Solipsis : VR = Virtualy Real ?

The Metaverse came to me in the form of a computer game package:
"Specter VR". Besides the diskettes the box included a special edition of Neil Stephenson's "Snow Crash".

The game was addictive. The book just blew my mind :-)

Thus began an intermittent quest for the real thing. As technology evolved so did my hopes.

Recently, I stumbled on a project called Solipsis. A server-less, peer2peer skeleton of the Metaverse... If your imagination functions correctly it is an endless realm of possibilities. If your are just seeking for some form of eye candy, however, its a desolate lonely expanse of "nothingness" . But the potential is there to connect people and custom build tools around what they do. The rest is up to you, and that is "Snow Crash", only for real.

While investigating the possibilities of this new find, it occurred to me that I had been mistake all these years! The Metaverse is not about virtual reality, it is about virtual worlds! Real, concrete (albeit intangible) worlds.
What makes it real is not the 3d graphics or immersion per say, but rather one's presence in that world. VR is about "Tele-presence". And the best indication of this presence is one's ability to exert his or her will in that environment and collect some tangible benefit in our world.

But solipsis has a serious flaw. It tries to be a full package and do everything. it would make an awesome lib or twister plugin. Instead its an desolated 2D emptiness.