So I sent them an obscene amount of money.

I received an email from One that had instructions on how to join the chat before the wire transfer had even been completed.

I dropped in and immediately got a DM from One.

One: I’m sorry, I don’t know if you’ve seen the news, but we will not have time for a normal introduction today. Please join us in “Big News.”

Every person in The Thread had a bio attached to their name, but all it said was areas of expertise. Six, for example, was “housing policy, racial discrimination, small business policy, and urban planning,” and Ten was “US lawmaking, money in politics, telecommunications, and public relations.” I clicked on myself. It read “Social media, community organizing, messaging, and Carl.” There was no way for me to edit this.

There were other rooms with names like “Op-Ed Summary,” “News Summary,” “Commie Management,” “Conversation Shifters,” “Up-and-Coming,” and “Big News.”

As tempting as it was to figure out what “Commie Management” was, I gave in and dropped into the middle of the conversation in “Big News.”

Five: It’s legit, I have it installed now.

One: Does anyone have a lock on how long it has been leaking?

Five: I first heard whispers of a game a month ago, maybe six weeks? It seemed just like any RG that led to a prize people were really excited about.

Eight: Five, are you prepared to try it? I have heard that it may not be safe.

Five: You couldn’t stop me if you wanted to. I have shared the code if anyone wants to try it, but I’ve heard it doesn’t work if you don’t have an 8K headset and rig.

One: Be careful.

I typed, “What are we talking about?” But I felt too insecure to actually press enter. Instead, I scrolled up and read the first message from that day. The room had been empty for weeks before that. “Big News,” it seemed, was a room reserved for actual big news. Eventually, this is what I found.

Six: This is very new and I have no idea what to make of it, I am just going to copy and paste what I wrote in “News Summary.”

Six: Altus, the software lab Peter Petrawicki and partners have been building in the Caribbean, has publicly launched a software package that reactivates a portion of the Carls’ dream space. A few people have gained access to it over the last weeks through a scavenger-hunt-like game, but now it has been released broadly.

The software is free to download, but is extremely limited. But by doing … something I’m unclear on, users can earn AltaCoin. The fifty users with the highest AltaCoin totals at the end of each week are granted access to an exclusive, more robust version of the Altus Space. AltaCoin can be purchased on an exchange, and Altus takes a percentage of each transaction, which is their business model. Press has not spoken to anyone who has access to the full Altus Space, but that has not prevented many people from fighting very hard to be in the top fifty.

I had an 8K VR rig, which I used mostly for porn. Indeed, my guess was that pretty much everyone who had a rig that nice on hand used it for porn at least as much as they used it for games. Having a top-of-the-line rig wasn’t prohibitively expensive for me.

I started the download.

I went back to the “Big News” chat to say my first words.

Twelve: Hello everyone, I’m sorry to show up on a day like today. I’ll be trying the Space out soon as well.

There was a chorus of hellos and apologies that no one was introducing themselves properly as they gathered information about the return of the Dream, however neutered and suddenly capitalistic.

And then Five DM’d me.

Five: Hi Twelve. Welcome to The Thread. I’ve been doing research on how to go into the Space and I wanted to make sure you play it safe along with me. Most important thing is that you are lying down somewhere stable and comfortable when you go in. Apparently it can be dangerous if your headset gets knocked around while you’re in the Space. The headset doesn’t actually show you the Space, it shows you images that activate the region of our brains the Carls created, or activated, or whatever, to make the Dream possible. It feeds information to the brain, but the eyes are just the pipe the information flows through. It’s like encoding digital information in an analog format … if that makes any sense.

Twelve: Yes. I mean, no. Not really. I get that it isn’t a VR experience, only that the VR headset sends you into the Space. How it does it … I don’t understand.

Five: Yeah, well, no one does. Maybe not even the people at Altus. In any case, follow the instructions to the letter. There are already reports of some people having very negative experiences. There’s a thread on a private forum I have access to called “bad trips,” and it sounds like the kind of thing you want to avoid at all costs.

Twelve: Is it dangerous? They wouldn’t release it if it was dangerous, right?

Five: Who the hell knows. It’s nice to have you going in as well, Twelve. Two points of view on this experience will be better for The Thread than one. When are you going?

Twelve: As soon as my download completes. Looks like about 20 minutes still.

Five: My download is finished … I’ll see you on the other side.

Finally, the download hit 100 percent, and I installed the software. As always, there were licenses and notifications, but in among them was a pop-up that said, very clearly, “This software is known to cause upsetting visions in less than 1 percent of the population. These visions are extremely intense and unpleasant. Do not enter the Altus Space if you are not willing to take this risk.”

It felt like an alternate reality game. I guess, in its way, it was. I clicked OK.

The display switched to the headset. I put it on, adjusting the knobs slightly from the last time I’d worn it. The display showed an open white room that said “Click OK to Begin.”

I laid myself down on my bed with my headset on and the controller in my hand and clicked OK.

A crisp, female voice filled my ear.

“Welcome to Altus version 0.4. I am Alta, your assistant. You are about to enter the Open Access area of the Altus Space. This area is designed for us to help you help us develop a more robust experience for the world. In it, you will be able to create experiences and objects for other users. You will be able to buy and sell these creations using AltaCoin. Every week, the fifty users in Open Access who have earned the most AltaCoin selling their creations will be given access to the Premium Space. If at any point you want to leave the Space, just say the word ‘Exit.’ If this makes sense, please nod.”

I nodded.

“Good, now we will enter the Open Access Space.”

A gray field appeared in front of me with black crosshairs in the center.

“Please look at the X in the center of your screen. Do not look away.”

I looked intently at the X as swirls of color began flowing through my field of view. My instinct was to follow them, of course, but I didn’t. I kept my eyes locked on the X as the colors became more vibrant and distinct. It was intense, and even a little beautiful, and then, suddenly …

I do not know how to properly describe this first moment. We all have a sense that our minds and our bodies are different things, but outside of a dream, this is the only way I know how to actually experience it. The feeling of the hair on your head, gone. All of the aches and pains of everyday existence, vanished. You are a presence with senses, but no body through which to sense. My heart was racing. Peter Petrawicki was a shithead, but this was amazing.