Police officers can misinterpret lights.

Sensors can malfunction.

None of those possibilities disappear just because a government employee made the observation.

But the reverse is also true:

A government employee making an observation doesn't become meaningless simply because somebody can imagine a conventional explanation.

The explanation has to fit the evidence.

Release Six: September 18

Then came the latest—and arguably most historically fascinating—batch.

The sixth release contains 75 records: 59 documents, 15 videos and one audio recording, covering material from 1952 through 2025.

And this batch contains several things UFO researchers have been waiting decades to see.

The Tremonton Film

The government released the Project Blue Book file concerning the famous Tremonton, Utah, UFO film from July 2, 1952, along with associated photographs and personnel records concerning Navy Chief Warrant Officer Delbert Newhouse, who filmed the objects.

The release also contains the historical Air Force flying-disc material surrounding the case.

This is significant because we're no longer arguing about a modern internet copy of an old UFO story.

We're looking at the government's own historical case file.

Whatever conclusion somebody reaches about the film, researchers now have more of the original record with which to make that argument.

Captain Ruppelt

The sixth release also contains a historical recording/transcript involving Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the former head of Project Blue Book.

Again, the importance isn't that one historical recording magically proves an extraterrestrial hypothesis.

It's that researchers can examine what government investigators were actually saying and doing during the period when the UFO controversy was developing in real time.

That's a hell of a lot better than reconstructing the past from secondhand stories.

The AAWSAP Documents

And then there's the really bizarre part.

The sixth release contains a substantial collection of documents relating to the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, or AAWSAP, a Defense Intelligence Agency program associated with research into advanced aerospace concepts.

The released documents include studies involving subjects such as metamaterials, advanced propulsion, gravity research, antigravity, warp-drive concepts, traversable wormholes, negative energy, quantum-vacuum concepts and other exotic areas of physics.

Let's be extremely clear:

A government-funded study about warp drives is not proof that the government possessed a warp drive.

A document studying wormholes is not proof that somebody built a wormhole.

But the documents establish something that is nevertheless fascinating:

Government-funded intelligence research really did examine subjects that sound like science fiction.

That's not a UFO believer's rumor.

It's in the released paperwork.

And Now We Get To The Debunkers

This is where the current releases become especially interesting for a blog called Undebunking UFOs.

For decades, professional skeptics and debunkers have played an important role in UFO discussions.

One of the most famous was Philip J. Klass, the aerospace journalist and electrical engineer who became one of the best-known skeptical investigators of UFO reports. His career was built in part around finding conventional explanations for cases that UFO researchers considered mysterious.

Today, Mick West occupies a somewhat similar position in the public conversation, although using modern digital analysis, geometry, camera modeling and examination of military UAP videos rather than Klass's mid-20th-century approach.

And here's where the current disclosure creates some genuine egg-on-the-face moments for the professional debunking tradition.

Not because every UFO case has suddenly been proven extraterrestrial.

It hasn't.

And not because Mick West, Philip Klass or any other skeptic was wrong about every individual case.

They weren't.

The point is something more fundamental.

For years, skeptics could attack UFO cases by arguing that the stories were exaggerated, poorly documented, misunderstood, misrepresented or based on material that UFO researchers themselves had obtained and interpreted.

Now the government itself is putting large quantities of the underlying material into public view.

The government is saying, in effect: Here are the records. Here are the videos. Here are the historical case files. Here are the reports. Examine them yourself.

That changes the playing field.

A skeptic can still demonstrate that a particular object was a balloon.

They can demonstrate that an apparent acceleration was caused by camera movement.

They can demonstrate that an apparent shape was produced by optics.

They can identify an aircraft, bird, planet, flare, drone or sensor artifact.

And when they do, that's useful.

But the old argument that UFO researchers are simply making mountains out of nonexistent government records becomes much harder to sustain when the government is literally publishing the records.

That's the important distinction.

Debunking an individual UFO case is not the same thing as debunking the existence of the UFO phenomenon as an unresolved investigative subject.

And that's something UFO researchers and skeptics alike should keep straight.

If Mick West successfully explains one video, that explanation deserves to be considered.

If another video doesn't fit the explanation, that one deserves to remain under investigation.

