The Web is filled with immersive virtual geographies (see "Second Earth"). Eventually, they could merge into what's been called the "Metaverse," a 3‑D virtual world in which real econo­mies, social networks, and educational resources flourish.

Homes wired for data services were easy to predict 22 years ago; the interactivity of network users was not. In October 1985, Technology Review published "The Inevitable March of Videotex," in which Ralph ­Lowenstein, then dean of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, and Helen Aller, then director of the college's Electronic Text Center, described a recent technology: for an initial payment and monthly fees, subscribers received a "decoder" that translated data into a format readable on their TVs and a terminal that let them retrieve information from a central computer. The success of such "videotex" systems in Europe, where services were state sponsored, had impressed U.S. media con­glomerates. In the early 1980s, the service seemed poised to find a place in U.S. homes.