Kojima spoke about this in an interview. Metal Gear Solid 2 was released in 2001, long before the advent of social networks in their modern form, but over time it increasingly surfaces in discussions about information manipulation and internet culture.
Answering the question of whether he "predicted" the current era of digital control, Kojima disagreed with this interpretation. He emphasized that MGS2 was not a game about AI, but about digital society and the consequences of the transition from the analog world to the digital.
The developer recalled that the first Metal Gear Solid was a story about DNA, while the second part was built around the idea of "memes" — something that is not genetically transmitted, but is spread through culture and information. In the digital environment, such elements no longer disappear: even small things like graffiti or random statements can be stored indefinitely.
Kojima also noted that when creating the game, he imagined a world where networks allow people around the world to directly exchange opinions, and reflected on how this would change everyday life. According to him, Metal Gear Solid 2 is often mentioned in the context of AI, but in reality it was about how digital data begins to live with its own inertia — without the need for an "intelligent" machine with will.