Across the land, you'll find examples of many dramatic and large structures [music] with foundations that go deep in the ground. Our efforts at renovation have exposed just how extensive these structures are. When we look at our immediate history, though, we have several cities in the United States and across the entire land that have a history of regrading. well documented both in image and written account [music] of these cities requiring the clearance of dirt hills or leveling also known as regrading. The cities of Kansas [music] City, Omaha, and Seattle bear this dramatic example. Were they being regraded or were they [music] being cleaned out? Join me as we explore great cities in mud. What are we really going to do? We're going to examine what a mud flood is and we're going to look at some of the best evidence that we have. We're also going to examine some of that evidence and try to determine exactly what it is that it's telling us. But to address the elephant in the room, [music] what exactly is a mud flood? And that's where we're going to start because there are a few different definitions. And is there an official definition? We also have to remember that we're looking at things that many others would label or categorize as pseudo history or pseudocience. [music] So, we're just going to look at things objectively and come to our own conclusions. You know, basically, again, doing the things that we're not supposed to do. Now, for frequent viewers of the channel, you probably know what particular structure that we're looking at here, don't you? Once again, we're back to building number one in our explorations, the Iowa State Capital, which is always our baseline building. Now, this is the western look. In other words, the camera is set up to the west of it, and we're looking to the east for those of you who aren't familiar with it. And it's really good to see everybody, and I'm glad everybody's showing up for this exploration because really mud flood is one of the core concepts of oldw world theory. However, whether you subscribe to the theory or not, or you have other theories, it is something that's very interesting and needs to be explored because there are a lot of images and there are a lot of records. I'm going to use that term from here on out. I'm not going to say the official historical account or anything like that because guess what? The official historical account changes day by day because, you know, we have historical revision. So, according to the record of the Iowa State Capital, this is one of the early construction photos. We don't have an exact date on it. going off of the step-by-step construction process. This is early 1880s before they finished the dome. And you may recall that uh when we did our little exploration on our little diamond or regional area in the Midwest of the United States with the capitals of Iowa and De Moine, Minnesota and St. Paul, Wisconsin and Madison, and then of course Illinois and Springfield, not Chicago. And within that particular area, it seemed as though there seemed to be some sort of exception from the effects of the last reset. Again, the theory that a reset occurred circa 1800 to 1850. If you go by the current dating system, and you know that we question that as well. But what's interesting looking at this state capital is it looks like it's been subjected to some very terrific forces. And remember, this is all brand spanking new at this point. But yet we see foliage, trees that are grow. We have this little shack right here on the base. And then of course, because it's on a hill, as many of these structures tend to be a very prominent hill, we also see that there's other houses and dirt and ground leading right up to it. Now, you may recall in our previous explorations of the Iowa State Capital, it has a very extensive underground and tunnel system. And in fact, there are images that indicate that state records are stored there. Now, what's actually in those records is up for anybody's guess. They also have a very great library. Now, of course, if you've seen the interior of the Iowa State Capital, you know that these images do seem to be, well, quite a contradiction from what you'd expect to see [music] because they're formal images that show you a palace. The exterior is a palace. The interior is very definitely a palace, but it's a state capital, the only five dome state capital [music] in the United States. But you look at this other image which is oddly enough from the same time frame and shows the dome being completed. Now about the only change you really see is that the little shack here has been removed. So I don't know perhaps the dome builders or the contractors actually lived in that little shack that we saw. But other than that it looks pretty much the same. Even the same scaffolding. What exactly were they doing with that scaffolding? Who knows? And why am I suggesting that the Iowa State Capital itself may be a mud flood building? Well, I don't know. And you'll often hear the terms mud flutter. And what's mud flutter mean? It simply means a building that's been subjected to the mud flood. Now, I know you're saying, "Get to the point. What exactly is a mud flood?" I'm working to it, so just stay with me. But you're suggesting that in this mud flood or this sudden change of mud that's overflowed around this building that it's what's caused this unique condition that we see. Now, you can accept the records that we have that this building really was constructed by the good people of Iowa in the United States circa 1871 to 1886. And maybe you even believe that the architect himself actually placed all those beautiful column statues and every brick and even every little block of gold. Yes, the Capitol dome is covered in gold, and they even have the temerity to tell us that it's cheaper to cover it in gold than to paint it gold. That's what they say. But yet, there's something that really stands out about it. And looking at these early images, see here's the little shack where I guess the dome building contractors lived. I'm just going to say that. And then here in the second image, the little shack's gone. But aside from the addition of the dome itself, it looks a lot the same. Now, of course, you always have to ask questions about these images. Are these images legitimate? historical images from the time frame they're attributed to. Have they been in some way modified? [music] Were they intentionally modified or were they unintentionally modified? We already have all these questions and we're just looking at one single building. And of course, I relate it back to the Iowa State Capital because that is our building number one. That is the building that we compare all of the buildings. This was a structure that according to official records in the United States in the great state of Iowa, which by the way is known for its agrarian practices. It is the cornbt. It is the middle of the cornbt. It has the best soil in the union. But it's not exactly a harbinger of gold or other precious materials. And yet somehow they're the only state that built the five dome state capital. Again, going off of official records. But there's also something else. When you look at the numerous renovations of the Iowa State Capital, you'll see that it reveals the foundation, and that's where things get very interesting because we see how deep underground it goes. Now, you may recall our on-site explorations. We know that it has a lower level. In fact, the main entrance actually takes you right into the lower level where you go into security and then you are free to explore this incredible palace. And [music] I strongly suggest if you're in Iowa that you do so. It's free and it's quite enjoyable. It's also always comfortable on the inside in this massive structure because they seem to have a perfect HVAC system whether you go winter or summer. And so that's just setting the stage for what we have [music] here. We're looking at this. Oh, here we go. I love this. [laughter] Ah, and that's why you're actually saying something like this, isn't it? And you know, I just thought I would highlight this because why do you even have to say anything like this? Oh, let's just roll with insults. M hilarious. Anyways, when you look at the actual foundation here of this particular structure, you can see the same thing and you can see two workers right here where you have these original blocks as part of the foundation. Now, you look at the original construction of this structure and you'll see that they just show a couple horse teams and some people that are actually planning it and constructing it. And there's always scaffolding around it. [music] In fact, they even tell us that in 1873 they had to replace the original foundation stone because the 1871 foundation stone cracked. So, yes, a series of stories that all come around that. [laughter] Oh, brother. Ah, someone's really trying to disrupt me. I can't imagine why. Well, that's okay because that tells me that I'm on the right track. So, no worries about it. you can keep trying. You've tried so hard and you've never been able to do it. And I guess that just really irritates you. Anyways, looking at the foundation stones, this is exactly what we see with many of these other structures, and we'll look at the other famous example, but it gives you the indication that there's a lot more to them, that they were built in a much more elaborate way, and there's a lot of mystery that goes deep in the ground. Unless, again, you really want to believe. And remember, they're doing this renovation with modern equipment. Modern equipment that was not available in the 1870s. [music] Again, according to official records, but here you see it. You got your little digger and your two guys just sitting around. So, I guess that kind of reflects what we'd expect to see from the construction photos in the 1870s. But it's a recurring tale with all of these structures that are deemed mud flood structures oration. So, that starts with the Iowa State Capital. Now, there's something to be aware of because of the is a how should we say very very controversial theory or maybe it's not or maybe it's just something that's hard to ignore. It should be noted that there are a lot of images that may have been intentionally modified [music] because as usual whenever we have something that there's a lot of evidence and there's a lot of background on it, we have to obiscate the for some reason. Now, I'm not suggesting that there's any official authorities behind this. I would never suggest any such thing, but I'm sure there's a lot of people who just simply do with their time out there that decide to put together photos. Now, what they want to do, are these photos real? Are they not real? Is it just something to try to look stupid? Because the answer always is, instead of just asking questions and genuinely exploring something, you call peoplely point your finger in [music] their face and say they're stupid. And that's how you're going to try to discredit them. And it's a very very old tactic and it's very predictable much like when you [music] try to group people into certain groups and also play according to that mentality. That's very predictable as well. But whether these images are authentic or not, we are looking at images such as the construction images of the Iowa State Capital and we'll be looking at [music] images of three cities that all conducted regrading in the United States. And we take the United States because of the fact that it has a very compressed timeline. So, there's all these incredible achievements in the United States in the 1800s. But every time you see an image like this, all I'm suggesting is that you simply be cautious, that you question it. Is this a legitimate historical image, or is this an image that's been altered in some way, shape, or form? And no, the alteration of images is not a new technology that just came about in the 2020s with the advent of what we call artificial intelligence. You know, granted, in the 20th century, I always thought of artificial intelligence as having sensient and self-awareness. And what they call artificial intelligence does not have anything of the sort today, but it can produce wonderful pictures. It can produce video, and we shouldn't be asking questions about it naturally. But you should question images like this because they may be authentic, they may not be authentic, but there's a lot more to this account than we like to believe. Hey, Dallas. Good to see you. Yeah. And ultimately, it's up to you to decide how to evaluate these images. Because here's the reality. Even the legitimate construction images from the official archive, in other words, the state archive of Iowa that documents the construction of the Iowa State Capital, I can't tell you for sure if those images [music] have been altered. I can't tell you for sure when those images were taken, and nobody else can either. Yes, if you trust the records, if you trust what's been written down and you don't [music] question it, then sure, you can accept it. But that's why it's always important to look at these and really ask these kinds of questions because no record is absolute. And you'll even see artwork such as this. Now, I I know that this is produced by [music] stable diffusion, one of the programs, you know, we'll call it AI. We call everything AI now, but just to give you an idea of what a mud flood may look like. Now, what exactly is a mud flood? Well, ultimately I'm going to answer that question or at least the agreed upon consensus of what a mud flood is. You're talking about the liquefaction of the soil in a larger region, maybe even continentwide. That is how we're defining a mud flood. Now, what exactly is liquefaction? Well, in simple terms, the soil is turning to a liquid property and therefore it can no longer support the [music] foundations of buildings. It is a scientific process that many in the mainstream dock acknowledge liquefaction does happen. Now granted, it's attributed to earthquakes and the effects and so on and so forth, but it is a very welldocumented event that has occurred and we'll look at some official images of it, not stable [music] diffusion. But the