Resumen
Virtuality is the property of a computer system with the potential for enabling a virtual system (operating inside the computer) to become a real system by encouraging the real world to behave according to the template dictated by the virtual system. Computers have become so pervasive as integral parts of our social organization that the property of "virtuality" has to be of explicit concern to the designers of these systems. Virtuality carries the potential for the conscious design and implementation of social systems that include organizational and economic systems at any level of social aggregation. Once such systems are actually used in the world of physical reality, they become part of that world and in effect modify existing social systems. The speed at which these societal transformations are now possible has left behind the current approaches to dealing with social change. Today, we find that the Internet is a social presence on a worldwide scale, quickly eating away at many social differences that tended to isolate or insulate social groupings.