Having tried, however, to make strange things familiar, it might be instructive at this point to make some familiar things strange. Text simulates thought. It's an artifact, representing with its own particular richness and its own unique limitations the ineffably complex workings of the human mind going about its business of making sense of things. Text is a version of the thought that the text represents. It's a working model of what's on your mind.
Text is virtual thought.
Now consider this. A word processor creates virtual paper. The technology, in fact, fills a new medium with an old content. This simulated paper has, however, powers and abilities far beyond those of normal paper. It can disappear and reappear.