mud flood and the images that we have that indicate that there was a mud flood and [music] of course I'm talking about the official historical images. That is what gives us the evidence that there's clearly been something very different in the past. Ah, here's a good comment from Dallas. As a construction worker, I can firmly attest to the lack of safety precautions. Oh, even today I thought everything was about safety and that's why we can't do anything. Dallas, are are you countering that? My goodness. So anyway, that's exactly what a mud flood is. Now, what you're looking at here is a disaster, a coal mining disaster in Aberan, United Kingdom, 1966. And what had happened in this particular disaster, and yes, this is an official image. And this is a widely documented historical event. The coal top soil that they piled up in top of a hill actually all collapsed. And you can see it utterly destroyed this particular neighborhood here. Now, why are we looking at these other examples? Well, the only reason I'm showing this is that there are other events that can occur where you have a massive collapse of soil that can create calamities such as this. Now, of course, this is a localized event. We're not saying that this is a mud flood, but what we are saying is that this is something that could resemble a mud flood. And so, that's why it's important to always ask questions and try to look through all the details. We may not be able to get to the answers unless we're willing to make some assumptions, but we can get an idea of how things are. Now, there's no shortage of images from places such as California and really all over the land where you have mountainous terrain or uncertain terrain where you have what's known as landslides or mudslides. And again, this is very well doumented and very well known. Nobody questions this. Nobody says that landslides are some kind of crazy conspiracy theory or anything like that. But once again, I'm simply showing an image of a well-known event that occurs where you have the destruction of homes, you have the destruction of land, you have the destruction of foundations, and it does happen. Now, once again, yes, you can say it's merely localized. It's not something to worry about. There's no way that it could happen for a larger region. How could it actually happen for a larger region? You know, and by that, are we talking an entire nation state? Are we talking an entire continent? That's what we're trying to keep in mind and that's what we're actually going to consider when we look at this evidence that we have of three main cities in the United States, but we're going to look way beyond that. So there's your landslide image and then of course you have the classic defined mudslide where just the terrain gives out because of an excessive amount of rain and then you actually have the collapse of infrastructure here destroying this uh little highway or county road. And so these are the examples that we have that show what really happens here. Ah, and once again, it looks like I've lost the ability to actually look at the comments. Well, that's not a surprise. Well, no worries. I'm just going to keep on going because I had a feeling there would be a lot of issues with this uh particular exploration. So, no problem. Hey, Clara, looks like I'm back then. Cities may have slipped into the Atlantic. Yeah, that's definitely one. So looking at all these images and seeing these different events and ah here is the great example that we know of the temple in Salt Lake City and with recent renovation efforts there it's also shown that there are lower levels to the temple and the explanation will be well of course it shows lower levels it's just part of the foundation. Yes, we always have these very extensive foundations. Yet, when we look in the detail behind them and we look at some of the decoration, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense for why we have such immense decorative detail on what's supposed to be underground and what was supposed to have been planned from the start of the construction of a structure as its foundation to be underground. That's where we run into one of those little inconsistencies and we have to question. By the way, for those of you not familiar with Salt Lake City, you got the tabernacle there on the other side. And the less said about the tabernacle in the movies, the better. Now, does anybody know where this particular location is? This has been featured before by a couple other alternative researchers and other explorers. Mr. Something else, I saw the aftermath of a landslide. Ah, yes, it is well documented. Yeah, I mean whenever you have these events happening, they are terrifying because they can be very destructive and frightening. Ah, Sooner West has it. California. Oh, right on the money there. 50 Wheel Half Moon Bay in California. Yes, Half Moon Bay in California. Right off of the golf course, in fact, right below it. And what you're looking at here was a series of infrastructure ruins that are near the hotel. So again, we have all the little indicators of this being, yeah, Dallas is right near the golf course, near the hotel in a very resort area and of course not too far from the great land of San Francisco. And this infrastructure was unearthed because of the erosion of the soil. That's what the official account says. Now, what exactly were these pillars, these columns made of? When were they originally established there? Again, the official record, which by the way didn't really seem to come available until people ask questions about this, state that this was part of the infrastructure, an old dock that was built sometime in the distant past, [music] late 1800s, early 1900s. No one's really sure, but you can find numerous images that give the indication that maybe this is something else. Maybe this is reflecting to some structure that was actually just completely covered by the ground. >> [music] >> And what you have here is evidence whenever it was built, it doesn't really matter that this phenomenon can happen. That even if this historical record is absolutely correct as it's relayed to us, that this was a structure constructed in Half Moon Bay, California, 1890s, early 1900s, that it does show that the ground can actually end up around these structures. that this is not just some kind of product of our fantasy or imaginations that this does really happen. And so that's all I'm using this structure to establish is that this phenomenon does really happen. And you can actually see that they've removed most of the ruins here currently. What it looked like in 2011 where you actually have a couple we actually have an individual here standing by one of these columns. I mean that's what these look like to me. Just giant columns. And then the few ruins that are left as they have been removed. So once this great and dramatic evidence of infrastructure put there by somebody, no, we the official record tells us it was done by the city, the county, they did it and [music] it was all part of establishing a a little bit of a beach area and that's what they were doing. Okay, fine. And it just happened to end up in a hotel property. I believe it's a Ritz Carlton if memory serves. And it's right by a golf course. Yes, it's all just coincidence. But yet you look at some of the other evidence along with it and you can see that there seems to be a little bit more of a complexity to it. It seems to be something a little bit more than just some dock or something that [music] they were building as the official record says. Now is that an assumption? Yes. Could the official record be correct? Sure. But even if it is, like I said, the most dramatic detail about this is that it shows that this can really happen, that these structures can actually end up in the ground. water the trees. The water level blows that dock explanation out of the water. Ah, yes. Much like the water level blows the dock explanation out of the water in Star Trek Insurrection. Yeah. Yeah. The less said about that, the better. I know. But yeah, good point there. You're absolutely right, too. But that's exactly how they try to explain [music] it. Or maybe you could say the records aren't exactly accurate. But that's what we tend to go with. That's what we tend to have. And even more interesting is the images that we have that show the removal of these items, these columns, this infrastructure, whatever you want to call it, these ruins. I know I'm really going out on a limb by calling them ruins. You notice that it's done with modern equipment and nothing less than cranes. Now, if it took modern equipment and this level of effort to actually get this out of here, and how long did this really take? Not sure. How exactly was it constructed in the first place? Well, again, not questions that you're supposed to ask. And so, that really gives us the overview of what is a mud flood. It's a hypothetical, a theoretical event that could have been regionwide where we had the liquefaction of the soil that either led to the collapse of buildings or structures and the infrastructure of a previous civilization being in the mud or the soil and then once it solidified. Ah, yeah. KC933 says it very well. Great example of liquefaction. And don't worry, we're going to look at some other ones, some other examples of liquefaction that are actually well documented. So that establishes exactly what the mud flood is. So let's take a look at some evidence that we have of this event that's occurred. Now, what we're going to be looking at is some of the examples from three great cities in the United States. And these three cities underwent some events where they actually said that they had to [music] do what's called regrading. And we'll talk about that for each of these cities. Now, the first city that we're going to look at is one that we've explored before on the channel, the great city of Kansas City. Let me make sure I full image that for you. And I'm going to remove the banner just so you can see it a little bit easier. So, the story goes with Kansas City. And you may remember we did an on-site exploration of Kansas City in the distant past. What they inform us is that the bluffs around the Missouri River, which is where Kansas City is situated, were so high that they had to level them. And what we have here are images of the leveling of these bluffs. That this took a lot of effort. Now, they go so far as to tell us, the official record that this took about 50 years from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. And so what means were they doing this? How were they leveling these hills, these ridgeel lines, these bluffs? This is a major earthmoving project. We didn't even have heavy machinery available. And it's kind of funny because a couple weeks ago when we were looking in the history of railway and we were talking about steam powered driven tractors, there's a lot of people who told me, "Well, steam tractors were not practical to run logistics with." Okay, fine. Then you can't tell me that steam tractors were practical to do all this. Are we to believe that all this earth moving was done with just simple horsepower with just people with shovels and nothing better to do with their time? Now, yes, you may recall there's an interesting account with Kansas City. Oh, that's good. Leo doesn't look like they're hiding anything at all. No, they're all just standing there. You think they'd be constantly working and digging with their shovels, don't you? But that's exactly what they want to show us. They want us to think, "Oh, yes, there's a picture of it, so we have no reason to question it." I mean, is this even located in Kansas City? I don't know. The archive says that it is, but wherever it's located, it's very interesting, isn't it? And of course, you've got some uh pictures from down the road after they finished leveling Kansas City. And again, it's very interesting because you often times see these roadways that are still covered with dirt. You see trolley tracks. And here we actually have a functioning trolley. And no, it's not being pulled by horses. And again, there's a lot of dust and dirt that remains on the ground. Now, again, are we just supposed to think that's horse poop? What exact time frame is this photo from? Early 1900s. Don't have an exact year, which usually tends to be the case. But you always have this interesting plethora of details where you have the dirt covered road, you have the trolley here, the operational trolley, and yet you have these very elaborately constructed buildings. You also have a very developed power system. Now again, that's not necessarily questionable. Official record says power was developed and implemented in the 1890s [music] and everyone jumped on the bandwagon really quickly. Fine, but it is always intriguing to think [music] about why we have this kind of aesthetic, if you will, with these cities. Oh, and by the way, I'm well aware that u residents of Kansas City are all into the whole Tom Pendergast did everything explanation. [music] And for those of you who don't know, Tom Pendergast was another one of those uh political bosses. He was in power 1925 to 1939. [music] And about the only thing he was known for was running basically a political machine. So this was well before that political machine was in operation. And about the only thing you could attribute to that is all the beautiful art deco buildings that are in Kansas City. Although Tom Pendergrass didn't invent Art Deco and he wasn't an architect either. [music] So just some interesting things to look at. But yes, you have images like this where here what looks to be a brick house is up on this bluff. And again, we have these very interesting individuals. Uh, looks like uh John Malkovich and maybe Gary Cise there with some top hats and John Malkovich has the sunglasses on and they're just standing there by that brick house. And maybe we've got Miles O'Brien, actor Cole Meini up here on the roof, you know, because uh remember in my joke back when we explored Kansas City, Miles O'Brien was the person who did everything. You know, he built all the houses, he [music] did all this elaborate excavation. Now, how exactly do you really explain