What are we doing when we tell fictional stories? It is, on the face of it, one of the more cognitively expensive, pointless, irrational and bizarre traditions that is — as far as we know — universal in human culture. Telling stories about things that really happened is obviously useful — there’s utility in remembering what worked and learning not to repeat what didn’t. But making up events that never happened? And passing these tales on as precious possessions across generations, handing them from parent to child, telling them unceasingly as a centre of who we understand ourselves to be?
This is an important question in the modern world, where we are seeing an explosion in the passing on of absolutely false, tremendously gripping stories. What humans do when we come together is tell stories. On the internet, more of us are coming together and thinking together than ever before, and what’s emerging is a new and intensely engaging form of storytelling.