A virtual communication system including logic for supporting layered conversations, the system comprising: at least two computers communicating to one another over a communications medium, where each computer represents a User, each computer including a display, audio input, audio output, video input (such as a camera), memory, data storage, and a processor, a knowledge base stored in memory, the knowledgebase containing an identifier identifying each conversation associated with a given user, the knowledgebase storing information identifying each participant in each of the conversations, the knowledgebase storing information identifying the type of each conversation associated with the given one of the at least two computers, where each User may participate in multiple simultaneous conversations; and layered conversation logic executed by the processor, the layered conversation logic controlling a volume and a visual layout of each participant in each conversation in which the User participates in accordance with the conversation type.