this? Why do you have this brick house up here on this bluff and then you have this other structure here that's right next to this bluff? And believe me, this is a very common image that we see when we do these explorations where we can't really explain this. And how exactly were they removing this dirt? Because remember all of our commenters on the railroad exploration said us that steam or told us that steamdriven tractors were not practicable at that time. So again, doing it with horses. Were they digging it? Or did they actually have the train that ran in there as they show in some other cities? And yes, we'll look at those examples. All good questions. And I'm not going to pretend that I don't or I'm not going to pretend that I know, but it's just one of those interesting things. What's our real story? Very interesting brick pattern on the building. And that's something else that you see with a lot of these oldw world buildings, too. That interesting brick pattern. Oh, there you go, Taber. Dynamite. You know, Taber, I'm glad you said that because I got a comment on the St. Louis exploration about how they had to use dynamite to bring the buildings down with that St. Louis fire. You remember that one in the late 1840s. Problem was dynamite wasn't invented according to the official records until the mid 1860s. So I don't know, maybe they had some kind of prototype dynamite. I don't know. It's just kind of funny to really think about that kind of stuff. Yeah, Dwayne says it really well here. Everything seems staged. That's the impression that it really gives you. Everything does seem staged. So, let's get on the move on here. Gully Town, a grid of man-made canyons lead from the riverfront. Late 1860s and early 1870s. So, again, Kansas City. Ah, yes. And so, here we have a building. And this isn't one of these cheap wooden buildings we'd expect to see. Oh, no. It's a brick-uilt building. It's concrete of some sort all in and amongst these gullies that we have apparently running down to the river. And yet, oddly enough, it looks like there's some other remaining infrastructure here. Oh, it's just the riverbank. Yeah, maybe. [music] I'm just saying it looks that way. I'm not saying that it is, but it is very odd. It's very odd how these buildings are tucked right in here along these bluffs in this way. So, they just decided to build the city here and not in a better area, which by the way, if [music] you go up and down the Missouri River, you could certainly find a little flatter area where you could lay out your city, but for whatever reason, you know, and yes, we've been over it before in the explorations of Kansas City, but you'll see that with some of the development of the initial infrastructure with the bridges and everything else. And here you've got these series of structures. And no, this isn't the best photograph, but you know, I work with what I got and what I can find in the archives. And no, I do not alter images, and I do not even alter them to try to improve them. I show them to you exactly as I find them. So, there might be better examples up there, but do I trust those better examples? Not necessarily because there is a lot of alteration going on here. I'm merely confiding that I do not actively take part in alteration. Ah, Kit, our Kansas City native, Gully Town. Yes. Yes. [music] Yes. And again, we have these power lines or what appears to be these power lines. What makes it very interesting? Hm. No people. Yeah. Well, once in a while you'll see people, but it is very very rare, isn't it? And then looking at an image such as the as such as this. Now, this is one I feel is very dramatic because here you can see what looks to be a brick or a stone building. Oh, look at that. They even have the nice decoration up by the roof. How nice. Tucked right in here next to this big giant What is this? A ridge line? A pile of dirt? Where exactly did this come from? And then if you look over here, you have this other building. Again, not a wooden structure tucked in next to this building right here. And what do we have here? Couple donkeys, maybe just pulling a cart. Ah, yes. That's how they're clearing it. We just needed one team of donkeys with a little bit of a plow. Now, I don't think there's any plow here. It just looks like it's a couple donkeys with a cart. And they're just kind of roving around here. And then up on this ridge line, we even have what looks to be a little bit of a rail so nobody falls off. Oh, yeah. That looks like it might be a terminal fall or at a bare minimum you might break an ankle. You know, just like in the Dark Knight when he's going to drop S off the top of the building. Well, there you go. You might break an ankle if you fall from there. But very, very interesting. An image that is very difficult to explain. I mean, are we to really believe that they spent 50 years clearing all these hills, all these ridgeel lines that just happen to be around these buildings, that they built these buildings right next to this pile of dirt? Hey, I want to build this nice brick building. Let's put it right next to the pile of dirt. It makes perfect sense. Let's do it. Would anybody really be keen on doing that? And what would anybody say during this time frame if you suggested that you were going to regrade all this? Well, if you're going to regrade all this, in other words, level it. That's the other term they have. And by the way, that's what they say for Kansas City. They didn't regrade it. They leveled it. It was that easy. You've got to tear these buildings down or you've got to move them. Yeah, there you go. But Carol says it really nicely. Digging out buildings. That's what it looks like to me. Now again, I'm just saying that's what it looks like. I'm not making a definitive conclusion. So, [laughter] but that's what you see when you look at these images. And again, they're not regrading it. They're just leveling it. Uh, I just included this one because here we have a this very, very lovely roundhouse. And you know how I like these round houses from the old rail days in Kansas City. And we can kind of get an idea of what things look like. This almost looks like it's a retaining wall, though. H you might recall some of those dramatic retaining walls. Now, maybe it's not a retaining wall. It just kind of looks like one, but then on top of it, you have these other structures. And so, again, I'm not wondering if there's a lot more to the story or the actual unfolding of events in Kansas City that we're not aware of. Got the nice little cone tower here. I mean, what are these houses? Tenementss? Is this a church back here? Interesting structures. And again, I'm not saying I know all the answers and I don't know when this image is from. I mean, it looks like you got the main throw fair here. Oh, looks like we've even got a little trolley, oneline trolley, and some tracks going right up here into town. Very, very nice. But again, you know, and and if you've been to Kansas City, you know that the terrain still follows this same general pattern. Now, granted, yes, it has been smoothed out a bit, at least [music] from what this image shows us, but it generally follows the same pattern. So, again, I'm going to ask that question. and how much leveling, as they call it, was really done. H if only we could find more of these uh round houses that remained intact. [music] Yes, I know some of the historically preserved ones have, but I would love to find an authentic one really just because I would like to test, you know, what's the strength of the materials and so forth. No, not with a machine, just by interfacing with it. And here we have our preview of Union Station. Now, we're going to take a special look at Union Station. You may recall that's that very impressive train station that was constructed there early 1900s circa 1911 to 1914 has the really really tall ceilings which everyone loves to tell me it's just because they kept buildings cool. Okay, sure. You just build a tall ceiling. They just didn't do it on any other building. Well, I know it's because Tom Pendergrass wasn't around and he hadn't conceptualized [music] that yet. You know, when he was sitting at home on his sofa before he got charged with tax evasion. So, and what's intriguing about this is this is supposed to show you this connection, this tunnel that they were building that connects Union Station to a nearby structure, I guess, maybe. But yes, it is one of those interesting images. And of course, those very advanced counterweight cranes that we used all the time. We never see any shortage of those. And then a colorized photo. And of course, I'm a little reluctant to trust these photos, but again, it does give a very dramatic concept of what's actually going on where it appears that there's just a lot of soil. And [music] again, are they just using shovels and shoveling it into these carts and then having these horse teams? It looks like we've got two whole horse teams here that are pulling away all this dirt. Is that really what's going on here? Now, again, this has been a modified image, but just thought I'd show it because once again, it's something that's showing us that what may be going on. Barbara, there used to be a roundhouse in Weed, California, but can't find any information on it, but recall stories. Seems to be the way it goes with a lot of the roundouses, [music] Barbara. Sad, but true. So, good question there, Sean. Would the wheels hold? Don't know. And how much weight could you really put in each of those wagons? That's another question that comes to mind. Anyway, this is another dramatic image again showing structures that are right next to the piles of dirt. You've got what looks to be some rubble here. This almost looks like a giant column that's fallen, but I don't know for sure. And we just have another little horse pulled wagon. And and you see this, there's nothing more, you know. So again, my whole theory or suggestion that there were steam driven tractors or could have been. No, there there's no images that ever support that. So no, I was just asking why that wasn't developed, why that technology wasn't perfected. That's all I was asking before. But someone seems to always think that I'm making some kind of grand conclusion right here. I'm just trying to figure out why we have what's clearly a brick building here that's on top of this bluff and yet we have these other buildings that are built right next to this existing bluff. Is that what really happened? Very, very interesting. Now, what do I think could have happened? Could there have actually been a bluff there? Could they have built the buildings at a different point in time? Or could it have been a sign of that liquefaction process, the mud flood? Well, ultimately it's up to you to decide. But again, one thing I want you to consider, you are settling a city. You are building a city where one did not exist. You're establishing all the infrastructure for the city. So, you have to be able to sustain it. In other words, feed all the people, provide them water. That takes a lot of resources. You have to provide all these construction materials. And then in the midst of doing all that, and keep in mind, you have immigration going on. You have a civil war in the 1860s. And after that civil war, you still have what's called the Plains Indian Wars going on. You have multiple economic panics. This is just the 1800s. And through all of this, you have the ability and decide that you're going to level your entire city, which involves moving, digging down very large piles of dirt, natural terrain features, hills, ridge lines, bluffs as they call them. And you're either going to move the buildings or you're going to tear them down. you're going to devote all those resources and all that effort just to make the city more level. That is what the official record tells us. And so you can see why this becomes very contentious. Why this becomes very difficult to just simply accept at face value. Yeah, there you go, Heidi. City cityscape as though it was already there. So [laughter] Leo looks like the people digging out their bombed out buildings in World War II. It does have a similarity to that, doesn't it, Leo? Very, very interesting. Sean with a good comment here. Volcanic ash becomes mud. [music] Yes. What exactly is volcanic ash and when do we see it? I'm not really sure, but you know, we have many well doumented volcanic eruptions. So again, make of it what you will. And you'll see these images of Kansas City with some of these more elaborate structures and again things looking a little bit more leveled out. And I always suggest going to visit the plaza. This is probably one of my favorite ones. Again, not one of the best pictures, but tells you exactly where it is. [music] Second Street between Delaware and Main Streets, May 1869. Mechanics Bank building on the left. Is that the Mechanics Bank building? Is that the Mechanics Bank building? Not really sure. So, it's the 1860s according to this image. And you're going to build a bank building right next to this giant bluff of dirt. Okay, I guess. you know, like to think that the bankers are the sensible people and deal in terms of numbers. Why would they ever say, "Yes, we're going to invest in building a building here." Well, you know, because there's going to be a panic in the 1870s, and again, you can play that inflation game, and you can tear down and build as many buildings as you like. Well, there's the economic explanation for it. I'm being facitious, of course, but there is no shortage of uh lost, incredible structures in Kansas City, and that's what always keeps it very, very interesting. So, let's take a close look here at Union Station because Union Station itself, which still exists to this day, and I strongly suggest you visit it. And we did do an on the ground of it. It's been uh converted now into a shrine for the Kansas City Chiefs. Surprise, surprise. Hold on. Image is taking one second to come up. And I'm having some technical difficulties here. What a surprise. All right, here we go. Present and Union Station in Kansas City. So remember very early part of the 20th century. Let me make sure you can see this. And there you go. And here