My AI tools went down recently. Not for long, just enough to make me realise how much of my workflow had quietly migrated to algorithmic assistance. That moment of mild panic sparked this song, a lament for the courage we’re outsourcing.
AI should be a tool, but instead we’re neglecting our duty to be captains of our own destiny. That takes risk, possibly pain, the messy business of being human. An AI answer is easy and usually caked in flattery. But there’s no free lunch.
“Truth gets plastic / Content’s fake / Cut your moorings / Stay awake” is about what happens when we optimise for efficiency over authenticity. We’re drowning in junk words and junk ideas, with no-one policing our fears while we count sheep through the automation of everything that used to require us to show up.
The bridge celebrates something we’re trained to eliminate: our flaws. “There’s still treasure in our flaws / The accident, the awkward pause.” That’s where real innovation lives, in the spaces between perfection and utility.
“Wine’s got sediment / Songs have pain / We are corners / We’re the stain” reframes what algorithms smooth away. The sediment gives wine character. The pain in songs is what makes them matter. We’re not glitches to be optimised out of the system; we’re what makes the system worth having.
The Complete Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Screens are talking
Keeping time
Crossing every
Sacred line
Jobs disappearing
Faster and cheap
While we’re all here
Counting sheep
[Verse 2]
Truth gets plastic
Content’s fake
Cut your moorings
Stay awake
Sea of junk words
Junk ideas
No-one’s policing
All our fears
[Chorus]
But I am human
And I’m still here
You can count on me
When screens disappear
These smart computers
These fancy tools
They’re doing tricks
While we become their fools
But no lunch is free,
There’s a price to pay …
I hope human … spirit …
Lives to breathe …
Another day
[Verse 3]
Tools are clever
Take our words
Smooth the corners
Kill what’s heard
Aiming average
Killing weird
Uniqueness fading
Disappeared
[Verse 4]
Always faster
Moths to flame
Burn conventions
Chase the fame
Quiet moments
Hard to bear
Look in mirrors
No-one there
[Chorus]
But I am human
And I’m still here
You can count on me
When screens disappear
These smart computers
These fancy tools
They’re doing tricks
While we become their fools
But no lunch is free,
There’s a price to pay …
I hope human … spirit …
Lives to breathe …
Another day
[Bridge]
There’s still treasure in our flaws
The accident, the awkward pause
Let’s all stay quirky, embrace the weird
That’s how we progress, that’s how we’re geared
[Verse 5]
Bots can predict
but they can’t feel
The weight of time
What makes us real
They optimise
They make it clean
But we live in the mess
The in between
[Verse 6]
Wine’s got sediment
Songs have pain
We are corners
We’re the stain
We’re still here
We’re here to stay
We’re still here
For one more day
[Final Chorus]
We are human
And we’re still here
Our contradictions
Make us clear
Let smart computers
Do their tricks
While we stay broken
In the mix
There’s no free lunch,
But this is true:
Human spirit’s got …
Some breathing …
Left to do
[Repeated with variations]