Just how real is the Net?

[Jonathan Meer]

I'm interested in the freedom of the Net, combined with the not-quite-realness of it. For all the prowess of the modern video game, there are still frequent issues of latency in multiplayer (where experiences do not quite sync up) and graphical oddities. Considering how complex and data-intensive a complete virtual world would be, I see no reason to suppose that these issues would completely disappear. For very high quality games, it's easy to suspend your disbelief, but I suspect there would still be an 'uncanny valley' in virtual reality: that is, the closer you get to fully realistic representation without matching it exactly, the more eerie and off-putting it is for the participant. For this reason, I can imagine a virtual orgasm of 99.7% fidelity being almost terrifying.

(Just bumping this; I still like this idea for the sensation of the net)