“We, in the present, don’t think of ourselves as living in ‘cyberspace,’ even though people of a decade previous would have termed it such. Of the various forms of the metaverse, however, the majority of activity will take place in blended- or augmented-reality spaces, not in distinct virtual/alternative world spaces.” —Jamais Cascio, a coauthor of the Metaverse Roadmap Overview, a report on the potential futures of VR, AR, and the geoWeb

“Augmented reality will become nearly the de facto interface standard by 2020, with 2-D and 3-D overlays over real-world objects providing rich information, context, entertainment, and (yes) promotions and offers. At the same time, a metaverse (especially when presented in an augmented-reality overlay environment) provides compelling ways to facilitate team-work and collaboration while reducing overall travel budgets.” —Jason Stoddard, managing partner at Centric/Agency of Change

“The virtual world removes all barriers of human limitation; you can be anyone you want to be instead of being bound by physical and material limitations. That allows people to be who they naturally are, freed of any perception they may have of themselves based on their ‘real life’—it is the power of removing the barriers of your own perception of yourself.” —Tze-Meng Tan, Multimedia Development Corporation in Malaysia, a director at OpenSOS

“We are in the last generation of human fighter pilots. Already, drones in Iraq are piloted in San Diego. What will improve is the ability of the artificial spaces to control physical reality, to expand our reach more effectively in many aspects of the physical universe.” —Dick Davies, partner at Project Management and Control, Inc. and former president of the Association of Information Technology Professionals

“In a reaction to the virtual world, entrepreneurs will establish ‘virt-free’ zones where reality is not augmented. In various heavily connected areas, there will be sanctuaries (hotels, restaurants, bars, summer camps, vehicles) which people may visit to separate themselves from adhesion or other realities.” —C. R. Roberts, Vancouver-based technology reporter

“For some reason, I’ve never been able to comprehend [how] certain pundits can seriously propose that the wave of the