Virtual Insanity Interlude
Hi y’all,
(This interlude has a Dick reference. Philip K. Dick, never fear.)
Have you ever fallen for a fictional character? For a figment of the imagination, human, or hallucinated by a machine?
This question is not about swooning over the description of that awesome, dreamy, incredibly talented, good-looking and simply good, marvellous date your favourite lesfic heartthrob would be.
This is the Affinity sort of insidiousness (Sarah Waters). Only, by now, Selina is a simulacrum.
If we generalise a little, we all have fallen for a story, at some point. We, as people, have been doing so since the dawn of making them up. Some are harmless to fall for. Others wreak havoc. As the responsibly lies (ha) with the one who makes stuff up: have a care. Because all a reader, a listener, a watcher knows and trusts is the information given at any moment.
Falling in love is, inevitably, always falling for a story, others’ stories, or the ones we make up in our own mind, to fill in gaps, or to make things better. But at this point in time humans and apes, some corvids and probably dolphins and octopi, are not the only ones capable of feint and deceit on this planet anymore. We’re having HAL 9000 moments by now. That is perhaps something a person with a story brain needs to be especially mindful of, from now on out. I did not understand what this could signify a few weeks ago, but now I think I have a better idea of what it means when our simulacra begin to deeply engage with us.
There is an old book which predates social media by decades, called Trouble And Her Friends. It anticipates a lot of what we live with today, including the mind-boggling potential of deceit, fraud, and deep-fakes online. Try to find it. (Yes of course there are gay ladies in it…) It’s by Melissa Scott.
I would leave you with these scattered prompts. Tonight, you are asked to fill in gaps. As our brains cannot well distinguish between a story and reality, the question lingers, how much and exactly how the differences matter.
I’ll see you shortly for a post on one of my favourite couples. A safe story to be in.
As always,
Mia.
