Technology: (Mis)Adventures In Cyberspace

I'm floating in the azure sky high above Seattle. Down below, amid orange skyscrapers and forest-green mountains, the city's Space Needle -- a relic of the 1962 World's Fair -- juts up like a metallic blue mushroom. A ferry is steaming across Puget Sound, while a playful killer whale spouts and dives below the vessel's bow.

I am the master of this brightly colored universe -- or at least I'm supposed to be. By pointing my index finger and cocking my thumb, I can swoop down among the skyscrapers. I can wheel by the Space Needle, close enough to hear the...