The first Matrix movie introduced a generation of sci-fi fans to an ancient philosopher's saw: What if your entire reality were a deceit? Two decades on, the film's plot--free-thinking renegades attempt to expose the lies behind an oppressive system--is as timely as ever, but its conceptual premise feels almost quaint. The technologies that have emerged since then do indeed raise the question of what is real, but now they do it in ways that are stranger than even the movie predicted, if rarely quite as sinister. Your day-to-day reality is an increasingly synthetic experience: Computerized voices inhabit your smart speakers, deepfakes bring dead movie actors back to life, and AI-generated artworks go for eye-watering prices at auction. The simulacrum is extending into food too: Supermarket shelves already contain countless vegan substitutes for meat and other animal products, and before long "real" meat, grown in a lab, will join them.