Likewise, if Philip Klass successfully identified conventional explanations for cases during his lifetime, those explanations remain useful where the evidence supports them.

But a successful explanation for Case A doesn't automatically explain Cases B through Z.

That's where some forms of "debunking" can become overly broad.

The proper scientific response to an unexplained observation isn't:

"We explained some UFOs, therefore UFOs aren't real."

It's:

"We explained this one. Now let's look at the next one."

So What Does All This Actually Mean?

That depends on what question you're asking.

If the question is:

"Has the government released proof that extraterrestrial spacecraft are visiting Earth?"

No. These releases do not establish that.

If the question is:

"Has the government released a large amount of previously unavailable UFO/UAP material, including military sensor recordings, intelligence reports, FBI records, historical Project Blue Book material and documentation concerning government-funded advanced aerospace research?"

Absolutely.

And that's the part that shouldn't get lost in the sensationalism.

The six PURSUE releases have expanded the publicly available government record from 1940s and 1950s-era investigations to military encounters and law-enforcement reports from the modern era.

Some cases may eventually receive ordinary explanations.

Some footage clearly demonstrates the limitations of cameras and infrared sensors.

Some reports are too poorly documented to draw strong conclusions.

And some remain genuinely unresolved.

That last category is where the scientific and historical questions begin—not where they end.

The reaction has predictably been mixed.

UFO researchers have focused on the cases that appear most unusual.

Skeptics have emphasized sensor limitations, conventional explanations and the danger of interpreting ambiguous imagery as extraordinary technology.

Both approaches have a legitimate place.

But there is another approach that has been badly needed for a very long time:

Look at the evidence first.

Not "believe."

Not "debunk."

Investigate.

That's what makes this new wave of releases potentially more important than any single spectacular video.

For decades, arguments about UFOs were often based on fragments: a leaked document here, an old witness account there, a famous piece of footage and somebody claiming that the government knew more than it admitted.

Now researchers have hundreds of government records to compare.

And that means the conversation can finally move beyond:

"Do you believe in UFOs?"

The better question is:

What does the evidence actually show?

Because now, for the first time in a long time, there's a hell of a lot more evidence to examine.

And that's exactly what Undebunking UFOs intends to do.

An Open Letter to Lil Durk’s Defense Team, the Courtroom, and the Public

Dear Mr. Findling, the Defense Team, and Anyone Following the Lil Durk Case:

My name is JM Talboo, also known online as Bishop Neo Winston Smith at TikTok @Crashout.Royalty. I am an independent researcher and writer, and I recently published a long-form article examining the Durk Banks case, the evidence presented publicly surrounding the trial, the use of rap lyrics and other artistic material as evidence, and the broader media narrative that has developed around Mr. Banks, King Von, OTF, and the case.

I am writing this open letter because, after spending a considerable amount of time reviewing the available material, I believe I have assembled a collection of information and sources that may be worth the defense team's consideration—and worth the public's examination as well.

I want to be very clear about what I am—and am not—claiming.

I am not an attorney. I am not attempting to second-guess the defense strategy. I am not suggesting that my interpretations should be treated as established fact.

My purpose is simply to put potentially relevant information in front of people who are in a position to evaluate it properly.

Evidence vs. Interpretation

The central concern underlying my research is the distinction between evidence and interpretation.

There is a substantial amount of material surrounding this case that consists of music lyrics, social-media posts, internet commentary, Reddit discussions, documentary-style videos, and people attempting to connect events after the fact.

Some of those connections may ultimately prove meaningful. Others may not.

But I believe there is a serious danger when interpretation begins to substitute for independently verified evidence.

That concern became particularly important to me when examining the broader body of work produced by Trap Lore Ross and others who have attempted to reconstruct criminal histories and motives from rap lyrics, music videos, social-media material, rumors, and other publicly available information.

I have examined the controversy surrounding his treatment of King Von and Lil Durk, his methodology, his discussion of ongoing criminal cases, and the criticisms made by other journalists, researchers, artists, and commentators.

Some of those criticisms are substantive enough that I believe they deserve to be evaluated independently rather than dismissed as simply internet drama.

Rap Lyrics as Evidence

The larger question of rap lyrics as evidence is not merely an abstract First Amendment issue.

