In class, we discussed how people talk about the internet in spacial terms ("visiting" a site, "surfing" the web, etc.). This brought up the concept of virtual reality, the highest degree of which would consist of hooking up all of your sensory outputs to a computer device and intensely living in some artificial realm.
Anime, a genre of japanese cartoons, has explored this concept multiple times. Currently the most popular anime concerning virtual reality is "Sword Art Online." Players hook up to a new virtual reality game, but find they cannot log out. The show explores concepts such as what would happen to your physical body in the real world if you took damage in the artificial world of Sword Art Online. The older anime ".hack," likewise dealing with virtual reality concepts, may also be worth checking out.
Science fiction novels were a popular pastime of the "computer geeks" back in the day, and so the "SciFi" subculture has had a major influence on the development of the internet. A lot of the "computer geeks" of present day are similarly enthralled with the "anime" subculture-- I believe that anime will likewise have a major influence on the development of further immersive technologies, especially gaming.
here's a funny spoof of that first Sword Art Online episode, in English, if you'd like an 8 minute, profane, abridged version (far funnier if you watch the original episode beforehand): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6kJKxvbgZ0
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