The author, Fred Ritchin, is describing an encounter and interaction with a virtual reality fictional character in Portrait One by Luc Courchesne. Marie, the character, is prerecorded, videotaped segments of an actor responding to a variety of questions in either English or French. The user chooses who they want to be to speak to the character and then is given a menu of questions on a screen to pose to the character and also to respond to her questions and answers. This virtual reality experience allows the user to pursue different conversational routes and to better understand the inner dynamics of the character. The personal interaction with a machine is also raising the question of why we would rather talk to someone virtual rather than the person sitting beside you?