If communication studies is to stake its claim to virtual reality/cyberspace as a domain of expertise, then we must consider certain theoretical issues within the person-in-technosphere, which have not been part of the discourse within the field. For example, we must recognise participant effects. In the social sciences, we recognise observer effects. Since the person is an element of the sociosphere, his/her observing of it affects the observation. It is not so well recognised that, in the sciences of the artificial, there is an equivalent participant effect. Since the person is the source of the technosphere, his/her participation in it affects the participation. The debate within communication studies between those who view technology as liberating and those who view it as oppressive is like that between the blind men generalising about the elephant from the tusk and the trunk, They both have part of the truth. Insofar as one uses the technology, it becomes an extension and thus potentially liberating; insofar as one does not use it and others do, it becomes part of the environment and thus potentially oppressive. To phrase it more crudely, in cyberpunk terms: If you are not part of the steamroller, then you become part of the road.