It raises fundamental evidentiary questions about context, artistic expression, authorship, fictionalization, genre conventions, temporal relationships, and whether a lyric actually provides independent evidence of an alleged act—or merely appears incriminating when removed from its artistic context.

A violent lyric can certainly be evidence of something.

But what it is evidence of is the crucial question.

Is it evidence of an actual event? A fictional narrative? A character? An exaggeration? A metaphor? A description of the environment surrounding the artist? A reflection of things the artist has witnessed? Or simply an artistic performance?

Those questions cannot necessarily be answered by looking at the words alone.

I understand that Mr. Findling and the defense team are already deeply familiar with these issues. In fact, I was particularly interested in Mr. Findling's public comments regarding the use of lyrics in criminal prosecutions.

His position that prosecutors and law enforcement can improperly interpret the commercial nature and conventions of rap music as evidence of a propensity toward violence is one of the reasons I thought this research might be worth bringing to his attention.

The Broader Case

My research also examines the broader circumstances surrounding the case, including OTF-related evidence, witnesses and cooperating individuals, music, public statements, and the larger “crates of guns” story that has become part of the surrounding discussion.

I am not presenting every allegation contained in those materials as established fact.

Rather, I have attempted to identify the claims, distinguish them from documented evidence, and leave the ultimate evaluation to the reader.

There is a documentary on the broader “crates of guns” story in the works, but anyone interested in investigating that subject right now can simply go to YouTube and search:

crates of guns

There is a rabbit hole there for anyone willing to do the research themselves.

Why This Matters to Me Personally

There is also a personal reason I became interested in the issue of rap lyrics as evidence.

I make a substantial amount of music myself, and some of that music is posted on my TikTok channel, @Crashout.Royalty.

I have created a number of songs in my own artistic voice that may provide an interesting firsthand example of how violent or incriminating-sounding language can function within rap as artistic expression rather than as a literal confession.

I have also created a substantial amount of music using Lil Durk's voice, in an attempt to speak for “The Voice,” who has now found himself voiceless.

That is not intended as a legal argument.

It is an artistic one.

And perhaps that is precisely why I think the distinction between artistic expression and literal evidence deserves such careful consideration.

The Public Should Examine the Sources

I am not asking anyone to simply believe me.

Quite the opposite.

I encourage people to examine the underlying sources themselves.

The article contains additional research materials, videos, articles, and other sources that allow readers to investigate the questions independently.

Mind Treasury: Beyond “Durk Is Cooked”: Lil Durk, King Von, Trap Lore Ross, Rap Lyrics, the Trial, and the Bigger Story Behind the Evidence

https://mindtreasury.blogspot.com/2026/09/beyond-durk-is-cooked-lil-durk-king-von.html

The article is not intended to declare Lil Durk innocent or guilty.

It is intended to ask what the available evidence actually demonstrates, what is interpretation, what is speculation, and where those categories may have become blurred.

That distinction matters regardless of what conclusion someone ultimately reaches.

A Message to the Defense

To Mr. Findling and the defense team:

I am not asking you to accept my conclusions.

If anything, I would prefer that the defense independently investigate the underlying sources and determine whether anything in them is useful, inaccurate, incomplete, or irrelevant.

My hope is simply that potentially useful information does not get overlooked because it originated outside conventional legal or journalistic channels.

If any portion of this research appears potentially relevant to the defense, I would be happy to identify the underlying sources and chronology behind particular sections.

The legal system has mechanisms for determining what evidence means.

The internet does not.

And in an era when millions of people can watch a documentary, read a Reddit thread, hear a rap lyric, and immediately construct an entire theory of a person's guilt, I believe it is more important than ever to ask a simple question:

What do we actually know—and how do we know it?

That is the question I am attempting to explore.

Respectfully,

JM Talboo
AKA Bishop Neo Winston Smith
TikTok: @Crashout.Royalty
Independent Researcher / Writer
Mind Treasury

The VHS Universe: What If Reality Is Already Recorded, but We Still Get to Choose?

By JM Talboo 

I've been thinking about a strange possibility.

What if reality is more like a collection of recordings than a single movie?

Not necessarily a literal VHS tape.

I'm using the VHS analogy because it's something almost everybody understands.

Imagine that your entire life is recorded on a tape.

The tape contains everything that happened.

Every conversation.

Every decision.

Every mistake.

Every relationship.

Every fork in the road.

Everything.

Now imagine that you could rewind the tape.

You could watch the same life again.

But this time, you could choose differently.

That immediately creates a fascinating problem.

If the original recording already exists, does that mean your choices weren't real?

Or could both things somehow be true?

Could the events already exist from some larger perspective while the person experiencing them still genuinely experiences choice?

I think that's where things get much more interesting than the simple argument over whether the universe is deterministic.

The Universe Doesn't Necessarily Have to Be a Straight Line

We tend to imagine time as a line.

Yesterday leads to today.

Today leads to tomorrow.

One thing happens, then another thing happens, then another.

But that's not the only way philosophers have modeled time.

There is an actual philosophical concept called branching time.

In branching-time models, histories can share a common past and then diverge into different possible futures. A useful way to visualize it is as a tree: the trunk represents the shared history, while the branches represent different possible developments. This isn't a claim that physicists have demonstrated that our universe literally works this way. It is a formal philosophical framework for thinking about alternative possible futures.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Branching Time:

https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/branching-time/

That's remarkably close to the metaphor I've been using.

Imagine that reality isn't a single line.

Imagine it's spaghetti.

There are countless strands.

Some strands remain close together.

Some separate dramatically.

Some might eventually reconnect.

Some might represent possibilities that were never actually experienced.

And perhaps, from the perspective of the person standing inside one strand, it feels exactly like ordinary life.

You make a decision.

You don't know what would have happened if you'd made the other choice.

You move forward.

That's your reality.

But perhaps the other possibilities aren't meaningless.

Perhaps they're simply other branches.

The Flash and the Spaghetti Universe

One of the funniest places I've seen a similar concept presented is in the 2023 movie The Flash.

Michael Keaton's Batman attempts to explain the strange consequences of Barry Allen's manipulation of time by comparing the universe to spaghetti.

The basic visual idea is that history isn't necessarily a neat straight line. Events can become tangled, displaced and connected in strange ways.

It's fiction, obviously.

But fiction is useful for this kind of discussion because it gives us visual metaphors for ideas that are otherwise extremely difficult to communicate.

The Flash's spaghetti analogy isn't scientific evidence for branching universes.

It's an illustration.

And that's exactly how I want to use it.

The question isn't:

“Did Batman prove that the universe is spaghetti?”

Obviously not.

The question is:

“Is spaghetti a useful metaphor for a universe in which time, causality and possibility aren't as simple as we normally imagine?”

I think it is.

The VHS Version

Now take the spaghetti and combine it with the VHS.

Imagine that every completed branch is a recording.

You are currently watching one.

You experience it sequentially because that's how consciousness operates from your particular perspective.

But somewhere outside that perspective, the entire recording exists.

Now imagine there are other tapes.

Tape A:

You took the job.

Tape B:

You didn't take the job.

Tape C:

You took it and met someone who changed your life.

Tape D:

You rejected the opportunity.

Tape E:

You took an entirely different path and never met that person at all.

From inside Tape A, you don't experience Tapes B, C, D and E.

You experience choice.

That's important.

The existence of a recording doesn't necessarily tell us anything about what it felt like to make the decision while the recording was being created.

If you watched the finished tape, you could say:

“Of course he was going to make that decision.”

But the person experiencing that moment didn't have the luxury of knowing the ending.

He had to decide.

That distinction is the heart of the thought experiment.

The Strange Possibility: A Fixed Sequence Can Still Contain Real Choices

This is where the whole thing gets weird.

Suppose an observer outside time could see your entire life at once.

From that perspective, your choices might appear completely determined.

But from inside your life, you still deliberate.

You consider possibilities.

You feel uncertainty.

You choose.

You experience consequences.

You learn.

Those two perspectives don't necessarily have to contradict each other.

This is one reason philosophical discussions of time and free will become so complicated.

Eternalism, for example, is the view that past, present and future events exist in some sense, rather than only the present existing. Presentism takes the opposite position, holding that only the present exists. These are philosophical positions about the ontology of time, not established experimental discoveries about which model is correct.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Time:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Presentism:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/presentism/

And branching-time philosophy adds another possibility: instead of there being one already-determined future, there could be multiple possible histories branching from a shared past.