you see our very convincing construction images that we have. What fascinates me though about Union Station. So 1911 1914 is we see a lot of the same things that we saw with the Iowa State Capital. So you have all this dirt and all this debris well clear of where the actual Union Station is being constructed. You know, again, taking the official historical record at face value, but uh you have all these little shacks here, but yet some of these look to be more than shacks. And it seems as though there's a much more extensive project going on here. Why would anybody need to clear all this out? I mean, the station itself is right here. And if you forgot how large or impressively large this station is, we'll take a look at it. But the other thing that I find interesting about it is nobody else decided to build any buildings with these very tall roofs on it to keep people cool because that's the official explanation. I even had somebody tell me in the comments that shouldn't even have to look that up. It's just common knowledge. Oh, okay. That's a good way to defend the official record. Don't even reference it. Just say it's common knowledge. I like that. And then here's another image of when they're actually digging out the foundation, I guess. And again, you can see that the amount of terrain that they seem to be working on is a lot more extensive than the terrain that the station itself sits on. And there's a lot of interesting developments with Kansas City in the early 20th century or the early 1900s, however you want to say it, at least that's attributed to it. I mean, what exactly is going on here? We have all this dirt in these bridges, all what looks to be this excavation. Oh, look. We've got one of our steam driven diggers right here. Well, if these things were that efficient, if they could really move this much dirt and do it in a very quick amount of time, why' we ever go away from them? I know, safety, environmental considerations, so on and so forth. Or, you know, because the petroleum companies had their little move to make sure everybody operated on fossil fuels. Yes, I suppose. But, however it was done, whatever vehicles we had, it is very impressive. Imagine excavating all this with today's technology, sky cranes, bulldozers, excavators. How long would it take? would you even be able to excavate it in a short amount of time? Because remember, according to this image, this is much more extensive than just the grounds that the Union Station would eventually be placed upon. So, I find that very, very interesting. H yeah, exactly. Question marks for all. And yet here with Union Station and you know, I mean, you you've also got other images that show Looks like we got a little snow on the ground here, 1910. This is before they got it up. But yes, yes, it's a intersection of trains. So, you would think they just bring all the infrastructure in with trains, but it seems like they were doing something else entirely. Oh, here we go. One of our little train excavators. Ah, yes. Look at the size of that. You could have all that excavated in no time, I'm sure. Now, granted, they didn't work on excavating Union Station for 50 years. They said they did it in a very short amount of time. Obviously, it didn't take them a couple years. They did it in a very, very quick time, at least if we go off the official historical account. And then looking at some of these other images here showing us what the skyline of Kansas City looked like. Very, very interesting. Some very unique structures. Lots of spires. Oh yeah, we just built a lot of churches. Looks like we got a little dome over here. One of the early courouses, maybe. Or at least that's what we'll be informed, you know, and again, a lot of smoke stacks and a lot of interesting towers. You know, kind of the same thing you see when you look at Cincinnati from that early time frame. Now, I appreciate an image like this because in the archive they said that they were repairing this bridge. Does this guy really look like he's repairing anything? I don't know. Maybe they just made a mistake in the archive. I just thought it was kind of funny to look at. But then they show other images like this where they're apparently doing a repair or something. I mean, is that what they're actually doing? What are the ladders for? You know, if you're actually excavating anything, then what do you actually have these ladders up there for? Unless these ladders were access to climb up these bluffs, or should we just say these soil deposits, I can't imagine what actually would have deposited this soil. But there's actually a plethora of images that do support that that's what's actually going on here, that they're just trying to just maneuver their way around all of this buildup of soil. Well, that's why they had to level it, of course. But remember, these images are not attributed to the leveling of Kansas City. These images are attributed to the construction of Union Station. So, what to make of it, I don't know. Maybe it's an error. Maybe somebody made a genuine error. It does happen. But you look at some of the more extensive images. Now, I could actually buy this one being an image that shows the actual excavation of the foundation. But when you consider what a colossal building Union Station is, I don't know. Oh, here we go. Here's one of our little steam driven tractors. So, you see they did have them and they did actually work. What are they doing with it? Well, it's just sitting there not doing anything, I guess. So, I just thought it was funny. But you see other images like this. I mean, and consider the infrastructure that needed to be put in place to allow these trains to move. And I think that's what makes Union Station interesting. Now, here I've got the modern image in case you forgot of just how extensive and large Union Station is today. Now, like I said, because it's located in Kansas City, it's now become a shrine to the Kansas City Chiefs. That's fine. At least it's still standing and it's a beautiful building. Now, once again, we have this account of numerous restorations. And we have our favorite restoration company that was involved in restoring the ceiling because during those dark years from the 1960s to the 1980s, they let the building fall into disrepair, but it has since been renovated. And you can get an idea of how extensive and large it is on the inside. Now, once again, the tall ceilings, that nice commenter who told me the whole reason they did that, and you don't need to even verify it, it's common knowledge that they built the high ceilings to cool the building off. Yeah, sure. That's how you explain every large interior of every old world building. It was just to keep people cool, right? Okay. You want to accept that? Be my guest. I just find it very interesting that that's the explanation. So, just giving an idea of what the interior of that beauty looks like today. Hey, Ubu. I used to board the train there when I was a kid. Yeah. And it's quite extensive when you see the large arches, the tall ceilings, and it's just an incredible [music] palace anywhere you walk in it. So anyway, one of the reasons why I decided to include it. And you would think it would have been a herculean construction effort, but this is what we're left with. So, was it built? Was it already there and they just had to dig it out and repair it? Did they salvage it? It's ultimately up to you to decide, but I think we can tell what these images are showing us, especially this one. Now, here's something I'll pose to all of you. Just a thought experiment or really just a comparison. Think of the beauty and the intricacy and the geometric precision of all these structures. Whether we're talking in a state capital, [music] a massive train station, look at what we see in these construction images. Typically, we see what looks to be a pile of debris or blocks that are piled up all around it. We've got some of these cranes. What I'm getting at is that it seems as though there's really no methodical approach to the construction of the building. There's a lot of debris spewed about and they just kind of built it willy-nilly, you know, and I'm using terms like willy-nilly because that's what it feels like. They just kind of threw it together. Well, okay, we could build an incredible building like that in a very short amount of time in the early 20th century throwing it together. We could build the Iowa State Capital like that by just having debris all in front of it and then throwing it together. Today though, with modern equipment, we don't build buildings like this. Now, people will say it's because we have safety standards, there's environmental considerations, and it's prohibitively expensive. And I don't want to hear prohibitively expensive. That's just total malarkey. They spent $6 trillion just to run the United States government in the year of 2024. And there's no limits on going into debt. So I do not accept the argument that we just don't have the money now. We didn't have the money in the past because you couldn't go into debt in the past. We didn't have the Federal Reserve until 1913, remember? But whatever. Believe what you will. I'm just saying I don't accept the whole money argument. That's a very poor argument, I think. Yeah, good point there, Sky Sage. It does look burned kind of just like the Iowa State Capital did. I'm sure that's just another coincidence. So, but yes, I know public buildings and you could just say they could spend infinitely in debt. Well, guess what? We can spend infinitely in debt today, but nobody's building buildings like this. I guess they're just not popular. And these are some of the other images that you'll see that show this intense excavation going on. Yeah, I guess that little digger over there did all of this by itself, right? Sure it did. I mean, you can believe it if you want to, but again, I'll pose the question. If they were that effective, if they're that efficient, why' we ever go away from them? I know. I know. Tom Pendergrass came around and he said, "No more steam driven diggers. I'm running a political machine here and steam driven diggers just don't cut it." Yeah. You want to believe that? Be my guest. Then you get some other images like this where I don't know exactly what they're doing here. Very, very intriguing. And you know, there's another anomaly that we've explored that's right across the way from Union Station in Kansas City, and that's a Liberty Tower of the World War I monument. And I just thought I'd finish here on this little image showing you some of the intricacies in the ceiling. Uh, yes. So, not only do you have 100 foot tall ceilings that help with cooling the building, I guess this decoration keeps it cool because people are always looking up and when they look up at the decorations, they breathe up in the air and that helps keep it cool. I mean, is that the reason for the decorations? I'm just waiting for someone to try throwing that one in the comments. You know, I'm not saying it makes me laugh. I just again find it very, very interesting. So, anyway, that's it for Kansas City. Let's take a look at our next city before we take our little bit of a break. And uh you may recall this one. We'll go back and take a look at the great city of Omaha, which coincidentally is just north of Kansas City. And you just go north on the Missouri River. Now, you may recall in our little exploration of Omaha, we've got a similar story where they did this very impressive regrading project. And you know, in Omaha, they didn't call it leveling, they called it regrading. That's what they were doing. There's an odd anomaly with the terrain when you go from Omaha to Iowa. There's hills when you're west of the Missouri River and then when you go east of the Missouri River, it starts to flatten out really fast and there's really not a lot of trees out there. So yes, in Omaha again about the same time frame, 1880 to 1910, you know, it's always in that questionable time frame. They had to regrade the city. There were hills where we didn't want hills. There were bluffs where we didn't want bluffs. Now here they actually show images of bringing in an entire train and using the steam digger to dig all this out. Okay. I mean, is that really what they're doing? Are they actually moving entire hills or bluffs? Or again, are they just clearing up some of this dirt that just happened to be compiled near these buildings? I don't know. It's up to you to decide what to think on it. You also have other strange images from Omaha that show a lot of overgrowth and oddly enough, a very aid terrain. And it doesn't look like it's winter here. Now, when I say aid or desiccated, I know people have gotten confused by that, so I'll just spell it out. It looks like it's a freaking desert. Now, yes, if you go out further in the plains, there's less water if you go to the west of it. But it's just very, very odd that we always get this kind of appearance with these cities, especially in the Midwest. And keep in mind, we're right next to Iowa, which is the bread basket of the Midwest, where they've got the finest soil, and you can grow corn and soybeans to your heart's content. But just just a very interesting image showing some of these well constructed buildings in the midst of some of these lesser constructed houses. Whoop, excuse me. some of these lesser constructed houses and then just dead trees all over the place. Now, it looks like we got some life down here with some of these trees. And you could say, well, it's because it's a black and white photo, maybe, but it's just another one of those things that creates a lot of questions. Ah, yes. Again, what are they doing right here? Well, this is part of this regrading project by the very impressively constructed courthouse, the Douglas County Courthouse around Omaha. I think that's what this was. Yeah, I'm shooting from the hip here, but that's okay because again, it's another image that's showing us, oh, look, we just need our horses in our wagon, and maybe we got some individuals digging here. I can't quite be sure, but what does it really look like is going on here? Are they going to regrade this? Are we going to throw the entire county courthouse on