A short
science fiction story by
Vernor Vinge which helped establish many people's concepts of
virtual reality.
Cypherpunks adopted Vinge's ideas in worrying about
anonymity and
pseudonymity (and
nyms). "True Names" also expanded on the prevalent metaphor of
computer programming as
magic or wizardry and
computer programs as
magic spells. One of the first appearances of the idea behind "
On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog".