Creatures with a thousand names.

Again, very much in the postmodern tradition, parts of Vurt read like an ancient Zen scroll with its difficult to understand metaphores about reality:

Beyond all this lies the FIFTH LEVEL. Fifth level beings have a thousand names, but Robomandogshadowvurt isn't one of them. They have a thousand names because everybody calls them something different. Call them what you like —you're never going to meet one. Fifth level beings are way up the scale of knowledge and they don't like to mingle. Maybe they don't even exist.

(Jeff Noon: p. 266)

Who are these beings then? They exist in the Vurt, sure. We know that much. But do they just live there or do they also have existence on this other side of reality? Because, once we start playing with the notion of virtual reality, that's precisely one of the problems: where do we draw the line? How do we distinguish what is real from what is not anymore? In the end, reality cannot be named. Or, to put it a different way, all its entities have a myriad of names (i.e., many different identities that coexist in one "being"). All this connects more with old Zen and Taoist concepts than with our own Western philosophical tradition, bent on building castles in the air since its very beginnings (long-lasting ideas that belong in the realm of metaphysics, where things supposedly remain as they truly are, unchanged and perfect. In other words, a chimera.