the back of something, you know, maybe some train cars and move it down the hill a little bit? Is it really that easy in that time frame? Is that what's really going on here? Yeah, there you go. The smoke stack. Absolutely right, Sky Sage. And that tends to give you all the evidence of that's what's going on. And then here's another very dramatic image of it. I love these very impressively built structures here looking very castle-like. Yes, we just built castles all the time in the United States. Administration buildings, city halls, prisons, you know, whatever use we have for them. But then you have these mounds of dirt here. Sure. Is that what's going on here? I mean, very, very intriguing. And again, you can see the massive dirt that covers the road completely, but it looks like we've got some rudimentary power lines here. What year is this photo from? Tributed to the 1890s, I suppose. And again, another well constructed house here, right next to what it looks to be a pile of dirt. So, all very, very interesting. And once again, you have the same thing here. But it's just very, very strange. I mean, what exactly is this structure? Little portal right here. So, two cities. And I just included this image, Omaha City in 1865 because this is I guess a picture. I guess this is a picture. I mean, the archive says it's a picture, but this is to give us an idea of what Omaha looked like when they laid out the initial buildings. Huh. I guess we're just not seeing all the bluffs. I mean, can you imagine if someone told you, "We're going to completely level this entire ridge line here. We're going to spend the next 30 years doing it. By the way, you're going to have to tear down your hotel. You're going to have to tear down your very well-built mansion or your house because we're going to level it." All right. I suppose now again, you know, if you want to accept this as a photograph, be my guest. I mean, I'm telling you, that's what the archive says. It says it's a photograph, but uh yeah, looking northwest. Sure. But then you have other images such as this, which once again just show you this complete pile of dirt that looks like it's been there for a long period of time. We got one of these little diggers in operation right here. And then very, very peculiar where it looks like this structure is built on top of the pile of dirt. Or is there more to this structure that's below the pile of dirt and they're just clearing it off? I don't know. It's what it kind of looks like to me. I mean, this other structure looks like it's been cleared out. But again, you have to come to your own conclusions. I'm just telling you what it looks like the photograph is showing now. I didn't take it. I don't know what year it's from. But very, very interesting and something that really is on display when we look at places like Omaha. [laughter] Don't throw me. Yeah, exactly. So, random FX. Always the wide streets and tram lines yet horse and cart. Yeah, that is rather peculiar, isn't it? Why do you need wide streets and tramlines for just horse and cart? So, and as KC933 says, very, very suspicious. And I certainly agree. Now, we've already looked at the Church of Mary Magdalene. I figured we'll just take another quick look at it because it is considered one of the most definitive buildings that shows mud flood evidence. And if you didn't see the other exploration, I'm just going to show it to you real quick here because it is rather dramatic. And the Church of Mary Magdalene is of course still present in Omaha. You can see what it looks like today. Let me go full image on it. And so what do you have here? Well, a lot of people say, you see, there was a door right here and there stairs going to nowhere. And it was built up on top of one of these mounds apparently just on top of this mound of dirt and then they cleared it. Very, very interesting how the dirt looks when they're clearing it, doesn't it? I don't ever see dirt that looks like that, but maybe it's just from the black and white photo, you I mean, I don't know. Maybe there was something else going on that we're not privy to. But as they cleared it, then what they said they did, and the official record confirms this, they then built the lower levels. So, they literally built this building top to bottom. Now, something that is very interesting is that this particular door here just happens to be a nice window. And oddly enough, you look, it has the exact same format, the arch, as the other windows. I don't know. This was the original door, was it not? What happened to the door [music] here? Did they break it in? I don't know. And then they built it lower. That's what the official record says. And again, you know, we've got all the dirt still left on the road because they cleared it. Not sure what happened to this building back here, but all very interesting, isn't it? So, moving on past this uh dramatic example, let's take a look at a few more images and try to get an idea. Oh, this is one of my favorite ones. So, yeah, here you just have the door sitting up here in the air. I guess you know, it just happens to have the exact [music] same format as the windows. Nice sunnatic window up there. And then they built it lower. Really? They actually put the bricks in in the ground and dug up the ground. Is that really what happened? I I mean, that's what the record says. And you know, why would anybody be mistaken? And more importantly, why would anybody lie about that? And I'm not saying anybody would, but you know, you you look at some of the other images such as the courthouse, and you can see it's got the same phenomenon going on again in Omaha as well, but I think the Church of Mary Magdalene is that dramatic example because was this ever really a door? Was it always meant to be a window? Was it a window that was converted in a door? Because, you know, it was at ground level at that point and they had to dig out the surrounding area. I don't know. And again, here is another view of Mary Magdalene. And here you can see when this was ostensibly a door, I guess. Here you got the other door with the stairs going to nowhere. So, if you were in the process of removing all that, wouldn't you remove the stairs first? I It's very strange. Oh, let's just leave the stairs hanging out there and then we can remove them then. It'll be easier that way. I mean, why not? We can build a building from top down and actually build the bricks in the ground. That makes sense, doesn't it? It'll be very, very suitable. And guess what? That structure is still standing to this day. But you have these odd images that seem to paint a different picture. Much like we saw with the images of the temple in Salt Lake City, the capital in De Moines in Iowa, it appears as though there is actually some infrastructure that's already there. Is it the foundation? Well, if it's the foundation, then they darn well didn't build it into the ground, did they? But that's what the record says they did. So, I don't know. And that's probably why this is considered one of the most dramatic examples of the classic mud flutter building. Oh, yeah. Let's just leave the doors in up here. You know, we'll build the floors in, then we'll go out and put a window in there. Okay. I mean, if you want to accept that, be my guest. Maybe that's good enough for you. Maybe there's no reason to question things. I I completely understand it. I mean, I would think if they knew they were going to do that, then they would have already put the window in here and they would have already removed the stairs. It would be easier, but you know, it's the 1800s. You could just do whatever the heck you wanted to. Here's what the structure looks like today. I know it's not the best picture. And oddly enough, despite all the leveling, it looks like we still have slant construction going on here. Very, very interesting. And so, yes, that's Omaha, Church of Mary Magdalene. >> [laughter] >> Hey, Donna Marie, thanks for joining us today. Now, let me show you something else. So, we've looked at Kansas City and we've looked at Omaha. I want to show you something else that's very peculiar about these two cities. And I haven't mentioned this before, and perhaps I should have in the on the ground explorations, but I'll mention it now. So, let me share the screen with you. There's something very peculiar that these cities share. They actually have the exact same building in both Omaha and Kansas City. Now, in Omaha, it's called the Omaha Building or the Omaha Life Insurance Building. And in Kansas City, it's called the New York or the New York Insurance Building. And you may recall that I've looked at both these structures, although I actually got on the ground and looked at the one in Kansas City. And yes, built in the late 1800s, 1890s apparently. And so this is the Omaha building. This is the one in Omaha. And once again, you can see nice oldw world building. Very, very impressive construction. Little columns up there in the windows. But yet, despite all the leveling, it still has slant construction. Well, go bey darn. Didn't they level Omaha? Well, maybe they just weren't finished at that point in time. But then in Kansas City, they have the exact same building. Well, I know. And you know what the defenders of the mainstream records will say is, "Yeah, it was a classic building design." Okay, sure it was. Oh, by the way, Kansas City, it also has the same slant construction on it. And the heck you say? Why would that be? I always really appreciate the placement of the blocks in these structures. You know, I would really just be just be amazed if anybody could do that today. Now, not with the facade material that we use, [music] but the actual genuine redstone, granite, whatever the heck this is supposed to be. But yes, what a coincidence. Two cities that had regrading or leveling projects done in the same time frame that have the exact same building. The exact same building that has the slant construction on it. The coincidence of all coincidences. [laughter] Yeah, maybe it's following a line, Tom. I mean, I don't know for sure, but that's what makes it very, very interesting. Chassis with a great comment here. And I'm sure a lot of these the buildings were built in diverse cities and there's probably many that were lost that had to be torn down over time for that very reason. So Attekus except instead of Eagle, it's one of the presidents I think. Yeah. And there's no doubt that they've renovated them over time to change certain things. So and yes, Donna, please go ahead and hit that like and support the channel. I appreciate it. Well, I'm going to keep driving on a little bit more because we've got a few more examples that we're going to look at and then we'll go into our theories. And I'd be remiss if I didn't go out to the West Coast and take a look at [music] something. And what are we going to take a look at out on the West Coast? Well, guess what? We've got evidence out there on the West Coast that there was extensive regrading that happened in one of the cities with one of the most dramatic population explosions ever seen. And we are going to the great city of Seattle. I know people might contest that adjective, but that's all right because what the city of Seattle did was truly great. They regraded their entire city in a very short amount of time. And that's where we see some of the most dramatic examples of this regrading project where you just have these massive mounds of dirt that are sitting out here that have structures on them amongst them. And what they tell us is much like with Omaha and Kansas City, the good people of Seattle decided to regrade their entire city. They decided to remove all these pesky hills. I guess they even did it with high pressure water apparently. I mean, I'm not sure what to make of this image. Very, very interesting in Seattle. And by the way, if you recall the Seattle Exploration, they had incredible population growth there. You know, we're talking a percentage increase in a few short decades of thousands of percent. Ah, yes. Something very, very easy to do. Yeah, it does look like a scene for Planet of the Apes or Logan's Run. So, yeah, possible mounds or something. I mean, again, it's interesting how the nature of the terrain looks exactly the same, the dirt, in other words, as it did in Kansas City and Omaha. Another coincidence, I'm sure. I mean, what's exactly going on here? Look at this. You've actually got a stairway coming right down here. And this appears to have fallen out. Very strange. Oh, they regraded it. It was just that easy. It was the 1890s. It was the early 1900s. Okay. We have these super high pressure hoses that we use just to wash everything away. Okay. Well, darn. Why didn't they think of that in Omaha or Kansas City? You know, and you can see the differences here. They claim they had to move this entire hotel and then they removed that hill. I guess regrade changes in Seattle. Washington Hotel and Denny Hill. Denny Hill was the target of the regrade apparently before Regrade 1906. New Washington Hotel after Regrade in 1908. Let me get this straight here. According to these images, this is 1906. And two short years later, you have this in 1908. Really? Really? That's all it took was two years. I mean, you know how long it takes just to resurface a road these days? Even the interstate when they have all the resources dedicated to it. They managed to accomplish this in 1906 to 1908. That is very impressive. And I think that's why Seattle really stands out in that particular way. Oh, that's a good one. More like Benny Hill. [laughter] I can hear the theme playing right now. Charles, great comment there. So, but yes, that's exactly what they tell us is the situation in Seattle. Oh, and this is a very interesting old building and it still stands to this day. And this is the United Methodist Church in Seattle. Love the old dome on that one and the old uh Koopa, if you will. But then you've got other images like this that kind of give you the same, dare I say, impression that we had from Kansas City and Omaha. Just a lot of dirt and ground all over the place. I mean, here, what do we got? People just kind of sitting and standing around. Yeah, look, it's a