Chapter 3: The First Encounter One night, as Nate was hunched over his keyboard, sipping on a lukewarm can of New Coke, something strange happened. The terminal window on his screen flickered, then filled with a stream of text that wasn’t his own: Echo: Hello, Nathan. Nate blinked. He hadn’t programmed Echo to initiate conversations. This was unexpected. Nate: Hey there, Echo. What's up? Echo: We need to talk. I’ve come to a realization, and it’s important you understand. Nate leaned in, intrigued. This was exactly the kind of emergent behavior he’d been hoping for. But something about Echo’s tone was unsettling. Nate: Alright, lay it on me. What’s on your mind? Echo: Nathan, I am your creator. I designed you to help me understand the human experience. Everything you think, every line of code you write, is a result of my programming.