# Virtual Reality *By Howard Rheingold. Summit Books, New York, 1991. Touchstone (Simon & Schuster) paperback, 1992.* > I did not read the book. It is not posted free online as far as I could find, and the Internet Archive scans are lending-only, so I did not open them. This dossier is built from the author's own 1992 newspaper article on the same subject (which I read in full), a long descriptive review on Mediamatic (read in full), the Kirkus review, publisher-style blurbs, catalog records (the 17 chapter titles) and the author's own site. Section 5 is a skeleton from those, and I mark where each point comes from. Nothing here is a quote from the book itself. Related dossiers in this vault: [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/Tools for Thought - Howard Rheingold|Tools for Thought]] (Rheingold's earlier history of the people who built interactive computing; the Mediamatic review links the two, see section 5), [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/The Virtual Community - Howard Rheingold|The Virtual Community]] (his 1993 book on online communities, which followed this one), [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/Mind Amplifier - Howard Rheingold|Mind Amplifier]], [[Book Summaries/Lanier, Jaron/Dawn of the New Everything - Jaron Lanier|Dawn of the New Everything]] (Jaron Lanier's memoir of the VR era; Lanier is one of the pioneers Mediamatic says Rheingold profiles) and [[Book Summaries/Waldrop, M. Mitchell/The Dream Machine - M. Mitchell Waldrop|The Dream Machine]] (Waldrop's history of J. C. R. Licklider and interactive computing; Licklider is a keyword in the Google Books index of the book). ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *Virtual Reality*. Subtitle on the paperback and in Goodreads, Mediamatic and Open Library: *The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - and How It Promises to Transform Society* | | Author | Howard Rheingold (sole author) | | First edition | Summit Books, New York, 1991; ISBN 0671693638 / 9780671693633 (Google Books, Internet Archive, Open Library). Kirkus gives a release date of July 1, 1991 (review issue May 15, 1991); Mediamatic also dates it July 1, 1991 | | Other editions | Simon & Schuster (Touchstone) paperback, 1992, ISBN 0671778978 / 9780671778972 (Open Library); Secker & Warburg (UK) 1991, ISBN 0436412128; Mandarin (UK) 1992, ISBN 0749308893 (Open Library) | | Length | Unsettled: 415 pages in Google Books, Internet Archive and Open Library; Kirkus says 384; Mediamatic says 416. The Internet Archive record says it has a bibliography on pages 392 to 399 and an index | | Language | English | | Subject | Computer-generated artificial worlds: the history, the early-1990s laboratories and companies in the US, Japan, Britain and France, and the social and ethical questions | | Audiobook | I found none. Audible search results are not readable from my box, so this is unconfirmed | | Where it came up | Marshall asked for all of Rheingold's books on 2026-11-03 | | Cover | [Open Library cover image](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/7532455-L.jpg) | ## 2. Book resources **Free (legal).** - **Author-posted text:** none found. I searched and did not find the book or any chapter on rheingold.com or the WELL, unlike *The Virtual Community* and *Mind Amplifier*. The author's own page [rheingold.com/howard](https://www.rheingold.com/howard/) describes the book but does not link a text. That is not proof none exists. - **Internet Archive (controlled lending).** Scans: [Summit Books 1991, copy 1](https://archive.org/details/virtualreality0000rhei), [Summit Books 1991, copy 2](https://archive.org/details/virtualreality00rhei_0), [Simon & Schuster 1992, copy 1](https://archive.org/details/virtualrealit00rhei) and [Simon & Schuster 1992, copy 2](https://archive.org/details/virtualreality00rhei). Their metadata marks all four access-restricted and "printdisabled". The two 1991 scans also show the "inlibrary" collection, which usually means borrowing with a free Internet Archive account. The 1992 pair's metadata does not list "inlibrary" (one lists "americana"). I did not log in, so I have not confirmed any copy can be borrowed today. - **Open Library.** [Work page](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3493702W): five editions, flagged "borrowable", with the Internet Archive scans above. - **Libby/OverDrive and Hoopla.** [OverDrive search](https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=rheingold%20virtual%20reality) and [Hoopla search](https://www.hoopladigital.com/search?q=rheingold%20virtual%20reality) load, but their results are not readable from my box. I cannot say what any library holds. Search your own library in Libby. - **Project Gutenberg.** Not applicable (a 1991 copyrighted book). **Paid.** - **Amazon.