So we don't necessarily have only two choices:

Everything is predetermined.

or

Nothing is predetermined.

There may be much stranger possibilities in between.

Terminator 2: No Fate

This is where Terminator 2: Judgment Day gives us one side of the argument.

The movie famously presents the idea that the future isn't simply fixed and that people can make different choices.

That's a powerful idea.

If Sarah Connor can change the future, then the future isn't necessarily a single VHS tape that has already been recorded.

Maybe it's a blank tape.

Maybe we're recording it as we go.

Maybe our choices actually create the future.

That's one possibility.

But then Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines comes along and essentially asks:

What if some things are harder to change than you thought?

The movie's central reversal is that Judgment Day wasn't prevented; it was postponed. The Terminator tells John Connor that Judgment Day is inevitable, and the ending explicitly leaves John confronting the possibility that the future may have been written after all.

Terminator 2:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/quotes?item=qt0416784

Terminator 3:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181852/quotes?item=qt0315919

That creates a fascinating philosophical tension.

Maybe Terminator 2 is saying:

Your choices matter.

And Terminator 3 is saying:

Yes—but perhaps your choices occur inside a larger structure that you don't completely control.

Those aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Maybe you can choose the route without choosing the destination.

Maybe you can choose the destination but not the circumstances.

Maybe there are certain events that are effectively fixed while everything surrounding them remains flexible.

Or maybe there are multiple timelines in which different choices are made, while each individual timeline remains internally consistent.

Thanos: “I Am Inevitable”

Marvel gives us another version.

Thanos doesn't simply say that he wants something.

He declares inevitability.

“I am inevitable.”

The interesting thing isn't whether Thanos is actually correct.

He's not.

The interesting thing is the concept.

A character can experience himself as making choices while simultaneously believing that the outcome is inevitable.

That is exactly the philosophical problem we're playing with here.

What if inevitability exists at one level while choice exists at another?

Groundhog Day: The Replay

Then there's Groundhog Day.

This one may actually be the most useful metaphor of all.

Phil Connors wakes up every morning to the same day.

He remembers.

Everyone else doesn't.

The same events keep happening, but Phil's knowledge changes.

And because his knowledge changes, his choices change.

Eventually, the repetition transforms him.

That's a very different concept from simply saying:

“The universe is deterministic.”

Phil isn't merely watching a recording.

He's learning from it.

He's experimenting.

He's discovering what happens when he changes something.

And eventually, he becomes a different person.

The movie establishes the repeating structure through Phil repeatedly waking on February 2 to the same morning broadcast and Sonny & Cher's “I Got You Babe.”

Groundhog Day screenplay:

https://imsdb.com/scripts/Groundhog-Day.html

Imagine applying that concept to an entire lifetime.

What if consciousness could live a life again?

What if it could remember the first run?

What if it could try again?

What if every version of the life remained real from its own perspective?

Suddenly, “What if I had made a different choice?” becomes a much bigger question.

Maybe you don't have to wonder.

Maybe you could actually find out.

Choose Your Own Adventure

When I was younger, Choose Your Own Adventure books gave us a primitive version of this concept.

You read a few pages.

Then the book tells you to make a choice.

Go to page 42.

Or go to page 87.

You pick one.

That becomes your story.

But page 87 didn't cease to exist simply because you picked page 42.

The alternative remained there.

You just didn't experience it.

Now imagine that the universe worked something like that.

You reach a fork.

You choose.

Your experience continues down one path.

But another possibility exists.

Maybe it exists only as a mathematical possibility.

Maybe it exists as an unrealized counterfactual.

Maybe it exists in another universe.

Maybe it exists in some deeper metaphysical structure.

Maybe it doesn't exist at all.

We don't know.

But the metaphor gives us a way to think about the distinction between what happens and what could have happened.

The Matrix: What Is the Player?

Then we get to The Matrix.

The Matrix adds another layer to the thought experiment.

What if the person you think you are isn't the entirety of what you are?

Neo initially believes he is an ordinary human being living an ordinary life.