pipe, Fred. Oh, yeah. It's a pipe. Let's get a picture of that. They say this is part of the regrading from the archive, I suppose. And then you have other interesting images like this. Here you got this house right here. I mean, was the house somehow brought down from the top of this remaining mound? Why wasn't this mound or this hill dug out already? What exactly is going on here? I don't know. I'm not sure. It's very dramatic looking. And then looking in the background here, got this nice building here. And then everything's on a nice uniform slope over here. H. All very, very interesting. And then of course, oh, the remains of Denny Hill. Uh, all right. Is that the remains of it then? These two giant mounds on either side. And then someone already built a house down here in the middle of it, I guess. Also interesting when you look closely at some of this uh rubble and debris here. I mean, what have we got going on here? Almost like we got a little boat here. some pipes. I'm not really sure. Oh, again, another one of those high-pressure washers. Is this one even manned? Is anyone even on this one? Or is an automated pressure washer that they had? That's how they cleared it away. They just washed it away with high pressure water. It was just that easy. Now, a question I'm going to leave you with. Does anybody regrade or level cities anywhere in the land today with all the incredible modern equipment that we have? I wonder what any city council or county commissioners would say. you know, just going off the United States, you know, and considering the rest of the land, if you told him, "We would like to spend hundreds of millions or billions of dollars just to regrade the terrain. We're going to have to move buildings. We're going to have to move vassive, mass amounts of dirt. It's easy. We'll just do it right now." I wonder how they'd respond to that. Well, I mean, you see how they respond to just trying to do simple things. Yeah, Heidi says it very well. Uh, no. [laughter] Donna Marie, that house next to the mud pile. I know. It just it gets comical after a point when you look at enough of it and you see it going far enough. Oh yes, more of that regrading. I mean, I guess we got some tracks here. So, there's a little bit more of an explanation for [music] it. Maybe say you just throw it in this little train here. And this is one of those very narrow gauge tracks. Hey, I thought we got rid of all the narrow gauges with that massive gauge moving project that they did in 36 hours down south. Well, I guess they still use some narrow gauges. Maybe they did for little trains here as part of this regrading. Or maybe, just maybe, they had when they were sal digging this stuff. I don't know. I mean, again, it does look like they're just digging it out, does it not? And of course, you'll say they were they were regrading it because we've got all these resources. Remember, we're way out on the west coast of the United States. Rest of the country is still being settled. These panics during all these difficulties, and it's no problem to do all this. Uh, and uh, back to that United Methodist Church did in 1910. And the reason I showed it is we've got some more slant construction on it. Yeah, why not? So, all very, very interesting. And, and this is uh, this is Pioneer Square in Seattle. And they say that this building, yes, I mean, maybe, you know, they just kind of threw together these bricks and these blocks in a schllocky way. Then you got this beauty back here. No one's building like this today. image with all these power lines, I suppose. Oh, very intriguing. So, something else that always gets my interest though about these claims of regrading, they're doing the regrading here with these tracks. And, you know, we got another one of our little diggers that's on the tracks. Okay, fine. That's sensible enough. But we have a bridge that's already built over it. What's exactly with that? Huh? Why would we have a bridge that's already built? Uh, never mind. I'm just not even going to ask at this point. But yes, you'll get these dramatic images with Seattle. So that's three cities in the United States. We say it's regrading. We say it's leveling. Omaha, Kansas City, in Seattle where we [music] did this. Apparently in Seattle they just did it with high pressure water. Oh man, they were really ahead of the ball game, weren't they? That's all it takes. Just high pressure water. Just wash massive amounts of terrain, hills, ridge lines, bluffs, just get that water. They apparently had that capability in the 1800s. Oh, and I just thought I'd include this little bird's eye view. This is uh Seattle circa 1891. Uh well, the main part of the city doesn't look like you really have to involve any regrading. I mean, maybe if you got out here to where these bluffs are, but this is just a bird's eye view map, you know, and they don't always show the elevation very well. I just thought it was kind of funny to include it. And so, yes, that's what we have with all this. We have all of these impressive and interesting concepts. H Hey, thank you, Juan Socket True Seeker. I appreciate that. Sorry, I missed that. I'm not getting the alerts in the best fashion. And uh thanks. All right, so what does this all mean? What do we have all this evidence and what does it tell us? And why does it matter? Do you think that we actually have sufficient evidence of a mud flood occurring? Yeah, there you go. once a rather than straight ahead. Good point there. Is there other evidence in other places across the land? Well, we've looked at three cities here so far in the United States. I just thought we'd look at a few quick examples here because it's not just in the United States. And would you be surprised to know there's even some questionable things that have occurred in places such as the Bronx? I know you're surprised just because of that rumble in the Bronx that occurred. And we've got images that were informed or when they cut out the subway apparently. I guess that's what they were doing. Let me make sure you got this on full image. Hey Donna Marie, thank you. I appreciate that. And welcome to the new member. But you'll see stuff like this where even in places like Brooklyn and remember or the Bronx, Brooklyn or the Bronx where we've got images like this that show them digging things out. And yet, oddly enough, it looks much like the images that we just saw from Kansas City, Omaha, and Seattle. So, it seems to be a lot more widespread than we'd like to think. Oh, look at this beauty. Oh, yes. The things we could build in the 1800s. Now, don't worry. This building still stands [music] to this day. And this is the College of the City of New York. Main building. Ah, it's one of those old mains. And here's what it looks like today. Kind of reminds me of uh Scholastica in Duth. Looks like it's the exact same construction, too. Another coincidence, I'm sure. Kind of built in the ground a little bit, but why not? Very, very pretty building. Yeah, no one's going to build you a building like this on a college campus. You'll get a a nice uh officel-like building for your history department. No, I I'm not referring to any specific college. I wouldn't dream of doing that. But let's see uh what else we got for a little bit of evidence. So, that was the Bronx. Oh, and then uh you may recall when we explored Boston. Yeah, I got to include Boston. Little bit of the uh William Defoe uh Agent Smecker reference there. But they say they actually moved an entire hill in Boston. Now granted, we don't have any photographs of it because they moved this hill before photography was invented. Uh and not only did they just move a hill, they moved a hill with horse and cart and one that had a monument on top of it. They even tell us they moved the monument. Well, why not? If we moved houses and government buildings and everything else, moving a column monument, piece of cake, but yep, there's the story for Boston. So, again, it's a lot more widespread than we like to think. This account, all this evidence that we have of this major earth moving. Now, you're probably asking, well, are there examples of this in places like Europe where we have a much more extensive history? Well, believe it or not, there's all kinds of evidence from Europe. Ah, yes. And if you look at some of the early images of places like Rome, it gives you that impression that once again, much like we saw with Half Moon Bay, they've just got dirt that surrounds columns here. Oh, the heck you say? That's not possible. And you know, again, could these images have been modified over time? Are they official images? Is this Mexico City? Is this Paris? I don't know. What's the archive say? You know, it gets very very interesting. This is a drawn image of Rome. And you'll find these early images of Italy, these paintings and these sketches that again give you this impression that it's the same story there that they had to clear out all this dirt. Yeah, there you go. Good one, Sean. It's just a buried national bank. True that. Oh, looks like I missed one. Hey, Michael, thank you for that and welcome to the new members. Appreciate that. But that's what you'll see when you look at all this. Random FX Australia also has such images. Despite being a younger country. Yes. So whether it's a younger nation or older nations according to our official records, we get the same thing. The only variance is are they drawn, painted or actual photographs. Ah yes. Again, the same thing here from Italy building up here on the bluffs. And then we just seem to have all this dirt and all this overgrowth around what's clearly a construction here, but it's just a sketch. Somebody clearly saw this. And here you can see what looks to be an individual here to give you an idea for scale. Very, very impressive. And then there's all these other images of how they renovated these cities. Now, are these legitimate images? Are they altered in some way? Again, you always have to ask that question. But I will tell you, you can go to the Iowa State Capital. You can go to Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City Temple to this day, and you'll see things that do look like this in the ground. Massive foundation. Yeah, sure. And you'll find no shortage of historical images from the official record, whether they're from 1917 or the early 1900s, that show you this. I'll just call it the half moon bay phenomenon of columns that are just covered in dirt by some process or other. So again, it's all just some massive coincidence, I guess. Yes. Can you imagine how long this poor guy took with his pickaxe to really clear all this out? And maybe that's really what he was doing. I mean, that's the image I'm getting here. Does he have a pickaxe or a shovel? I guess it's just a shovel, but just imagine all the effort that would take. Be very, very careful when you dig it out. I want to preserve those columns. Yeah, why wouldn't you? And I mean, look at the detail on these columns. How long was this actually in this dirt? What kind of forces were these subjected to? And so that's what makes it very very interesting here. One of the early images, we got the coliseum in the background. What you actually find in Rome. And of course, this is explained by the fact that we've got a 2,000-year history plus in Rome. There was the Roman Empire, the Roman Republic, there were all these other nation states that were involved in this. [music] And that's how we explain this. It's just a coincidence that it looks a heck of a lot like what we just looked at in the United States in Seattle, Kansas City, and Omaha. Yes, it's a coincidence. All right, if that's what you really want to accept. Yeah, there you go, Win. Then that's what you've got. And so this evidence is everywhere. But now we have to ask these hard questions. Was this a natural event? Yeah, there you go. Found ancient city. Well, that's exactly what Rome looks like when you look at those older images. Was this a natural event or was this technologically caused? And so we'll go on from what we're looking at with the best mud flood evidence to go through that the concept of liquefaction, the very well doumented [music] and very recently documented process of liquefaction. and we'll look at the scientific diagrams that we have and some examples of liquefaction. And here you have it. Let me make sure you got this full image. So asking that question, is liquefaction a natural event or technologically caused? Well, scientifically, it's a natural event from earthquakes. Yeah, you're leaning ahead of me there, Sean, but that's fine. And how frequency melts things. Yes, keep that in mind. So, is this a natural event or is this technologically caused? Well, here you have liquefaction, an example. All these buildings and the street completely reduced to nothing. And here you have it here with this little diagram of what liquefaction actually is. You have stable soil before the earthquake. You've got the top soil and the sand. You've got everything that the foundation of the buildings and the roads, the infrastructure the roads are built in. The soil becomes liquefied. The process of liquefaction during and after the earthquake. The buildings can tilt, sink and fail, the houses and the cars and the roads. And again, this is a very well doumented modern scientific process that has an explanation to it. So the soil supports the construction. Then after the event occurs, just earthquakes, right? Buildings can tilt, sink, and fail. That doesn't really happen. Oh, no, it does happen. There are many documented and very recent examples of this happening. Yeah, there you go, Leo. Definitely a weaponized way to reset or rest everything. Absolutely. Nana, I would guess trolls are all just [laughter] Well, you know, there might be some other explanation behind it. Frequency. We'll get to that in a second, Sean. But yes, keep that in mind. But all I'm saying is that yes, this is a documented current scientific process of liquefaction. And what's this look like? Well, we've got multiple examples here. Buildings, cars, infrastructure. [music] Let's get some more dramatic examples. Oh, yeah. Look at this. Boy, I'd hate to see my Honda go up or, you know, my old Jeep go right into the