Magazines such as Mondo 2000 and Future Sex paint wild images of sexual fantasies enacted with digital partners; surreal worlds in virtual reality (VR) where the laws of physics and Euclidean geometry no longer apply; and cyborg brains with implanted nanocomputers which hurl clumsy interface technologies into obsolecence. Sadly, we hardly seem to be occupying the same world as these magazine writers; the closest most of us have come to such futuristic fantasies is perhaps an uneventful game of virtual frisbee at the local science and industry museum -- not exactly a technophile's wet dream. Indeed, it does not take long to discover that most virtual reality installations available to the public do not measure up to all the hype generated by science fiction literature, computer culture magazines, and academic pondering. In fact, the immense amount of speculation surrounding VR makes it necessary to differentiate between current VR applications and what I like to call "virtual" virtual reality -- in other words, the goggle-and-senso-sheath technologies which seem virtually real in popular discourses but which have yet to enter the realm of actuality. To date, even the scientists working hard to realize these virtual reality dreams admit that the most fascinating work is still on paper and that current applications continue to be plagued by awkward user/technology interfaces and severe limitations in simulating sensory input beyond the visual and aural.

Interestingly, this under-realization of the VR fantasy has not inhibited the fervent debate among academics over virtual reality and its utopic/dystopic possibilities. Critics such as Donna Haraway, Brenda Laurel, Jean Baudrillard, and Vivian Sobchack are as busy as the science fiction writers making predictions, speculating on applications, and asking questions. For instance, some cultural theorists are asking whether the arrival of virtual reality will bring a cultural revolution. Or will it merely be a pumped-up version of 3-D, scratch-and-sniff, widescreen cinema? Will VR provide new subject positions by imploding various forms of distance and breaking down self/other polarities in its path? Or might the terms of interaction within virtual communities be outgrowths of the fears, prejudices, and anti-social tendencies of a few maladjusted software designers? Some optimistic feminists have suggested that VR could equip us with polymorphous cyber-bodies which might eventually loosen the grounding of subjectivity in gendered physiologies. Or on the other hand, maybe virtual worlds will provide yet another terrain for sex-determined inequalities. A few science-fiction writers and crystal-ball-carrying academics suggest that virtual reality will bring new forms of disembodiment. And if this much-touted technology does create the ultimate Cartesian separation of mind and body, will it be universal or solely for the privileged while the rest of the world remains anchored in bodies which labor in factories and fields polluted by the refuse of the industrial world?

To take a position concerning the potential effects of a machine which is, for the most part, incarnate only in our minds seems a bit strange. At the same time, it would be errant to ignore such an important factor involved in the shaping of a still malleable future. A proper compromise between these two poles involves continuing our critical inquiry while admitting that few questions will yield solid answers at this early stage of the game. But perhaps even before this step, we need to scrutinize our own preparedness for interrogating VR's potentialities. As scholars versed in pre-VR media theories, we will need to trace out a continuum between virtual reality and other media not only to understand how VR and other interactive technologies use prior entertainment forms as building blocks but to recognize where VR moves into unfamiliar terrain. During this process, we must also identify where our current models will fail us and, in turn, develop agendas for inquiry appropriate to this new object of study. While no single article can satisfactorily accomplish all of these tasks, my paper takes small strides in this direction first of all by examining the "reality effects" of VR in relation to pre-existing media technologies. My larger goal, however, is to present a model for critical analysis which can be applied to both "virtual" virtual reality as it is depicted in popular discourse and existent forms of VR entertainment. It is here that I believe we will come closest to glimpsing the future of virtual reality and its cultural effects.