Then he discovers that his apparent reality is an artificial environment.

The important revelation isn't simply:

“This world isn't real.”

It's:

“I am more than I thought I was.”

That distinction is central to the spiritual version of this thought experiment.

Maybe the body is the avatar.

Maybe consciousness is the player.

Maybe ordinary reality is the environment.

Maybe death is logging out.

Maybe reincarnation is logging back in.

Maybe none of those things are true.

But once you allow the possibility, an entirely different set of questions becomes available.

The Matrix isn't evidence that we live in a simulation.

It's a modern myth about awakening.

And that's why it connects so naturally with ancient traditions that also talk about ignorance, illusion, awakening, the true nature of the self, and liberation.

An annotated exploration of those connections I reposted:

https://debunkingdeath.blogspot.com/2015/10/gnosticism-and-buddhism-in-matrix.html

The Spiritual Version

Now let's take the thought experiment one step further.

Suppose consciousness is fundamental.

Suppose the individual consciousness is somehow an expression of a greater consciousness.

Call it the One.

Call it God.

Call it Buddha-nature.

Call it universal consciousness.

Call it whatever you want.

The name isn't the important part.

The important question is:

Why would the One experience limitation?

If unlimited consciousness already knows everything, what would it be like to experience not knowing?

If it has no limitations, what would it be like to experience limitation?

If it is eternal, what would it be like to experience a finite life?

If it knows every possible outcome, what would it be like to experience uncertainty?

Maybe that's the point.

Maybe limitation isn't a defect in the system.

Maybe limitation is the experience.

You can't experience surprise if you already know everything.

You can't experience discovery if you remember the answer.

You can't experience courage if you already know you are completely safe.

You can't experience forgiveness if nobody can hurt you.

You can't experience growth if nothing challenges you.

You can't experience choosing if you already remember every consequence.

And that brings us back to the VHS.

Maybe the Amnesia Is the Feature

What if forgetting isn't the bug?

What if it's the feature?

Imagine being an unlimited consciousness that voluntarily enters a limited perspective.

You forget the larger reality.

You forget the other lives.

You forget the ending.

You forget that the whole thing may already exist from another perspective.

And then you live.

You fall in love.

You lose people.

You make mistakes.

You make choices.

You wonder what the hell you're doing here.

You search for answers.

You find pieces.

You lose them again.

And eventually, perhaps, you remember.

That would make awakening something very different from merely escaping.

It would be remembering while still inside the experience.

The Non-Spiritual Version

Now strip all the spirituality away.

We don't need God.

We don't need reincarnation.

We don't need a soul.

We don't even need a simulation.

The thought experiment still works.

Computer science routinely uses branching structures to model possible future states.

Artificial intelligence systems explore possible actions.

Video games maintain states and allow different choices to produce different outcomes.

A simulation can contain a fixed set of rules while still allowing unpredictable outcomes from the perspective of the individual player.

And philosophy has spent centuries asking whether determinism is compatible with meaningful human agency.

So even if the entire spiritual framework turns out to be wrong, the underlying question remains legitimate:

Can a system be governed by rules without every meaningful description of choice becoming meaningless?

I think that's a much more interesting question than simply shouting “free will” or “determinism” at each other.

The Book of Life

Now here's where I take the VHS metaphor somewhere more speculative.

Suppose there really is some kind of ultimate record.

Call it the Book of Life.

Not necessarily a literal book.

Not necessarily a heavenly database.

Just a metaphor for the totality of what has happened.

Once an event has happened, it is part of history.

It's written.

You can't make yesterday unhappen.

But perhaps you could simulate it.

You could reconstruct it.

You could explore what would have happened if a different choice had been made.

And here's the really strange possibility:

Perhaps a simulation of an already-completed life could contain choices that were never part of the original life.

In other words:

The original event happened.

That history is fixed.

But you can create a model of it.

Then you can change the variables.

You can ask:

“What if?”

What if I had gone left?

What if I had stayed?

What if I had met that person earlier?

What if I had taken the other job?

What if I had made the decision differently?

The original history doesn't change.

But the simulation can explore alternatives.

That gives us a playground that potentially sits on top of almost every other possibility we've discussed.

The Simulation of the Simulation

This is where my VHS analogy gets really strange.