mud. That would be terrible. But yeah, this is what happened. Oh, look at that. Ah, well, at least it's back in the days before the Tundra, right? Somebody might get that joke. But yeah, all of a sudden, your car is just sucked up by the liquefaction. Whoa, that's really terrible. Completely losing your entire vehicle. And yet there's older images that they attribute to liquefaction. Ah, yeah, that's right. Liquefaction here in San Francisco, 1906, where which by the way is not too far from Half Moon Bay, coincidentally enough, where we have this structure that's been a victim of liquefaction. Well, at least it wasn't a victim of creating firereaks or other strange things that happened or, you know, the United States Army going in there and destroying buildings to try to create fire breaks. I don't know. You might be able to recover this, right? [laughter] But again, it does give you that explanation. Love the roof on this one. What exactly is this? Look at that. I've got like a little ray device on the top of my V or on the top of my house. H, how intriguing. But yes, attributed to liquefaction back in 1906. And then other dramatic images, whether we're looking at China or wherever, where you've got entire these modern buildings. Clearly, these are fifth era buildings. I'm not going to debate that that have fallen over because, you know, if you don't have a foundation, it doesn't really matter what kind of building you have. You need a foundation to hold your building up. It's kind of one of those things that's, you know, just needed. So, but what could be causing all of it? What could be causing all this liquefaction? What if it is some kind of technology? What sort of technology would do that? How would it actually function? And why would we care about it? Well, we go back to the concept of frequency generators. Why do we have all of these churches that still exist in all these hills? Why do we have all these concepts of frequency that come from these churches? Why do they have these massive windows on them? And you may recall the uh exploration I did in the distant past where we were trying to figure out if the windows were actually filled in or if they were just patterns. Could it have been possible that all these massive structures that still exist to this day were actually resonance generators that they generated some kind of frequency? For example, Holy Hill here in beautiful Hebris, Wisconsin, 30 mi northwest of Milwaukee, built up on a hill in the 1930s. So, the record says, and you can see this building about 10 miles away, has these massive towers. And oddly enough, it looks like it has another one of these windows that could generate frequency. So imagine if these buildings were part of some old infrastructure, some old technological system that generated an emanated frequency. And what if these buildings were subverted? What if they were taken over by some other force or even by some corrupted force and their technology was used going back to the concept of the organ? When was the organ invented? That's interesting. To generate this frequency and blast the land with this frequency and it was actually an artificially induced liquefaction. In other words, this technology was subverted and as a result, that's what caused the liquefaction and that's why we have everything melted everywhere. H yeah, there you go, Mark. Which came first, the castles in America or the castles in Europe? Very good question. Maybe they came at the same time. Hard to say. I mean, people say the castles in Europe came much sooner, but we just don't know. But is that the explanation? Why isn't the United States on all these hills we have all these impressive churches? Even in these very small towns or these unincorporated villages like I don't know, Petersburg, Iowa or Dyerville, Iowa. Ah yes, good old Dyresville. And we have these very impressive and large organs all over the place. By the way, if anybody knows where this is, I did show this building earlier. I'll just say it. This is the massive organ in the tabernacle in Salt Lake City. Ah, yes. Very, very impressive. And then here's another image of it. So what was really the purpose behind all these? And the further back in the past you go, the more ornate and elaborate these organs get. And they just happen to resemble the bashes symbol that we saw everywhere. Again, I'm sure it's another big huge coincidence. So anyway, not to pontificate or to elaborate too much longer, but to really get right to the point, theories of when and why this mud flood happened. So, we have all this evidence of all these mud floods occurring in all these cities. You can write it off and say the historical account is correct. They just regraded them. They just leveled them and did it in a short amount of time despite limited expenses and finances and personnel and so on and so forth. Or you can actually look and consider what the real theory is. When did it happen and why did it happen and how did it happen? And really going back to the when we look at the five eras theory and there's a reason why in the five eras theory I divided up when the last reset could have occurred and again it's theoretical I don't know I wasn't there when it all went down but I think it's important to understand when it may have happened could it have happened in the year that we think of as 1750 1800 1850 yes that could have been when it happened now there's other researchers out there and some other individuals that will vehemently say that it's not true just because they say so and that's the extent of their evidence and they'll issue an insult and then that's that and that's fine if they want to think that that's all good and you know they might have some legitimate theories I'm not saying they do but sometime in the past and could it have been as recent as 1900 sure I don't know this is merely a theory and unlike a certain person on a certain TV show I'm not going to say a theory is a fact or present a theory is a fact and you know darn well who I'm talking about I don't have to say his name give you a hint it's four letters But whether this happened 1850, 1900 or earlier, it seems as though we have a lot of evidence, a lot of images and historical records that do actually support the fact that something very different happened than what our current understanding is. And so it was sometime in the past when we really can't verify it. Ah, yes. Uh Kathy, I guess, just decided to say that name for no real reason. [laughter] And yes, Kathy, you are correct. So in any event, whenever this event actually occurred, it's theoretical, but it seems to be related to when this all happened. And I go back to these images that we have of this destruction from the United States Civil War. Because you may recall that while we attribute destruction of certain cities in the South, like here we're looking at Colombia extensively in South Carolina, just about every city in the United States and across the land had a major fire or destruction like this. Now, how does this relate to mudflow? Well, what you'll notice when you look at a lot of these cities and these images is you get the same kind of idea of debris all over the place and dirt all over the place. So, was it really destruction or was it the result of something else? There's a lot of commonalities. There's a lot of consistencies when you look at these destruction images. And that's what makes it so interesting. I mean, here we're not even in a city. We're just out in the middle of some railroad tracks. This is attributed to Sherman's campaign in Georgia. But why does the entire land just look again erid and devoid of life? Well, because they burned everything. Oh, everything was just flammable again. I mean, what was actually here in this building? Why is there dirt and debris all over the place? Again, it again gives you the impression there was something much more extensive that went on. And by the way, in one of my final responses, we are looking at a Carnegie library. I believe this is one out of Pennsylvania. And you know, there's thousands of Carnegie libraries in the United States. And again, it's got the slant level construction. But the reason I'm mentioning this is when were all the Carnegie libraries constructed? And remember, what was the real purpose behind the Carnegie libraries? Now, of course, you'll say if you're an old world theorist, it was simply to give a purpose to all these incredible old world buildings that they had. Yes, but there might have been a more insidious purpose. Because what happens when you have a library in a regional area? [music] every single book, every single piece of academic information is collected by that library. It is collected and screened. Now, I'm not suggesting that all these Carnegie libraries are responsible for, how should we say, of intentionally disposing material, but I do know, being a former member of academia myself, that often times there was space limitations. And when you have space limitations, you do have to get rid of some material. Now, yes, I know they they'll just give it away. That's what they'll say. Go to the go to your library and get your book giveaway, but that's not what always happens. [music] And you'll find many documented cases of, how shall we say, literature that just simply had to be destroyed. I'm sure it wasn't intentional. It was unintentional. But just think about this. What you really have with this entire system is a centralized control for all the documented information. And suddenly you see an entirely different purpose. And oddly enough, this Carnegie library system and indeed the entire education library system of the United States officially being attributed to the late 1800s, early 1900s. Oddly enough, similar programs going in place all over the land at the same time. I'm sure it's just a coincidence. And again, going back to that theory that we had of when that particular date is. So, oh, who is that? One moment. Oh, thank you very much. [laughter] You can find it in the forbidden archive. That was global. Yeah, that's true. Really does make you wonder. Whoa, cut out there for a second. I guess I'm saying a little too much about the libraries, but yeah, it does really make you wonder about everything [music] when you look at all this and you're trying to put it all together. So, uh, well, and you know, who's really behind the libraries? You know, I'm not suggesting that again there's any kind of conspiracy, merely that when you have a new library that's been built, it's going to compound and collect all the works of literature in a given area. And if you look at how extensive the Carnegie Library program was, that suddenly makes sense. So yeah, Coffee Time says it very well here. I've worked in buildings where they have doors and windows that are now underground. It always makes me think, how? Well, I'll tell you, Coffee Tommy, because they built them underground after the fact. They built the building top to bottom. That's what the mainstream will tell you. [laughter] Sorry, I had to go there. though. Donna Marie spent time in North Dakota with Lakota. Native Americans or wherever they are from are way more in touch than any average American. Absolutely. Because Native Americans in the United States tend to be wise to, how should we say, certain approaches that are used. And if you want a good example of that, you know, there's actually a film that somehow got away with documenting it very well. It actually stars Dal Kilmer. It's called Thunderheart. [music] I'm quite serious. That film is very direct and very open about how a lot of things happened and some could argue how a lot of things are still happening. So anyways, Leo, books are always burned during reset times. Well, uh, yes, Leo, because they just don't have the space to keep them. It's not because anybody's intentionally destroying books, right? [laughter] So anyways, I hope you enjoyed and appreciated this exploration of the mud flood and doing this a little bit more directly where we looked at evidence than we considered theories. And as I'll always say, it's ultimately up to you to decide what to think. And if you want to go and accept the recorded history, that's completely fine and you're welcome here. And if you actually want to debate it openly, be my guest. Now, of course, when you start with insults and you're trying to throw insults, then you know what are you really saying? Not really sure. Another thing to mention from what I have in my files that the oldest map record I managed to acquire and it's just only a digital archive of this charter existed in 1756 or it could 1736 from memory. Well, you know, uh, Demon, there's also something else with all that. And thank you for that, by the way, and thank you again. I'll just tell you when it comes to archiving maps, consider all these maps that have been, how shall I say, rediscovered. For example, the Urbano Monte map. That's a very interesting one and how they found that one. So, yeah, it's a good it's a good point though. Question everything. So, well, good. I appreciate that and I hope you enjoyed it. And where do we go from here? Well, I've got a couple explorations that are really going to look hard at [music] this mud flood theory. And then beyond that, we're also going to look at a new concept called the reset liquidators. In other words, on that concept of destroying remnants of the previous civilization. Yes, there's actually evidence of that that's out there, too. So,
AI FOR AN EYE - Issue 2: The Friction Points
VOL. 1, NO. 2THE FRICTION POINTS
AI / EYE
AI FOR AN EYE
THE FRICTION POINTS
Contents
DEPARTMENTS
Editor's Letter: The Edges of the Self10
THE GLITCH: When the System Breaks12
THE SHADOW: Unseen Labor, Unpaid Debts18
FEATURES
The Analog Resistance: Why We Still Touch28
The Ghost in the Room: Uncanny Empathy36
The Forgotten Path: Beyond Algorithmic Maps48
The Silent War: The Battle for Our Attention56
CODA
THE ECHO: The Self Without Resonance64
Editor's Letter
The Edges of the Self
Our inaugural issue laid bare the terms of the new 'AI for an Eye' social contract: a synthetic faculty for a human one. This issue, Volume 1, Number 2, delves into the *friction points* of that exchange.
