Virtual (Un)Reality

"It's just a stupid game.

Pixels on a screen.  Nothing more.  Why are you so upset?"

"No; it's something more.

Human emotions and thoughts go into these avatars.

How can it be just a game?"

For some, simply an intellectual argument.

For others, the stakes are much higher.

Who is right?

Is all that we experience here just pixels and programming?

Or is there more?

We tend to forget that the term "virtual reality" contains the word

"reality."

It is not completely real, but it is close as pixels and programming can get.

And we take it and pour our own thoughts, views, emotions, desires, etc., into this

"reality."

We make it out own.

Still, how real is it?

People meet, get married, fight, make up, form friendships...

as in real life.

But unlike real life, people fly, breathe water while swimming, fall from impossible heights and not die, etc....

So.

How real is "virtual reality,"

and how not?