Cyberspace

Cyberspace is a term used to describe a new kind of "space" that has been made possible by the Internet. The word has a short but complex history with obscure and shifting meanings and constitutes a context for ethical issues related to science and technology.

In everyday life the notion of space is self-evident and denotes that, along with time, "in which" people live. In mathematics it refers to a collection of elements, such as points, that satisfy certain mathematical postulates. In both cases space is more given than created. In the first case, space is given, while in the second case it is a created, abstract space that people can understand conceptually but cannot directly experience.

The term cyberspace gained notice after William Gibson's use of it in his science fiction novel Neuromancer (1984). Through one of the novel's characters Gibson speaks of cyberspace as "consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions" of people, thus referring to a "non-real" space that is common to all. More specifically, he speaks about a "graphical representation of data" that emerges by abstraction from "every computer." One comes to be in cyberspace by turning a switch "on" and thus producing an instantaneous transition to it. Once there, people can enjoy the "bodiless exultation of cyberspace." Although they are somewhat confusing, these are powerful characterizations.

The prefix cyber derives from cybernetics, a term coined by the mathematician Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) in 1948 to denote the study of control processes in machines and animals. That term was derived from the Greek kubernetes, meaning "governor" or "pilot." Cyberspace, then, is a kind of "controlled," humanly produced space.

In one of its senses cyberspace refers to the "spaces" associated with virtual reality, an advanced computer-based technology in which people wear headsets with stereoscopic displays, carry trackers that sense their motion, and use special input devices. With the help of those devices people navigate in "simulated" spaces, typically graphical representations of three-dimensional mathematical spaces. The integrated use of these devices creates an experience of immersion in a "virtual" reality, thus realizing an important aspect of Gibson's vision: that it is possible to enter into cyberspace, leaving the body behind.

In another sense, which became predominant in the mid-1990s, cyberspace refers to the integrated "space" made possible by the Internet, which is populated by large numbers of entities of various kinds and in which people perform multiple activities. Although this space does not support immersion, it brings to life another important ingredient of Gibson's cyberspace: the fact that it is common to all.

In City of Bits, William Mitchell approaches the Internet from the perspective of space and place and suggests that "the worldwide computer network—the electronic agora—subverts, displaces, and radically redefines our notions of gathering place, community, and urban life" (1995, p. 8). Mitchell proposes that the Internet is antispatial in the sense that it is "nowhere in particular but everywhere at once" and that it is noncorporeal because people's identity in it is "electronic" and disembodied. In addition, because of this disembodiment, the constructions others make of people in an effort to give those people an identity are fragmented. Also, the Internet favors asynchronic communication.

Increasingly, the word Internet is being invested with a broad meaning to encompass the notion of cyberspace in the second sense discussed above. For this reason ethical issues arising in cyberspace are covered under the entry "Internet." Other ethical issues are discussed in the entries "Cyberculture" and "Computer Ethics."

Cybernetics;; Internet;; Space;; Virtual Reality.

Gibson, William. (1984). Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books. This is a science fiction novel that became very popular among science fiction readers. It was also a source of inspiration for people working on certain advanced computer technologies.

Halbert, Terry, and Elaine Ingulli. (2002). CyberEthics. Cincinnati: West-Thomson Learning. A textbook on ethical issues that arise in the Internet and cyberspace. It combines analysis by the two authors with extensive reprints from works of several well-known authors in the area. Emphasizes a legal perspective and strives to present a balanced view of the issues by examining them from multiple viewpoints.

Mitchell, William J. (1995). City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Perceptive analysis of several dimensions of the Internet and cyberspace, made partly from the point of view of architecture, with its emphasis on space and place, and partly from the author's early experience with the Internet.

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