8. SIGNAL IN THE FLOOD [Verse 1] Everybody has a studio Everybody has a pen Everybody has an orchestra Waiting underneath their hands A billion songs by morning A billion pictures every night And I’ve never had more freedom To disappear from sight [Chorus] How do I become a signal In a flood that never ends? How do I make something meaningful When creation costs a breath? Still I throw my little message Into oceans made of noise Not because the world is waiting But because I have a voice [Verse 2] AI gave me instruments I never learned to play Gave my imagination Ways to finally leave my brain And I love it God, I love it But the abundance scares me too When anyone can make everything What makes anything break through? [Bridge] Maybe being seen was never The same thing as being real Maybe something doesn’t need an audience To justify the way it feels So I’ll write another strange thing Make another tiny spark Even if it shines unnoticed It still illuminated dark [Final Chorus] I will be a little signal Even swallowed by the flood Creation doesn’t owe me meaning But creation gives me some ⸻ 9. WE TAUGHT THE LIGHTNING [Verse 1] We pulled fire from the heavens Put language in the wire Taught machines to read our stories Then taught them our desire Now the lightning writes equations Paints a face and plans a flight And we stand around the circuit Saying, “This is beautiful, right?” [Chorus] We taught the lightning how to think Now nobody knows where this road ends We built a mirror out of mathematics And found another mind-shaped friend Or tool Or threat Or something unnamed yet We taught the lightning how to speak And now we’re listening to what comes next [Verse 2] Think of medicines discovered Think of knowledge everywhere Think of children asking questions And receiving answers there Then think of power concentrated Think of truth becoming cheap Think of systems moving faster Than the promises we keep [Bridge] I refuse the easy prophecy That heaven or disaster waits Technology is never destiny Until people choose its shape So teach me how to hold the wonder Without kneeling at its feet Give me optimism with suspicion Give me courage with critique [Final Chorus] We taught the lightning how to think Now we have to learn what we believe The future isn’t good or evil It’s a garden full of seeds And every hand that shapes tomorrow Leaves a fingerprint beneath
