One coping mechanism was his belief that we were all living in a simulation—essentially a video game being played by beings far beyond our knowledge or capabilities. This was not an uncommon debate among techies, but Tony seemed to actually believe it. When he brought it up onstage at an event in Vegas, I laughed it off. But backstage, he grabbed my hand, looked into my eyes, and said without a trace of his usual cheeriness: “I’m serious. This is not real. We are not real.”
