Almost Real focuses on a few individuals for whom the Internet has become a lifeline, a way to connect with like-minded souls in surprising ways. The early promise of the Internet could never have predicted people like these: a cyber punk based on an anti-aircraft rig in the English Channel who operates the world's first rogue Web server, a monk developing "wireless prayer technology," and a "gamer" who re-creates himself in an online game. Even traditional concepts of school, marriage and retirement are mutating: a disillusioned eight-year-old opts in favour of home-schooling, a retired couple moves into an Internet-controlled seniors' complex, and a recent divorcě exchanges vows online with a man she has never met. With insightful commentary by sci-fi writer William Gibson, virtual reality creator Jaron Lanier and 'post-national' writer Pico Iyer, Almost Real is a snapshot of the end of the first phase of the Internet--a far less utopian age than some had hoped.