A short science fiction story by Vernor Vinge which helped establish many people's concepts of virtual reality. Cypherpunks adopted Vinge's ideas in worrying about anonymity and pseudonymity (and nyms). "True Names" also expanded on the prevalent metaphor of computer programming as magic or wizardry and computer programs as magic spells. One of the first appearances of the idea behind "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog".

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