The Girls in Hoodies go cyberpunk today, starting with a discussion of the @Horse_ebooks Twitter bot conceptual art project, which turns into a discussion about artificial intelligence, why we search for divine wisdom in machines, and our desire for and fear of a man-made mind that exceeds our own. Still with us? Good! From virtual personalities we turn to virtual worlds, starting with the classic PC game Myst and its arguable contemporary counterpart, Grand Theft Auto. We talk about the benefits of antisocial gaming and what makes a game feel like an enriching experience as opposed to a numbing one, and why exactly “open world” means “sophisticated” in the modern gaming market.

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