This is precisely the limit I see eroding. Also I see the power of the virtual connection increasing in people's lives. Online communities are very much online communities for instance, in the most classic sense of the word. Regardless of who has actually met whom in real life.

Deluded? Perhaps. Like eating the red and the blue pill all at the same time. The Pygmalion effect has huge power over us all, and someone who plays to that phenomenon without being disingenuous themselves is the ideal ‘virtual girlfriend’. That particular delusion transcends and precedes technology. Everyone loves a mirror. A person good at this in the virtual sense of the word, would also be good in the real sense of the word. Reflections of ourselves are very convincing- no matter the form those reflections take. It’s as if Pygmalion and Narcissus had a baby when you start analyzing virtual relationships.

I also think that our relationship to our physical devices plays a large role in our ability to accept this sort of connection in our brains as being real, and valid- emotionally speaking. Intimate transference, and third party credibility via device. That’s a deeper post for another time though.