Great piece of folklore, and I liked your story about The Lat Starfighter too. Another bit of fiction in the same vein in Ender's Game. Without spoiling anything - definitely some hidden agendas in that book's simulation.
One story idea this made me think of: translating the Polybius "plot" to the targeted/sponsored content on social media. If it the ads and sponsored pages weren't about generating clicks and money, but about conditioning people, what would they be conditioning us for?
Some conspiracy theories have a grain of truth to them, and here's where this one is:
The hypothetical scenario you describe is more or less what I experienced after several hours at the arcade. I'd have phantom game-playing while trying to sleep! Of course, this happened because of such a ridiculous surplus of screen time, not because something something X-files Joe Rogan.
I learned about Polybius through Angry Video Game Nerd. He had an interesting video about the weird history of this legend.
Great piece of folklore, and I liked your story about The Lat Starfighter too. Another bit of fiction in the same vein in Ender's Game. Without spoiling anything - definitely some hidden agendas in that book's simulation.
One story idea this made me think of: translating the Polybius "plot" to the targeted/sponsored content on social media. If it the ads and sponsored pages weren't about generating clicks and money, but about conditioning people, what would they be conditioning us for?
Some conspiracy theories have a grain of truth to them, and here's where this one is:
The hypothetical scenario you describe is more or less what I experienced after several hours at the arcade. I'd have phantom game-playing while trying to sleep! Of course, this happened because of such a ridiculous surplus of screen time, not because something something X-files Joe Rogan.