Let us compare the Renaissance canvas with the computer screen. The limitations and goals are alike. Both painters and interface designers are constrained to a flat and square canvas. Their goal is to represent or reflect our world of rich sensations within these limitations. Renaissance painters invented tricks like perspective, sfumato, etc. to get the job done.
Active cursor is something similar for cursor controlled media.
There is more in the box than there is in the box. Tactile sensations like stickiness, touch, or mass can be faked. The tactile effects can be simulated by applying tiny displacements upon the cursor movements.