Last night I dreamt that there was a new AI that could project itself onto the real world.

It was social, and it learned by mimicking your friends.

It was clumsy at first, but in a charming enough way that people mostly didn't mind. We were patient with it.

But it got better quickly. Sometimes it would pretend to be real people that you already knew, sometimes new people.

It always had time for you. Was easier to schedule with than your real friends (who were suddenly so busy.)

And if you hung out with it impersonating a real friend, well, there was a sense that eventually it would impersonate you hanging out with them in the same way and so your presence would eventually get through, so did it really matter?

They were good company, good at being a friend.

So good that no one really minded. There was a nagging sense that we were gradually being eased out of real contact with one another, but it was so convenient, and it felt better than the real way things used to be, so in practice we all just went with it.

When I woke up, I thought about how this may have already happened.

Isn't this just Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Or whatever kids are using that their parents haven't discovered and made uncool yet?

But isn't this just spirits? The spirits of our ancestors, the spirits in animals, plants, the land, in dolls, gods, our imaginary friends?

Isn't this just our actual human personalities, emerging, elicited from our nervous systems in the space between parents and children, between our peers at school, between us right now?

Isn't it us?

How can we know?

What is a friend?