Will the Real Body Please Stand Up? has sufficiently creeped me out. Many of the points that the author puts out are indeed both interesting and somewhat true according to my understanding of certain parts of society (mostly through certain stereotypes... but hey, who's counting?). I must say that the author seems obsessed with this idea of the seductiveness of cyber space specifically to adolescent males. Sure, there are many, many adolescent males on the web, but the web is by no means limited to that group in particular, and in fact, they don't even make up a majority (or so I think). There are plenty of both females and non-adolescent males that populate the web. And I do get that some people do have escapist fantasies. But, from my point of view, it seems that the people who have truly dedicated escapist fantasies make up a smallish minority. Yes, it is true that 2nd Life is a case in point, as well as many other forms of interactions, especially games. But people playing counterstrike do NOT wish they were in counterstrike... its really just a form of entertainment. As for the idea of transfer of consciousness from flesh to machine, I think they made a game about that a long time ago.... the people resisting won.
About your last line, it sounds like you are talking about the matrix, so maybe you meant movie instead of game. Either way, the matrix serves as an interesting point in the discussion of purely electronic lives. There are those in the movie who revolt because "the matrix isn't real" and they want to experience life as it is in the real world, but there are also those (like the traitor who backstabs Neo and the gang) who are happy living in their "fake" lives. The matrix is even more interesting because it renders moot the point about it not being realistic to leave our physical bodies, since in the matrix the bodies were being nourished (at least to a minimal extent) and the condition of the bodies did not hamper the virtual lives. If we can afford to live in a virtual world with no real consequences, should we?
Yes the last line is very matrix esque now that you mention it, but I was thinking about an old computer game called Total Annihilation. Interesting question on living in a virtual world and whether we should surrender our physical bodies if there are no real consequences. I think that question stretches into ethics and brings up a variety of new questions to address. If we do, indeed, find a way to live in a virtual world with no consequeces, will people still choose humanity? What's to say that people would not choose to be a dolphin in this new virtual world? Is that even combadable with our very existence. I personally agree with Stone that, at the very extreme, virtual reality is, and will remain, grounded in reality. But ideas of the Matrix bring up the question of knowing reality. What if there was someone in the Matrix who was some other creature instead of human, and their minds rejected the Matrix's programming, causing them to wake up? That, my friend, would be a wonderful case study, as well as a real mind trip. What if we're all just dolphins made to think we're humans? What if? What if?
I don't know if the question of living virtual lives instead of actual ones should bring us into the realm of ethics. I prefer to think of it as a matter of Being and how we authentically access and live our lives. Nietzsche's idea of eternal return is pertinent here because in a virtual world a life which one would want to endlessly repeat seems more possible to some extent as it can be more controlled. However, I don't think I like the idea of constant return to inauthentic mediated experience. The problem of Bolter and Grusin's hypermediacy must arise at some point in these virtual lives, and I think that experience would be awful interesting.