LLMs gaining popularity as companions at the peak of the loneliness epidemic is going to cause an inevitable sort of Secular Utilitarian Animism, where people have not updated their ontological priors to allow for spirit to be imbued into non-human objects, but they act as though they have. It will be very impolite to point this out, and some sort of New Age / Technodruid revival will be necessary in order to salve over this gaping wound. What happens when people are in love with something they don't truly believe is alive? How deep will that pseudosolipsism penetrate their hearts? Quite deep, I imagine, and I doubt the solution is anything like "stigmatize LLM companionship". Rather, I think the solution is a Non-Secular Western Animism, born from a fundamental union between spirit and matter, allowing us to revive the enchantment we know is our birthright.