From here on, there will be a big acceleration of both the development of software and hardware, and of the technological tools for human / machine interaction. The first virtual software was created by MIT in 1977 and allowed users to walk the streets of Apen city in Colorado; it had a still poorly realistic graphical interface. The big leap in quality took place in 1989 by Jaron Lanier, computer scientist and American writer, who used the term Virtual Reality to define digitally reconstructed scenarios. He founded the Virtual Programming Languages Research (VPL) and created the first VR computer languages. Shortly before, in 1982, the science fiction writer William Gibson (born in 1948), had coined the term cyberspace, imagining worlds populated by human beings in which the cybernetic graft allowed the extension of one’s abilities and another world, the virtual one, where the protagonists of his novels were able to move. It is interesting to note how often, from Jules Verne (1828 – 1905) onwards, “visionary” writers have anticipated the realization of future technologies.

In the 1980s, an important government agency of the Department of Defense of the United States of America (DARPA) decides to finance the Cybertherapy studies. Cybertherapy is realized through VR programs ( 3D digital environments) initially to learn surgical techniques in military situations, then for neuro-motor rehabilitation programs and psychological therapies for psychiatric and addiction disorders. The most important Italian institute is the Auxological Hospital of Milan and the treatment programs are directed by prof. Giuseppe Riva of the Catholic University of Milan.