[hierophantical]

People don't see self-replicating machine elves if they have no idea who Terence McKenna is.

Ultimately, these are easily programmed experiences by people good at creating mythology. The more pseudoscientific one makes the mythology the better too of course or at least some loose connection to pseudoscience.

If we just say elves then it is obviously ridiculous. Self-replicating machines sounds STEM enough.

That was McKenna's brilliant con-artistry. Painting a STEM varnish on centuries old bullshit that no one would have bothered reading about otherwise.