Imagine reality itself is some kind of simulation.

Then imagine that consciousness inside that simulation eventually develops the ability to simulate its own history.

Now you have:

Reality.

Then:

A simulation of reality.

Then:

A simulation of events that have already occurred inside that simulation.

And perhaps:

A simulation of alternative outcomes from those already-recorded events.

It's simulations all the way down.

At that point, the question “Which one is real?” becomes less useful.

The better question might be:

Which level am I currently experiencing?

And perhaps consciousness can move between levels.

Again, that's speculation.

But it's a fascinating thought experiment.

What About the Future?

The future makes everything harder.

A completed past can obviously be recorded.

A future event hasn't happened yet, at least from our ordinary perspective.

So perhaps you can replay the past perfectly but only simulate possible futures.

That would create an interesting distinction:

The past can be replayed.

The future can be projected.

And maybe that's why the future feels fundamentally different from the past.

Or perhaps the distinction is only a feature of our perspective.

If eternalism were correct, then the philosophical picture would be radically different because future events could be regarded as existing in some sense along with past and present events.

If branching time were correct, there could instead be multiple possible futures.

If presentism were correct, only the current moment would exist.

These are not settled questions.

They're competing ways of thinking about time.

And that's precisely why I find them useful as philosophical tools.

Maybe All of These Are True at Different Levels

Here's the possibility I keep coming back to.

Maybe the universe isn't one simple thing.

Maybe several descriptions can be simultaneously valid depending on the level you're talking about.

From inside the experience:

I choose.

From the perspective of the completed timeline:

I made that choice.

From the perspective of a branching structure:

Other choices were possible.

From the perspective of a simulation:

Those possibilities can be modeled.

From the perspective of an eternal record:

The entire sequence exists.

From the perspective of consciousness:

I am experiencing one particular path.

And from a spiritual perspective:

Perhaps I am something larger than the character experiencing the path.

That isn't a proof of any of these propositions.

It's a framework for asking better questions.

So Which VHS Are We Watching?

Maybe there is only one.

Maybe there are infinitely many.

Maybe every possible decision creates another branch.

Maybe only one branch actually exists and the others are merely possibilities.

Maybe the universe is deterministic but consciousness experiences the determination as choice.

Maybe free will operates at a deeper level than ordinary physical causation.

Maybe time itself isn't fundamental.

Maybe consciousness is.

Maybe none of that is true.

I don't know.

But I don't think we have to choose between intellectual curiosity and spiritual intuition.

We can use both.

That's what I mean when I talk about theology, comparative religion, philosophy, science and fiction as tools in a toolbox.

I'm not claiming that The Flash secretly proves a metaphysical theory.

I'm not claiming that The Matrix proves we're living in a computer.

I'm not claiming Groundhog Day proves reincarnation.

I'm saying that human beings have been using stories to imagine these possibilities for a very long time.

And sometimes fiction gives us a picture that allows us to ask a question that mathematics or theology alone makes difficult to visualize.

Maybe reality is a line.

Maybe it's a tree.

Maybe it's spaghetti.

Maybe it's a VHS tape.

Maybe it's all of those metaphors at once.

And maybe the strangest possibility isn't that we're trapped inside the recording.

Maybe it's that we chose the recording, forgot that we chose it, and are now watching ourselves make the choices for the first time.

And if that's true?

Then perhaps the most important thing isn't figuring out which VHS we're on.

Perhaps it's making this one worth watching.

Further Reading and Sources

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — “Branching Time”:

https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/branching-time/

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — “Time”:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — “Presentism”:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/presentism/

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — “Temporal Logic”:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logic-temporal/

The Flash (2023), Warner Bros. Pictures / DC Studios.

The Matrix (1999), Warner Bros. Pictures.

Groundhog Day (1993), Columbia Pictures.

Groundhog Day screenplay:

https://imsdb.com/scripts/Groundhog-Day.html

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991):

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103064/quotes?item=qt0416784

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003):

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181852/quotes?item=qt0315919

Debunking Death — “Gnosticism and Buddhism in The Matrix — Annotated Edition”:

https://debunkingdeath.blogspot.com/2015/10/gnosticism-and-buddhism-in-matrix.html