Panoptic

We continue to hear daily a chorus of what marvelous new freedoms and socialities await us on the nets: how we have the choice to be anyone we like, how we have the freedom to cross-dress, become plural, multiply ourselves, become old or young, talk dirty, act out any sociopathic experiment we like without hurting others or humiliating ourselves too badly. This may be true . . . for now. But as interfaces mature, the dream of mapping our bodily responses directly and seamlessly into cyberspace will become increasingly seductive and real. . . . massively detailed, personal body response profiles--indelible, unchangeable signatures--that, clearly, no cross-dressing will be able to cover. (VC 99f)