A lot of what the author talks about refers to common preconceptions people have on deviance, alternative cultures and lifestyles. Understanding must be fashioned so people are able to see the benefits, as well as the drawbacks, of our rapidly evolving society. Until people begin to see the variety of interactions in society in a way that can harnessed to benefit the community then ignorance and intolerance will grow.

Virtual reality is exactly that.

Your equation with art fits with the theories of Constantin Stanislavsky:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/stanislavsky_c.html

This helped shape the industry of dreams now based in Hollywood.

I can't help but think of Philip K. Dick's novel, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
http://www.philipkdick.com/works_novels_androids.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lW0F1sccqk
(The novel behind Bladerunner) when we consider the virtual world which is ephemeral and largely an extension of our imagination.

Marshall Macluen in the 60s and 70s often wrote in his "the Medium is the message", that we underestimate the changes commications make in our lives.

http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm

Today, rather than make androids or computers look like and perforn duties like people do, we have inserted our dreams into cyberspace and hide within this articifial environment. This is probably in reaction to the dull routines stuck in this technological evolutionary time. Aren't androids supposed to be making life more interesting by now?

In Star Trek they had the holodeck to help remedy the boredem in space. Data plays cards with Hawking, Einsten and Isaac Newton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E9aDsk7wHo

Why didn't science fiction account for this direction in technological evolution made by humans? There were a few quirky films like British "Max Headroom" 25 years before the dreaded Tench Show. We tittered more than reflect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z52uxxyEy0E&mode=related&search=
and Dysney's "Tron" in the 1980s: the colours and composition beautifully created and since copied.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPYxgf5Kc60
but I think this had a limited impact in the implications of what film makers were trying to tell us. We only started seriously looking at this with Hollywood's reflection around the time, when the movies "Dark City" was released (made in Sydney), then "the Matrix" (made in Sydney).

But in these days, the use of the avator and the artificial city gives not just a false sense of security, but a totally fabricated world. Of course the world itself we pay for in this world.

What makes our lives so boring in the real world that we have to make one up? Should the real world should be more wonderful than it is? Or is the way we see it that create real change?

Monopoly was invented during distressing times, so it is with a virtual world. While discussing this the inventor becomes richer.
If four corners had not done it for me it's more than possible I would never have known of it.
Playing with reality used once to be for children, in my day it was best done by those who felt deprived, little money for the real, a pushbike in my case. A chocolate was a prized gift from soldiers on leave, "got a coke yank" got piece of gum yank.
A house was to live in, not an investment. I'm sure as hell I was not alone. I felt cared for and loved, not just by parents, by community. I was taught and believed a policeman was my friend.
I blew my top recently when my daughter advocated the need for more cops, obviously insecure even at forty. The more delinquent a society the more cops needed.
The more unequal a society becomes the more people will want to play with reality, rich and poor.
The more I become closer to nature the richer I feel, the happier I am with reality, the more rueful I feel for people needing to play such games.
fluff