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How will you cope, living with your avatar?

By Samantha Murphy

30 March 2011

In Infinite Reality, Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson map the exciting possibilities and daunting downsides of ever more realistic virtual worlds

HELLO, future. Gaming systems that drop you into another world, such as Microsoft’s Kinect or Nintendo’s Wii, are just the beginning of what virtual-reality technology has to offer. Get ready for virtual immortality, teleportation, time travel and the ability to be in two places at once.

But everything comes at a price. There are those who already worry about how this technology is affecting our brains. And once the digital versions of us become indistinguishable from our real selves,…

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