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...