a love like this

I read this sci-fi book years back; it had to have been 10-12 years ago. I can not remember most of it but nonetheless pieces here and there come to me. The book was baby blue and navy blue with a photo of some sort sexy female cyborg or some such thing. It of course had been a futuristic book and how we all related with one another, with robots, seemingly sterile surroundings and virtual realities. In this story was a man his position had been somewhat important in the scope of things and I recall reading of his loneliness, the journeys his work took him on and the cyborg/woman he had come to love.

He was a traveler of sorts and the book circled upon his romance with this cyborg/woman who he had created though his virtual reality program. In short, there is some sort of glitch in the program (big surprise) and this women he creates for himself is now trapped between his real world and this virtual world. As he tries to fix the glitch he grows attached to his creation but the longer it takes him to fix the error the more real and alive his cyborg becomes. She begins to learn different emotions and how they are processed and these emotions relate to each other. He is oblivious of this transformation and as the time passes he is no longer the one controlling this creation of his, she has somehow become real and awakened to make her own choices and experience her own feelings.

I no longer remember the details of this book but he falls in love with her and spends his time trying to bring her to the same "earthly plane" as he so they can be with one another. It's a heart-wrenching book that deals with heavy technology and the deep feelings of this man and this creation he has just out of reach. She unable to bear the grief and pain she causes her creator and lover commits a type of cyborg suicide condemning herself to some "micro-membrane" of some main frame computer.

Whereas the ending had been rather sad, the beauty in the book was the classic creator falling in love with his creation and then experiencing the emotions of their evolving feelings and passion for each others different lives. Doomed never to be together, it's not a new concept but at the time of reading the whole computer, Internet lifestyle hadn't been introduced to us "common folk".

So why this as an entry?

Well isn't this what we do here in our Internet travels with those we meet along the way? Granted we are human (I hope) and we all have options, but it seems that many of us create bonds with our "internet friends" and where we are all real with flesh and blood emotions it doesn't always seem real. Does the lack of touch and visual stimulation cause something or someone to not really be there? (Hence, the "if a tree fell in a forest and there was no one there to see it would it make a sound theory.")

We can work, shop, do our banking, socialize, plan trips, read, (publicize our lives via journal) all over the Internet. Is this where we are headed? First massive factory sized department stores squash the mom and pop store; then we are offered painless shopping via Internet. EMAIL- we don't even need a stamp and a mailbox to mail a letter. Just that damn screen and a telephone line. What have we come to and where are we going with these "advancements in technology"? How will our children and their children learn basic social skills when they have "at home schooling"? What will become of us?

What has become of us?