Eventually, they get the game running and they both port into it.

And then they're aware that they're in a layer of reality that's fake.

And once they're in there, that to me, that starts to feel a lot like social media.

Because they're like, yeah, we're in the game.

It feels real in a lot of ways and it feels unreal a lot of ways.

And they start to have these interactions with like NPCs, which is a term we know now that I don't think we really knew back then.

But that means non-player character.

It's a thing in video games that has taken on some interesting right- wing co-options and stuff.

There's a thing where like right-wing chuds will call you an NPC, like, oh, you're not a real person or whatever.

But the characters in the game, they look exactly like real humans, but you talk to them and they have like dialogue trees kind of.

And if you hit a dead end with them, they just sort of freeze up or they'll start

saying the same thing over and over again.

It's like a shopkeeper.

And he's like, what, how can I help you?

You know?

And then that sounds normal.

But then if you don't say the right thing to him, he just goes, how can I help you?

How can I help you?

And you're, oh, okay, it's like, there's this uncanny nature to it.

And to me, that reminded me a lot of bots, how there's this thing on Twitter now,

where it's like, you check your notifications.

You think someone has commented on the thing you're talking about.

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