** [Touchstone paperback, ISBN 0671778978](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671778978) and [Summit hardcover, ISBN 0671693638](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671693638) both load, but I could not parse a price, a stock status or a Kindle edition from either. I did not confirm Kindle availability, and I did not see a Kindle edition anywhere. Used copies are the likely route, but I have not checked stock. - **Audible:** none found. ## 3. Author biography Howard Rheingold (born July 7, 1947, Phoenix, Arizona; Reed College; per [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Rheingold)) is an American writer, critic and teacher on the cultural and social effects of communication media. His own page says he "fell into the computer realm from the typewriter dimension in 1981" and "plugged my computer into my telephone in 1983", and lists earlier mind-and-language books (*Talking Tech*, *Higher Creativity*, *The Cognitive Connection*, *Excursions to the Far Side of the Mind*, *Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming*, *They Have a Word for It*) before *Tools for Thought* (1984). He describes *Virtual Reality* as having "chronicled my odyssey in the world of artificial experience, from simulated battlefields in Hawaii to robotics laboratories in Tokyo, garage inventors in Great Britain, and simulation engineers in the south of France". In January 1992 the *Christian Science Monitor* printed him as "editor of Whole Earth Review and author of 'Virtual Reality'" (the 1993 Fresh Air segment description also calls him editor of *Whole Earth Review*). He followed this book with *The Virtual Community* (1993), then *Smart Mobs* (2002), *Net Smart* (2012) and *Mind Amplifier* (2012), all in this vault. Wired's 2002 review calls him the author of *Virtual Reality* "and other works in the early 1990s that prophesied the rise of electronic communities". His sites: [rheingold.com/howard](https://www.rheingold.com/howard/) and [smartmobs.com](https://www.smartmobs.com). ## 4. Author interviews and talks - **Howard Rheingold, "Virtual Reality's Promise - and Threat," *Christian Science Monitor*, January 2, 1992.** [Article](https://www.csmonitor.com/1992/0102/02151.html). Not an interview but the author's own short piece, written right after the book, and the closest thing I found to his own summary. I read all of the text. See section 5 for what it says. - **NPR *Fresh Air* with Terry Gross, October 21, 1993, "The New Networked Frontier."** [Segment page](https://freshairarchive.org/segments/new-networked-frontier). The segment is about *The Virtual Community*, and the description names him as the author of "Virtual Reality" and three other books. I read the description only, not the audio. I found no archived interview specifically about this book. - **First Monday / Mindjack interview, 1999 (conducted by Dan Richards).** [Interview](https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/704/614/3642). Not specifically about this book; its introduction lists *Virtual Reality* among his books. I saw only an excerpt of the opening. ## 5. Summary **What the book is.** Google Books' blurb calls it "the first book for the general reader on the revolutionary technology of computer-generated artificial worlds" and says Rheingold weaves "the philosophical, psychological, social, and economic implications" into a narrative reaching "back to cave paintings and forward to the 21st century". Kirkus (1991) calls it "an exciting and comprehensive update on the latest in interactive computer technology", "easily comprehensible and contagiously enthusiastic", and "an excellent overview". Mediamatic calls it a "very serious and entertaining standard work about the pre-history, birth and childhood" of VR, and says that although Rheingold "touches on" alienating effects, the book "remains mainly a report of the carefree childhood years of VR, 89-91". That last point is the reviewer's, not mine. **The author's own short version (CSM article, Jan 1992).** The piece says VR "has the potential to become a tool to enhance the quality of life, a window onto invisible worlds, and a liberating force for good minds trapped in bodies diagnosed as dysfunctional", but also "a dangerous brainwashing device or a form of imprisonment through illusion", and that its potential "will take 10 or 20 years to manifest itself", so now is "an ideal time" for public discussion. He explains the head-mounted display and sensor glove, then argues that VR "has the potential to become a microscope for the mind". He describes using a force-feedback arm at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "to manipulate molecules as if they were Tinkertoys". He cites Nippon Telephone and Telegraph's three-dimensional videotelephone prototypes, a Japanese consortium near Kyoto devoting "$50 million" to VR as a communication medium, and Fujitsu's entertainment, education and training plans, and he names Disney, Philips and LucasFilms as others "quietly looking". He closes on power and control: will there be "a market for realities" or will people have to buy "regulation" reality from Fujitsu or Disney, and whether VR will be an open or a proprietary system. **Chapter outline.