text.

[ex_spins462]

A little fun for the unplugged among us. Name one thing from your Matrix and other people can say if they heard of it in theirs. Maybe find a little common ground.

I'll start: New York City.

Comments

[dissent]

[ Anders doesn't use the network much, but since he's here anyway he decides he may as well try and find an answer to something that's been niggling at him. ]

Spirits?

[retrofire]

Yes

[dissent]

Do you think they were "computer programs"?

[retrofire]

If they were, they were really good ones.

Or maybe they just spiked the juice?

[dissent]

What?

[retrofire]

You know, spiked the people juice. Which is kind of deep when you think about it, that'd mean getting wasted was the closest to reality we ever got

[dissent]

You thought I meant alcohol.

1/2

[retrofire]

What the hell else would you mean

[retrofire]

Wait do you mean ghosts?????

Can I change my vote

[dissent]

Not ghosts, as such. Spirits. From the spirit world.

[retrofire]

Yeah, we don't have any of that stuff. You're either alive or you're dead.

How would that translate into matrix code, anyway? Being a spirit

[dissent]

Spirits were never people. They're magical constructs of the Fade. Occasionally they can push through and take a human host — those we called demons. But none of them can exist in the real world.

[retrofire]

[ whaaaaaat ]

So they're programs.

[dissent]

The term I encountered in researching was "artificial intelligence". Certainly they feel whole and sentient.

[retrofire]

Hate to break it to you, buddy, but AI's just a fancy term for program.

You know a lot of these spirits?

[dissent]

Just one.

[retrofire]

[ Oh. ]

Were the two of you close?

[dissent]

He was a very big part of my life.

[retrofire]

That sucks, man. How long you been unplugged?

[dissent]

A couple of years.

fANCY USERNAME

[retrofire]

Well hey, that's good. Time to adjust, etc

[ blah blah brochure garbage. ]

so hip

[dissent]

[ Not really. But he isn't interested in shattering some new arrival's hopes and dreams, so: ]

Yourself?

[retrofire]

[ Denial high five ]

Two years. Three? Two and a half

Not really keeping count

[dissent]

And do you feel adjusted?