What is reality? What is virtual reality?

I have been thinking about the alternate realities that people enjoy in WoW and 2nd Life, etc. The hardcore users of which are becoming less fringe. People that I respect: very intelligent, reliable, productive, admirable; are members. They still express a bit of embarrassment talking about their pleasure in these pursuits, but why? It is no stranger than the D & D nerdsessions we had as youths(some of us anyway).

I found this quote of PKDs in an old article. I twittered the name of the article for googling(what crazy words I use these days!)

The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Parmenides taught that the only things that are real are things which never change… and the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus taught that everything changes. If you superimpose their two views, you get this result: Nothing is real. There is a fascinating next step to this line of thinking: Parmenides could never have existed because he grew old and died and disappeared, so, according to his own philosophy, he did not exist. And Heraclitus may have been right—let’s not forget that; so if Heraclitus was right, then Parmenides did exist, and therefore, according to Heraclitus’ philosophy, perhaps Parmenides was right, since Parmenides fulfilled the conditions, the criteria, by which Heraclitus judged things real.

Later in the article he discusses the creation of virtual worlds breeding fake fakers. Worth a read.