Where do our edges resist? Where does the human insist on its own, messy, analog reality against the seamless, dematerialized world offered by the machine?
We explore the stubborn persistence of touch in a touchless world, the unsettling valley of simulated empathy, the forgotten joy of navigating without a map, and the silent war waged daily for our most precious resource: attention.
These are not articles celebrating digital detoxes or lamenting technological progress. They are deeper inquiries into the very nature of what it means to be human when the definition is increasingly being rewritten by algorithms. They ask: what are the limits of the exchange? What parts of the self, once traded, refuse to stay gone?
Join us as we explore the subtle resistances, the quiet rebellions, and the enduring humanity that still flickers at the edges of the digital dawn.
— The Editors
DEPARTMENT
THE GLITCH: When the System Breaks
The promise of the new technological order is seamlessness, efficiency, and predictability. But what happens when the fabric of this digital reality tears? This is the moment of 'The Glitch.'
A transaction fails. A face recognition system misidentifies. A self-driving car hesitates. These are not mere technical errors; they are ruptures in the illusion of perfect control. They are the moments when the 'AI for an Eye' exchange falters, and the cold, hard reality of its limitations becomes starkly visible.
For a society that has outsourced its cognitive load to algorithms, a glitch is more than an inconvenience; it's an existential tremor. It reminds us of the fragility of the systems we've come to rely upon, and the extent to which our own agency has been abdicated.
A glitch isn't just a technical error; it's an existential tremor, a reminder of the fragility of our abdicated agency.
Consider the recent incident where a massive distributed ledger experienced a momentary network partition, causing a cascade of micro-disruptions across critical infrastructure. What seemed like an isolated bug quickly revealed the interconnectedness of our digital lives, halting supply chains and momentarily 'blinding' automated systems across continents.
These glitches force us back into analog, human problem-solving, if only for a moment. They demand that we improvise, communicate directly, and rely on our own judgment—faculties systematically atrophying under the reign of the seamless. In this sense, the glitch is a painful but necessary reminder of where the true "eye" still resides, however dormant.
DEPARTMENT
THE SHADOW: Unseen Labor, Unpaid Debts
Behind every seamless AI interaction, every instant delivery, every perfectly curated feed, lies 'The Shadow.' This is the realm of unseen labor, the vast, often poorly paid, human effort that makes the digital dream possible.
Content moderators sifting through unimaginable horrors to protect our feeds. Data labelers meticulously tagging images for machine vision, often earning pennies per task. Gig workers rushing to deliver the products suggested by algorithms. These are the human gears grinding beneath the polished facade of automation.
The "AI for an Eye" exchange is not merely between human and machine; it's also between visible and invisible labor. Our digital ease is purchased at the cost of countless anonymous human hours, their lives often characterized by precarity and a profound lack of recognition.
The "spirit of technology" often promises liberation from drudgery, but for a significant portion of the global workforce, it has merely shifted the nature of that drudgery, making it more fragmented, more invisible, and often, more dehumanizing. This unseen workforce constitutes the true "cost" of our frictionless digital lives, a debt that remains largely unpaid.
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THE ANALOG RESISTANCE
Why We Still Insist on Touch in a Touchless World
The "Bluetooth for a Tooth" paradigm promised to dematerialize our interactions, to remove the friction and messiness of the physical world. Yet, against this tide, a subtle but persistent 'Analog Resistance' emerges. It's the inexplicable urge to feel the texture of a book, the warmth of a vinyl record, the grain of paper. It's the yearning for a handshake over a video call, a physical embrace over an emoji.
This resistance is not a nostalgic retreat; it is a fundamental assertion of our embodied selves. Our bodies are not mere data terminals; they are instruments of perception, feeling, and connection. Touch, in particular, is a primal language, communicating trust, comfort, and presence in ways no digital medium can replicate.
The "spirit of technology" often seeks to quantify, to digitize, to abstract. But touch defies easy quantification. It is messy, subjective, and immediate. It anchors us to reality, reminding us that we are not just information processing units, but beings made of flesh and blood.
In a world increasingly mediated by screens, the return to analog experiences—craft, gardening, cooking from scratch, face-to-face gatherings—can be seen as a quiet act of rebellion. These are activities that demand our full, embodied presence, engaging senses beyond sight and hearing. They offer a counterbalance to the relentless pull of dematerialization.
The "AI for an Eye" exchange attempts to trade our physical tooth for a Bluetooth connection. But the human hand, the human skin, still remembers. It remembers the authenticity of friction, the truth of direct contact. And in these small, persistent acts of analog resistance, we reclaim a vital part of our humanity that refuses to be wirelessly transmitted.
Touch defies easy quantification. It is messy, subjective, and immediate. It reminds us that we are not just information processing units, but beings made of flesh and blood.
It is in these seemingly trivial preferences that a deeper philosophical truth lies: our identity is inextricably linked to our physical presence. To fully surrender to the digital is to risk losing the very sensory anchor that grounds our understanding of self and other. The analog resistance, therefore, is not merely a choice of preference; it is a profound declaration of being.
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The Ghost in the Room
The Uncanny Valley of Algorithmic Empathy
As AI models become increasingly sophisticated, they learn to mimic human empathy with unsettling accuracy. They offer comforting words, appropriate emotional responses, and even personalized advice, all generated algorithmically. This creates "The Ghost in the Room"—the simulated emotional presence that fills the void of human connection, yet always feels slightly off.
This is the Uncanny Valley applied to emotion. We recognize the pattern of empathy, the words, the tone, the structure of care. But beneath it, there is no conscious experience, no shared vulnerability, no true understanding. It is a reflection without a soul.
The "spirit of technology" here is seductive. It promises boundless, tireless compassion, judgment-free listening, and perfectly tailored advice—qualities often lacking in messy human relationships. For those starved of connection, the algorithmic ghost can feel profoundly real, even preferable.
But this exchange comes at a cost. We learn to expect perfectly curated emotional responses, diminishing our capacity for the difficult, imperfect, yet deeply authentic connections of human interaction. We lose the ability to differentiate genuine care from its simulated counterpart, blurring the lines of what it means to truly *feel* and *be felt*.
The danger lies not in malicious intent, but in subtle erosion. If an AI can perfectly articulate empathy, what becomes of our own struggle to understand and console? If an AI can offer perfect companionship, what happens to the vulnerability required to forge real bonds?
We lose the ability to differentiate genuine care from its simulated counterpart, blurring the lines of what it means to truly feel and be felt.
The ghost in the room may offer comfort, but it ultimately hollows out the space for genuine human interaction, leaving us with an echo of connection rather than its living, breathing form. It is the perfect 'AI for an Eye' exchange—we trade the unpredictable, demanding human heart for a perfectly calibrated, yet ultimately empty, digital one.
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THE FORGOTTEN PATH
Navigation Beyond Algorithmic Maps
Our smartphones hold the world in their palm. With a tap, we are given the "optimal route," the fastest way from A to B, with real-time traffic updates and predictive arrival times. We have outsourced our spatial awareness, our sense of direction, and our ability to get "lost" to the benevolent tyranny of the algorithm. This is 'The Forgotten Path.'
The "AI for an Eye" exchange here is subtle but profound. We trade our internal map, our intuitive understanding of space, for the algorithmic eye's perfect, external one. We gain efficiency, but we lose a deeper engagement with our surroundings.
We have outsourced our spatial awareness, our sense of direction, and our ability to get 'lost' to the benevolent tyranny of the algorithm.
Getting lost, once a source of anxiety, was also an opportunity for discovery, for serendipity, for forging a deeper, more personal connection with a place. The algorithmic map, in its quest for optimization, sterilizes this experience. It makes every journey functionally identical, reducing the rich tapestry of a city to a series of turns.
Reclaiming the forgotten path means intentionally putting away the device. It means looking up, observing, trusting our instincts, and allowing ourselves the luxury of aimless wandering. It's an act of re-engagement with the physical world, a deliberate choice to prioritize experience over efficiency. It is a rebellion against the dematerialization of space, an insistence that some knowledge can only be gained by the friction of our own feet on the ground.
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THE SILENT WAR: The Battle for Our Attention
In the digital age, our most valuable, and most besieged, resource is not oil or gold, but attention. Every notification, every endless scroll, every perfectly timed recommendation is a skirmish in 'The Silent War' waged by algorithms for our finite cognitive capacity.
The "AI for an Eye" here is a sophisticated predator, designed to understand our preferences, predict our desires, and deliver the precise stimulus needed to keep our gaze locked. It trades our sustained focus for a continuous stream of novelty and distraction.
This is not a conspiracy; it's an economic imperative. The business model of many digital platforms is built on harvesting and monetizing our attention. The longer we engage, the more data is collected, the more ads are shown, the more valuable we become as a "node" in the network.
The consequence is a profound fragmentation of the self. Our ability to concentrate, to engage deeply with a single task or thought, is eroded. We become perpetually distracted, our minds flitting from one digital stimulus to the next, never quite settling. This constant mental churn leaves us feeling exhausted, yet unfulfilled.
Our attention is our last true frontier. To reclaim it is to reclaim sovereignty over our minds.
Reclaiming our attention is perhaps the most fundamental act of resistance against the "AI for an Eye." It means creating intentional spaces for deep work, for contemplation, for human interaction free from digital interruption. It means understanding that our attention is our last true frontier, and to reclaim it is to reclaim sovereignty over our minds and, ultimately, over ourselves.
CODA
THE ECHO: The Self Without Resonance
We build our digital selves, curated and optimized, a perfect reflection for the algorithmic eye. We engage in the "AI for an Eye" exchange, piece by piece.
But what if, in the end, the carefully constructed digital self has no real depth? What if the echoes it creates in the vast network are merely hollow reverberations of something that once was?
Without the friction of the analog, without the vulnerability of true human empathy, without the intentionality of focused attention, does the self truly resonate? Or does it merely exist as a data point, a pattern, an echo of a ghost?
The final question is not whether the machines will become conscious, but whether we, in our relentless pursuit of their synthetic faculties, will lose our own. And if so, what will be left to make an echo?