Hi Mike! Nice article! If I may, a couple of remarks:

• First, you assume that our reality is more “real” than a virtual reality.. But if you take the infinite fractal simulation theory point of view (basically, Nick Bostrom’s argument), but applied to the entire Universe (that it’s just nested simulations into one another into infinity with no “beginning”), then this may just be the gradual building of the “bridge” to the next layer of these infinite nested simulations. If at any point in time we manage to feed direct sensory input to our brain, we could theoretically live thousands of years and enjoy adventures in a virtual world in the equivalent of a few months in “our” side of the simulation (many neuroscientists say that dreams that “feel” like hours long took less than a few seconds from the point of view of time outside the dream state).
• Second, even if you don’t buy into the view above, I would say that the current technological developments are just training wheels for our own evolution in consciousness. Managing several “virtual images” of ourselves is just a tiny preliminary training preparing us for becoming multidimensional beings which will have to be able to manage multiple timelines, and very complex interactions beyond the time/space continuum.

Anyways, good stuff and indeed, I do agree that we are heading into a new “revolutionary” period, but in the end, it must have felt the same as people seeing their oil lamps replaced with light bulbs.. If you look at some of the things that were written about that transition at that time, it also sounded like we were headed into another paradigm which would change the face of the Earth. And it did. But today, nobody thinks twice about it, even if many people at the time had nightmares about being electrocuted, or considered electricity some kind of evil dark magic… :-)