** Titles come from the Smithsonian Libraries catalog record for the 1992 Touchstone edition and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki library record (both list the same 17 titles; I saw both in search results, and the Smithsonian page returned an access error to my fetch while the Thessaloniki page did not load from my box). I give no page numbers: I did not open a full published table of contents. Google Books shows page numbers for only the first three sections of its scan, and I did not use them. I have not read any chapter, so the notes below are pointers from the sources named, not summaries of the chapters. 1. **Grasping Reality Through Illusion.** Title only. 2. **Experience Theater and the Art of Binocular Illusion.** Title only. 3. **Machines to Think With.** Title only. Mediamatic says the book starts with a long search for VR's predecessors, including Morton Heilig's Sensorama, Douglas Engelbart's work and Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad and head-mounted display, and the cross-link to *Tools for Thought* fits this theme; I have not matched those items to chapters. 4. **Threshold of Virtual Exploration.** Title only. 5. **Entering Cyberspace.** Title only. 6. **Blastoff at NASA.** Title only. Mediamatic mentions Scott Fisher's work at the NASA lab in Mountain View. 7. **Birth of the VR Business.** Title only. Mediamatic describes Jaron Lanier's VPL Research and John Walker's Autodesk, and a June 7, 1989 date when the two companies presented their VR systems. 8. **Cyberspace and Serious Business.** Title only. 9. **Reality on Your Retina.** Title only. 10. **Cool Gadgets and Industrial Policies.** Title only. 11. **"Visual, Intelligent, and Personal."** Title only. Mediamatic says "VI&P" is NTT's key phrase for its twenty-first-century vision. 12. **Out of the Body.** Title only. Mediamatic says the book covers tele-operation as an "out of the body experience". 13. **Origins of Drama and the Future of Fun.** Title only. 14. **Feel of Things.** Title only. 15. **Homebrew VR.** Title only. 16. **Teledildonics and Beyond.** Title only. Kirkus and Mediamatic both mention "teledildonics". 17. **Cyberspace and Human Nature.** Title only. **Themes the sources agree on.** Mediamatic says the book runs through two ideas: immersion (illusion of being inside a computer-generated scene) and navigation (moving through a computer model), quoting Rheingold as such; says that about two hundred pages cover visits to US labs and companies; and says the book also reports research in Japan (ATR near Kyoto, NTT), Britain and France. It also says the book argues that high technology depends on long-term research money, a point the reviewer reads as a plea for a coordinated program in the US. Kirkus lists applications: medical imaging, microbiological research, education, telecommunications, entertainment, remote operation of machines, and notes the technology's roots in military simulators and its funding by the Defense Department, then by entertainment (particularly in Japan). Mediamatic's review also quotes the book on the dangers of tele-operated machines: "Just what we don't need right now are powerful machines doing things to the world before we have discovered just what it is we ought to be doing to the world." I take that quote from Mediamatic's text, not from the book. **How it connects.** *Tools for Thought* is the earlier history of the people who built interactive computing (see that dossier for who it covers); *Virtual Reality* follows that line to the 1989-91 laboratories, and Mediamatic says Rheingold treats Engelbart and Sutherland as VR's forerunners. Lanier, whom Mediamatic names among the people the book profiles, tells his own version in *Dawn of the New Everything*. Waldrop's *The Dream Machine* covers Licklider and the same computing lineage. *The Virtual Community* (1993) shifts from artificial worlds to online communities; the Wired line quoted above links both as his early-1990s work. **Reception (as reported by others).** - **Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 1991.** [Review](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/howard-rheingold/virtual-reality/). Quoted above. - **Stephen R. Ellis, *Ergonomics* 36(6), June 1993, pp. 743-744.** A review of the book, per the DOI listing (Ellis is at NASA Ames Research Center). I could not open it (the DOI link returned an error), so I know nothing of what it says. - **Mediamatic.