...the Palace, and avatars
This is the kind of thing that's in the book "Snow Crash": there's a cyber-world with ...with...oh, dear, I'll have to say with what apparently looks like a 3D world, wherein members' avatars (new lingo to me!) walk, drive, and skateboard, interacting nearly like in real life. And now in this link, I find there really is such a place. Weird--I'd be scared to death to try something like that.

For the record, I am slogging through the book; I'm about halfway. Riveting, it's not. Mr. Stephenson mentions some interesting development of language; he says the Sumerians changed everything. I think he's saying that we create our own reality by the language we use. Though I'm fuzzy on just what he IS saying. Can anyone who's read this clarify?