The divide of the real world and the virtual world was clear when the digital divide was loud and clear, and worrisome as the penetration of digital devices was skewd and restricted. Now, the boundary is getting ephemeral1, and some of us want to hide in the virtual world to escape the physical pounding of the real world.
We might one day, longing for the releases of new mobile apps, over the just announced new flavor of McBurger, meat or plant-based. Will we be, in some instances, a purely digital existence is sufficient? It was called 'Digital First'2. In a sense, once we have a digital version of that popular novel of 2022 February, New York: The Novel, by Edward Rutherfurd, do we need a hard-cover version? We know that the digital version comes into existence first, before that hard copy is printed. This ontological reversal might not sit well with those of us that still enjoys the physical being.