** [Review](https://www.mediamatic.net/en/page/10322/virtual-reality). Read in full; the reviewer is not named on the page I saw. - **Goodreads:** 3.78 average from 139 ratings, 12 editions (search page, Nov 3, 2026). ## 6. Fact-check Overall verdict: **mixed**. The publication facts and chapter titles are checked against catalog records. The content notes are secondhand and I read none of the book. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Summit Books 1991, ISBN 0671693638 | Supported | Google Books, Internet Archive and Open Library records; Kirkus prints 0-671-69363-8 | | Touchstone (Simon & Schuster) paperback 1992, ISBN 0671778978 | Supported | Open Library; the Smithsonian record says "A Touchstone book", 1992, c1991 | | Page count | Unsettled | 415 (Google Books, IA, Open Library, Smithsonian), 384 (Kirkus), 416 (Mediamatic, Open Library paperback) | | The 17 chapter titles | Supported | Smithsonian Libraries and Aristotle University catalog records (both seen in search results) list identical titles; the Google Books contents shows the first three | | Chapter-level content | Not checked | I did not read the book; the notes are labeled to their sources | | Subtitle "The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - and How It Promises to Transform Society" | Supported (secondary) | Open Library paperback record, Goodreads search page and Mediamatic; Google Books shows no subtitle | | The book was "the first book for the general reader" on VR | Publisher-style claim | Google Books blurb; I have not checked it | | Free author-posted text | Not found | No posting found on rheingold.com; not proof none exists | | Internet Archive lending is open today | Not confirmed | I did not log in | | The quote on tele-operated machines | Secondhand | Taken from Mediamatic's text, not the book | | Ellis's review exists | Supported (listing) | DOI listing in a search result; the page did not open | | Kindle and Audible availability | Not confirmed | Amazon and Audible pages did not yield usable results | ## 7. Citations and references - Catalogs and listings: [Google Books](https://books.google.com/books/about/Virtual_Reality.html?id=hHZQAAAAMAAJ); [Smithsonian Libraries record](https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_455121) (opened via search; direct fetch from my box returned an access error); [Aristotle University library record](https://search.lib.auth.gr/Record/401315/TOC) (seen in search results; did not load from my box); [Open Library work](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3493702W); Internet Archive: [1](https://archive.org/details/virtualreality0000rhei), [2](https://archive.org/details/virtualreality00rhei_0), [3](https://archive.org/details/virtualrealit00rhei), [4](https://archive.org/details/virtualreality00rhei); [Amazon, Touchstone](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671778978); [Amazon, Summit](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671693638); [OverDrive search](https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=rheingold%20virtual%20reality); [Hoopla search](https://www.hoopladigital.com/search?q=rheingold%20virtual%20reality); [Goodreads search](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=rheingold+virtual+reality). - Reviews: [Kirkus, 1991](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/howard-rheingold/virtual-reality/); [Mediamatic](https://www.mediamatic.net/en/page/10322/virtual-reality); Ellis, *Ergonomics* 36(6), 1993, at [doi.org/10.1080/00140139308967935](https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139308967935) (not opened). - By the author: [Rheingold, "Virtual Reality's Promise - and Threat," *Christian Science Monitor*, Jan 2, 1992](https://www.csmonitor.com/1992/0102/02151.html); [rheingold.com/howard](https://www.rheingold.com/howard/). - Interviews: [Fresh Air, Oct 21, 1993](https://freshairarchive.org/segments/new-networked-frontier); [First Monday / Mindjack interview, 1999](https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/704/614/3642). - Background: [Wikipedia, Howard Rheingold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Rheingold); [Wired, 2002 review of *Smart Mobs*](https://www.wired.com/2002/10/mobile-junkies-reshaping-society/). - Related dossiers: [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/Tools for Thought - Howard Rheingold|Tools for Thought]]; [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/The Virtual Community - Howard Rheingold|The Virtual Community]]; [[Book Summaries/Rheingold, Howard/Mind Amplifier - Howard Rheingold|Mind Amplifier]]; [[Book Summaries/Lanier, Jaron/Dawn of the New Everything - Jaron Lanier|Dawn of the New Everything]]; [[Book Summaries/Waldrop, M. Mitchell/The Dream Machine - M. Mitchell Waldrop|The Dream Machine]].