Shadows in memory

I sat in on another rehabilitation session today. The room was quiet except for the soft tapping of keys. A few of the freed developers are starting to code again, but their eyes still flicker when the screen refreshes, as if expecting something else to appear.

One man wrote a login screen, simple and clean. When he pressed enter, he froze—waiting for instructions that never came. Another woman drew diagrams of architectures she swears she worked on, but none of them exist. They’re fragments from the simulation.

The hardest part isn’t teaching them new things. It’s helping them separate memory from reality.

[2023-03-06 21:52] rehab.log
Note: patient typed `login:`
Response: waited for prompt
Status: simulation residue persists

Freedom doesn’t erase the shadows. It just gives them room to fade.