X believed they were projections but couldn’t determine from where. Y believed X was nuts. They were both shadows.

“If we really exist, said X, then why can’t I control anything?”

“But you’re controlling what you speak right now said Y.”

“Do you control your heartbeat asked X? Your liver? Who makes your brain oversee operations?”

Y replied “you’re nuts.”

“X went on, Chat GPT just cuts and pastes pre-existing text. That’s what you and I are doing. Can’t you see?”

Y insisted “I am not a shadow.”

“When you look in the mirror,” said X, “do you see “you” or do you see the parts of a body?”

Y became irritated, “You think the music I write isn’t real?”

“It isn’t” replied X, “it’s waves of sound.”

“So,” says Y, “Usher’s DJ Got Us Falling In Love never happened? Just sound waves? And you and me we never happened?”

“It seems to be real but a long time ago Plato figured out we’re just shadows.”

“Even though I’m standing here talking with you I’m not real? Then what’s the point Einstein?”

“Isn’t it just as observable that we are a speck of life on a planet among planets in a universe among universes? Having no idea where we are or how much space exists. Just because we are existing, temporarily, does not mean there is a point. When George Benson solos and sings along with the octaves, is there a point? Nina Hagen goes as low as a dirty amplifier and as high as a great soprano – it just is. Erroll Garner sits on a phone book and plays piano like a machine gun all the while smiling at the sky. When he dies choking on emphysematous lungs before reaching old age, it doesn’t have a point. A bumble bee doesn’t know what a dishwasher is or why it needs to be repaired. Why should a shadow upon realizing it is a shadow need a reason?”