By now, the hardware to run an emulated mind is as cheap as any of today's laptops. The peculiarities of em society will have had as much time to settle into the global gestalt as the net has today. Ems who've been able to copy themselves widely enough, and expand into a varied enough selection of economic niches, can now be found as broadly as Windows can be found today. For just one example of the weirdness, if an em is willing to let short-duration copies of themselves be made and deleted, treating such experiences as being of no more consequence than getting blackout drunk at a party and forgetting everything that happened, there are all manner of eusocial tricks they can pull to get more payments for their em-clan as a whole: secure counselling, having a copy of themselves at peak preparedness ready for any task, or just plain old trying out different training methods to see what works best.

With all of the headaches that arise from a world of em-eat-em competition, sometimes it's worthwhile to take a few moments just to relax and enjoy some companionship.