"Pics or it didn't happen" is over. Generative AI can fake any clip, so the new standard is IRL. Play Evidence Court: real, generated, or can't tell from video alone?">
IRLorItDidn'tHappen

Ch. 3 · Signal lost · Tracking adjusted

Pics IRL or it didn't happen.

For a hundred years, a recording was the end of the argument. Now anyone can generate a convincing clip of anything in minutes. Video isn't proof anymore. It's a rumor with good lighting.

Enter Evidence Court Read the field guide
A dark room filled with a stacked wall of glowing vintage televisions, each showing the same seagull stealing a baguette from a slightly different, impossible angle; the center screen shows only static.

Evidence Court

Eight clips. For each one, decide: real, generated, or video alone can't tell me. Read the clues. Scoring rewards good judgment, not lucky guesses. Every clip is fictional and described in words; no real people appear.

Case 1 of 8Score 0

REC ● 00:00:11

    An old wooden evidence table under a brass banker's lamp: a VHS tape, a face-down phone, a magnifying glass, a clear cassette, and a fan of photo prints, the top one showing a pale hand that seems to have one finger too many.

    The end of "I saw it with my own eyes"

    Photos could be doctored for a century, but it took skill and time. Video was the last holdout. Now a teenager with a laptop can make a clip that would have fooled a newsroom in 2015.

    That cuts both ways. Fakes can be passed off as real. And real things can be waved away as fake by anyone who doesn't like them. When anything could be generated, everything can be denied.

    So the standard shifts back to something very old: people who were there, records that agree with each other, and the patience to check.

    Field guide: being evidence-literate

    1. Find a second source. One clip is a claim. Two independent angles from unconnected people is the start of evidence.
    2. Find who posted it first. A brand-new account, a cropped watermark or a re-upload of a re-upload is a reason to slow down.
    3. Check the boring details. Weather that day, shadows, signage, the time on the clock. Fakes get the drama right and the background wrong.
    4. Ask who benefits if you believe it. The clips that spread fastest are the ones built to make you angry or smug.
    5. Verify through another channel. If a video call from "your boss" or "your bank" asks for something unusual, hang up and call them back on a number you already know.

    This is general media-literacy advice, not legal or forensic guidance. Related: what happens when a crowd skips these steps.

    Wear the standard

    Three designs for the post-video era. Vote for the one you'd actually wear. Nothing is charged; this tells us what to make.

    "IRL or It Didn't Happen" tee

    "Certified Analog Human" sticker

    "Human Witness" enamel pin

    More cheeky goods at the Scallywag shop: scallywag-media.com.

    Evidence locker

    Exhibits examined: 0 of 0

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