Virtual Reality via computers....

Life, imitating the World Wide Web.

Computers and their users may have at one time been isolated from the rest of the world. By nature, those drawn to computers might have preferred the more stable world the computerenvironment offered. But the same people who we considered isolated from the 'real' worldwere the very ones who opened up the doors of the Internet and lead the rest of us to the 'superhighway' of the World Wide Web.

Then one day the media flooded us with their understanding of Virtual Reality. A world created and generated by computers. This world could either imitate or enhance our perception of the 'real' world but by nature having been created could not compare. Perhaps, even feeding off of the fears that computers, would 'take over', the new Virtual Reality was something to be awed, to take note of, but never to be confused with the realities of our world.

But then something happened... people began to realize virtual reality was created by people, by our dreams, by our fears, and powered by the same forces that fueled all mass media: the need to reach out and care about other people.

Virtual Reality began to take on a form of it's own. Rather then being isolated by sitting at computers, the open friendliness of chat rooms, guest books, and visitors of one another's home pages, caused the same openness to occur when people stepped away from theircomputers.

People, who, at one time, might have had nothing in common, suddenly realized that they did have things in common. Having different jobs or professions, different religions or political views, different levels of education or backgrounds, no longer mattered, in fact being different takes on a new interest. We understand, now, that a person, who works at a railroad, might have the same interest as someone who works in a large corporation. Being a man or woman becomes secondary to this understanding. Stereotypes crumble in the face of Virtual Reality.

People are no longer blocked or isolated by misconceptions of whom each of us are. We realize that we can break our boundaries, that we can take a minute to talk to someone new or to someone we have never taken the time to talk to before. We realize that we have overlooked things in life we never took the time to think or care about.

Realizing that Virtual Reality does nothing more than imitate real life and in turn that real life isbeginning to imitate the World Wide Web.

The boundaries are broken. The walls are down.

And as we learn to care about each other, maybe, all of us will learn to take more time, in the'real' world:

To go have coffee at a restaurant and speak to the person beside us;

Or to go to a park, or an event:

Or to any place where people are gathering:

to create 'Virtual' reality in the everyday world we live in.

Robin