Cyberspace

Jomo Fray '10, English 65, The Cyborg Self, Brown University (Fall 2006)

Cyberspce:

" Cyberspace . A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts.... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding . . . ." (Neuromancer, pg 51) When the term was first coined by author William Gibson, Cyberspace was described as a 3-D information data-highway. Users, or as Gibson refers to them, "data cowboys" roamed the vast information expanses at will. Today cyberspace connotes a different meaning. It is still a virtual world of information, but with the rise of the internet, it has become known as the next step the World Wide Web has not been able to reach. Yet. Unlike the internet, cyberspace connotes a full three dimensional emersion involved. Although, the internet is not far from reaching this goal. The internet is such a gigantic database of information that it is only time before the net reaches full emersion status. Gibson describes the direction the internet is headed beautifully as a "consensual hallucination". The user is constantly being deceived into believing that they are in control of their browsing. The Brown Daily Jolt. Facebook. Wikipedia. Google; "I'm feeling lucky". A solid hour has gone by. "Surfing" the web is like no other experience. Time and space are blurred within this macrocosm of information. Pop-ups, advertisements, instant messages all creating separate boxes all over your screen. The true definition of full media emersion! Yet within this seemingly random assortment of distractions lays a calculated system of entrances and exits for the curious user to venture.