The straw men are virtual characters commanded by another intelligence, created for the sole purpose of teaching a lesson.
They sometimes appear with the faceless man.
Hyperspace Lexicon description :
Not so much independent entities in themselves, more like puppets with a consistent theme used to emphasize various lessons. A counterpoint to the other “human spirits” who posed as my peers that I was to emulate, these characters were the fall guys, complete idiots meant to look obviously foolish to serve as examples of things I shouldn’t do. Sometimes they were used to represent negative characteristics of my own personality. Most frequently, they were used in “classroom”-themed allegorical lessons implicitly demanding my trust and respect, showing me what happens to foolish “students” who do things that displease them. Most of these lessons boiled down to transparent (with the benefit of hindsight) ad hominem or straw man fallacies.
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“I saw a strange humanoid-looking character running in the distance, but with an extremely long neck and no face or expression either. I followed him and we came to a round table at which several of these beings were seated. I understood then that they were only puppets, kinds of straw men, virtual characters commanded by another intelligence, created for the sole purpose of teaching me a lesson.
I will not give the details of the lesson because they are too personal, but it was limpid and clear and of the type: “beware, if you do that, this is what will happen to you”.”