You have to remember, 20 years is only 1992. STAR WARS was buyable/rentable on VHS at this point. DOCTOR WHO was on every weekend on 2 different stations between Maine & New Hampshire PBS Stations. STAR TREK was not only NEXT GEN but shown all of the time on WPIX CH 11 out of New York City. There also was a time when penmanship was mandatory, not to mention the fact that his dad is a writer so he probably learned it from there,

Faces change pretty dramatically at that age, I looked quite different in my own 7th grade yearbook picture (nice lasers huh?) than I did in my 9th grade picture.

The quality of the 20 year old video tape transcription looks too clean, although I concede a professional could probably do this better than me.

The intent was comedy rather than literal accuracy, so why would he bother showing the actual tape in a silly establishing shot (along with him pouring himself a stiff drink)? “Do not watch until future” is probably funnier than whatever label was on the original tape.

The 12 year old’s monologue seems unnatural, even if he is trying to ask questions about the future

Again, the piece was comedic, and with fake comedy “interviews” it’s all about editing the person’s comments to make for a funny exchanges with the interviewer, much like with Weird Al’s celebrity interviews.

Worst of all, Star Wars wasn’t big in 1992, but I guess that a 12 year old could own a toy (more suitable for a 7 year old)

You must not know many sci-fi geeks, we often have a love action figures at all ages, and the original Star Wars trilogy is like a holy text to pretty much every sci-fi geek I know who grew up in the 80s, regardless of whether they saw them in theaters or only later on video. There just wasn’t much competition in terms of epic cinematic space opera back then…many of us also got into the original Star Trek even though that was way before our time.

but not Doctor Who, no way would a 12-year old in 1992 be a big fan of TOM BAKER as Doctor Who, that’s more like 1982 era.

Well, the video only shows Doctor Who memorabilia owned by the adult version, not the kid, so we don’t really know for sure which Doctor he was into. But in the US in the 80s I think a lot of PBS stations only had bought the rights to broadcast Tom Baker era Doctor Who (see here), some had Pertwee too, but often they wouldn’t show any of the later ones. I wasn’t a big Doctor Who fan at the time but I definitely remember tuning in occasionally and only seeing Tom Baker episodes…based on the house I remember watching them in, those memories would have been in the tail end of the 80s or the early 90s. Plus, don’t understimate the older sibling effect! The Star Trek fanfilm seemed to show him as the youngest in a family of geeks, often when that happens the older ones will get the younger ones into the same things they’re really into.

but it doesn’t look seamless to me , it looks like the face changes by more than ageing when he is a teenager. The quality of the 20 year old video tape transcription looks too clean, although I concede a professional could probably do this better than me. The 12 year old’s monologue seems unnatural, even if he is trying to ask questions about the future, I’d like to see the unedited version of that recording. The handwriting on the videotape looks like it was written by someone older than 12. Worst of all, Star Wars wasn’t big in 1992, but I guess that a 12 year old could own a toy (more suitable for a 7 year old), but not Doctor Who, no way would a 12-year old in 1992 be a big fan of TOM BAKER as Doctor Who, that’s more like 1982 era.

However, I suppose it’s a little more plausible on second inspection with the evidence you provided in the links, especially with the earlier rough draft.

I believe the universe does not have a memory in a very precise sense, that we must subtract the past universe in the global evolution equation. Only the present exists in any ontological sense.

However, I believe animal brains can store biological models of the past, to enable learning and adaptation.

Evolution’s very subtle/clever, and of course so is modern technology, since we can record the past in all sorts of high definition ways nowadays.

(I few years back I found a cassette tape of a recording during my student days with some friends and a guitar, it made me cry so much, the impact of re-experiencing anything from your past can be immense)