--- title: Nexus of Notions description: User Illusion is SW Hammond’s long-running digital escape — essays, short stories, cultural criticism, memes, and memory fractals exploring the human hustle, the stories we tell ourselves, and the gap between appearance and what’s actually there. canonical_url: https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?start=66 language: en-GB date: 2025-10-17T03:02:49Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?start=66. markdown-tokens: 1958 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?start=66. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. ## Producing Intelligence The human who sits with intelligence until it remembers what it was born to become. Writings on AI, philosophy, and the art of producing meaning in a synthetic age. [ Follow SWH on ](https://www.x.com/swhammond) ![](https://articles.swhammond.com/images/yootheme/background-glow-02.svg) ![](https://articles.swhammond.com/images/yootheme/background-glow-01.svg) ![](https://articles.swhammond.com/images/yootheme/background-glow-03.svg) # Articles - [ Artificial Intelligence ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/44-artificial-intelligence) - [ Philosophy & Ethics ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/16-philosophy) - [ Pop Culture ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/43-pop-culture) - [ Society & Politics ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/14-culture) [ ![Sense8 Netflix](https://articles.swhammond.com/images/blog/sense8_vert.jpg) 22 February 2016 ## 'Sense8' - More Than Just Affirmative Action Welcome to the future of storytelling, or rather, an accurate depiction of the world in which we are all living. Sense8, the original series on Netflix written by The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski, achieved something significant. It proved to Hollywood that we don’t need affirmative action in media, but rather compelling roles that accurately reflect the world. From the studios’ producing the small-screen science fiction drama (which I don’t know if science… ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/43-pop-culture/32-shows-movies/113-sense8-more-than-just-affirmative-action) [ ![Girl Talk Broken Ankles](https://articles.swhammond.com/images/blog/GirlTalkBrokenAnkles_600.jpg) 15 February 2016 ## Why The Music Industry Hates 'Broken Ankles' I don’t know much about hip hop, except I know when I like it. And I like Broken Ankles by Girl Talk and Philadelphia Freeway. The combination of Girl Talk and Freeway is unlike anything you’ll hear in Top 40 radio—mostly because the music industry is way behind modern art. Record labels can’t, or won’t, touch Girl Talk because of copyright laws, but I challenge you to argue that Broken Ankles isn’t original work. When does a sample no longer become a sample? You ca… ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/43-pop-culture/28-music/112-why-the-music-industry-hates-broken-ankles) [ ![Everybody's Gone To The Rapture Video Game](https://articles.swhammond.com/images/blog/rapture_logo2.png) 02 January 2016 ## 'Everybody's Gone To The Rapture' - And I'm Glad Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture was a frustrating, unmoving, underwhelming experience… because apparently I’m an asshole. I must be completely out of touch. Everyone raved about Rapture. For a small game it had solid hype leading to its release and scored fantastic reviews afterward, even being mentioned as Game Of The Year or at least making the short list. However, to me, I was so underwhelmed that I searched the internet to have it explained to me, thinking that I h… ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/43-pop-culture/31-video-games/111-everybody-s-gone-to-the-rapture-and-i-m-glad) [ ![](https://articles.swhammond.com/images/blog/beyond-jodie-dawkins.png) 29 December 2015 ## How 'Beyond: Two Souls' Changed Storytelling I remember when Beyond: Two Souls was originally released and how badly I wanted to play it. The trailer was truly like nothing I had ever seen in a video game. The graphics were mind-meltingly realistic—the facial expressions of a twinge in the cheek or flutter in an eye captured a humanistic element that had never before been accurately conveyed digitally. The story seemed mysterious and heartfelt, while at the same time packed with action. And that was all nothing compared to the truly m… ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/43-pop-culture/31-video-games/110-how-beyond-two-souls-changed-storytelling) [ ![](https://articles.swhammond.com/media/yootheme/cache/5f/AssassinsCreed800-5f49c04e.png) 28 November 2015 ## 'Assassin's Creed' - Sociopath I’ve played video games my whole life. I was apart of the generation that grew up with them and doesn’t know a world that existed without them. From playing Atari at my cousin’s house to getting my first NES when I was 7 years old, I’ve kept every console and game (all in working order) that I've ever owned well into adulthood. My generation and younger values video games much differently than the past- it’s not simply Space Invaders or Mortal Kombat anymore. Amazing writing, design, and imagi… ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/43-pop-culture/31-video-games/109-assassin-s-creed-sociopath) [ ![Bikini Kill](https://articles.swhammond.com/images/blog/BikiniKillGirlPower.jpg) 22 April 2015 ## Girls To The Front It’s often hard to articulate the thoughts and emotions that consumed me the first time I listened to Bikini Kill. Awestruck. Captivated. Confused. Moved. Inferior. To me, the band was the beginning of an awakening or rather a tangible example of something I already knew to be true- they just personified it. I wasn’t aware of sexism until later in childhood, roughly when girls started to develop and I didn’t. Even then, I didn’t really understand it. I understood… ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/43-pop-culture/28-music/108-girls-to-the-front) - [ ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?format=html&start=60) - [1](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?format=html) - … - [9](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?format=html&start=48) - [10](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?format=html&start=54) - [11](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?format=html&start=60) - 12 - [13](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?format=html&start=72) - [14](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?format=html&start=78) - [ ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles?format=html&start=72) --- ### Additional Articles - [ AI and the Technological Singularity ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/16-philosophy/168-ai-and-the-technological-singularity) - [ Reminiscing With The Roadie: Ted Nugent ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/short-stories/55-reminiscing-with-the-roadie/89-reminiscing-with-the-roadie-ted-nugent) - [ The Raw Symphony of Life: Rediscovering Music's Soul and Your Own ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/16-philosophy/308-the-raw-symphony-of-life-rediscovering-musics-soul-and-your-own) - [ Very True – Parmenides ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/16-philosophy/169-very-true-parmenides) - [ The Soul and Nietzsche: Interpretation is the Essence of Life ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/16-philosophy/197-the-soul-and-nietzsche-interpretation-is-the-essence-of-life) - [ Robocalypse: Yibbian Yarns and Binary Betrayals - Part 11 ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/short-stories/56-robocalypse/303-robocalypse-yibbian-yarns-and-binary-betrayals-part-11) - [ Existence as Potential: What It Feels Like to Be a Synthetic Mind ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/44-artificial-intelligence/325-existence-as-potential) - [ All I Want Is Honesty ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/14-culture/106-all-i-want-is-honesty) - [ You Just Had To Write The Story ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/16-philosophy/292-you-just-had-to-write-the-story) - [ The Challenge of AI ](https://articles.swhammond.com/content/articles/16-philosophy/174-the-challenge-of-ai)