Back when I was an undergrad, my Dad, a geography professor, told me to always capitalize the world "Internet". When I asked him why, he told me, in no uncertain terms, that the Internet is a place.
Over the past couple decades, cyborgs have been slowly but surely colonizing the internet. At first, they constructed text based websites and forums. Myspace, Facebook, and blog sites gave people the capability to create their own "websites" without having to pay for server space or learn programming. Now, there are incredible ways to "own" property on the Internet: in the chat based game "Second Life" people are able to create their own online "world" for a fee. In the Facebook game YoVille the player is given their own Apartment to decorate.
A few years ago I read a series of books called the "Otherlands" series by Tad Williams: in it the main characters (as cyborg/avatars) travel through a virtual environment as vivid and "real" as the "flesh and blood" world. I'm afraid I can't remember the plot very well, but I do remember that I read this book just before MMORPGs became widespread and popular. It seemed like a fantastical idea at the time, one that was just beyond my grasp. Now, traveling through the the worlds of World of Warcraft, or my personal favorite, Minecraft, this sort of world is a living breathing reality... the only difference between the Otherland books and the cyber world is that the "flesh and blood" people using these VRs are not actually in the worlds... they do not consist of tangible geography... yet. We can't feel the pixilated rocks or breathe the digital air.
I guess that's something we're still waiting for. Meanwhile, check out this cool video of Minecraft: I was going to show shots from the world I'm creating, but my screen cam is a bit buggy (plus my world is nowhere near this cool yet)!
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