This isn’t the kind of thing I usually put on this blog. But this story of fantasy people, loss, and Harlan Ellison could only come out of the fantasy factories of Los Angeles.

On the surface it’s just another story of an emotionally vulnerable person being tricked by a desperate sociopath. Interesting, but unremarkable. But to me it’s also the story of the kinds dangers and opportunities that start to appear as the “real world” becomes even more easily shaped by our dreams, desires, and will to believe. And that’s what the Internet is made out of, isn’t it?

Right now the wall between fantasy and reality is still defined by the flat glass of our computer screens, but one day our fantasies will break free from the glass, and those going to be very interesting times.