Cyberspace

(Source- https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Cyberspace)
Cyberspace is a global domain within the information environment consisting of the
interdependent network of information technology infrastructures (ITI) including
the Internet, telecommunication networks, computer systems, and embedded
processors and controllers. The term originates in science fiction, where it also
includes various kinds of virtual reality (which is the experience of "being" in the
alternate reality, or the simulated "being" in such a reality").

Cyberspace raises unique issues, especially regarding intellectual property and

copyright infringement, and may call for new models of commerce. Furthermore,
cyberspace has also become a unique area for developing human relationships and
communities. While some argue that this universal ground for communication helps
bring the world together, others point out that people will continue to associate
narrowly with those of similar interests and economic and social status. Nevertheless,
largely through the Internet, cyberspace has become a common ground for the rapid
communication of ideas and values.

Contents
 1 Origins of the term
o 1.1 Metaphorical
 2 Cyberspace as an internet metaphor
 3 Alternate realities in philosophy and art
o 3.1 Predating computers
o 3.2 Influenced by computers
 3.2.1 Philosophy
 4 Cyberspace and virtual reality
 5 Notes
 6 References
 7 External links
 8 Credits

While cyberspace itself is a neutral space that allows for the rapid communication of
ideas, the use of this space will determine its value and benefit for humankind. While
the free use of this space is indeed valuable, especially as this cyberspace binds all
humankind together in inseparable, interdependent relationships, the free use of this
space also calls for its responsible use in order to ensure its value for humanity's
overall pursuit of freedom and happiness. Thus, cyberspace mandates the
responsible use of technology and reveals the need for a value-based perspective of
the use of such technology.

Origins of the term

The word "cyberspace" (from cybernetics and space) was coined by science
fiction author William Gibson in his 1982 story, "Burning Chrome," and popularized
by his 1984 novel Neuromancer. The portion of Neuromancer cited in this respect is
usually the following:

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 (69).

Gibson later commented on the origin of the term in the 2000 documentary No
Maps for These Territories:

Did you know?

The term "cyberspace" was coined by science fiction writer William Gibson

All I knew about the word "cyberspace" when I coined it, was that it seemed like an
effective buzzword. It seemed evocative and essentially meaningless. It was
suggestive of something, but had no real semantic meaning, even for me, as I saw it
emerge on the page.

Metaphorical

The term Cyberspace started to become a de facto synonym for the Internet, and later
the World Wide Web, during the 1990s. Author Bruce Sterling, who popularized this
meaning,[1] credits John Perry Barlow as the first to use it to refer to "the present-day
nexus of computer and telecommunications networks."

Cyberspace as an internet metaphor

While cyberspace should not be confused with the real internet, the term is often
used to refer to objects and identities that exist largely within the communication
network itself, so that a web site, for example, might be metaphorically said to "exist
in cyberspace." According to this interpretation, events taking place on the Internet
are not, therefore, happening in the countries where the participants or the servers
are physically located, but "in cyberspace."

The "space" in cyberspace has more in common with the abstract, mathematical
meanings of the term than physical space. It does not have the duality of positive
and negative volume (while in physical space for example a room has the negative
volume of usable space delineated by positive volume of walls, Internet users cannot
enter the screen and explore the unknown part of the Net as an extension of the
space they are in), but spatial meaning can be attributed to the relationship between
different pages (of books as well as webservers), considering the unturned pages to
be somewhere "out there." The concept of cyberspace therefore refers not to the
content being presented to the surfer, but rather to the possibility of surfing among
different sites, with feedback loops between the user and the rest of the system
creating the potential to always encounter something unknown or unexpected.

Videogames differ from text-based communication in that on-screen images are

meant to be figures that actually occupy a space and the animation shows the
movement of those figures. Images are supposed to form the positive volume that
delineates the empty space. A game adopts the cyberspace metaphor by engaging
more players in the game, and then figuratively representing them on the screen as
avatars. Games do not have to stop at the avatar-player level, but current
implementations aiming for more immersive playing space (such as in Laser tag) take
the form of augmented reality rather than cyberspace, fully immersive virtual realities
remaining impractical.

Although the more radical consequences of the global communication network

predicted by some cyberspace proponents (that is, the diminishing of state influence
envisioned by John Perry Barlow[2]) failed to materialize and the word lost some of its
novelty appeal, the term continues to be used. [3]

Some virtual communities explicitly refer to the concept of cyberspace, for example,
Linden Lab calling their customers "Residents" of Second Life, while all such
communities can be positioned "in cyberspace" for explanatory and comparative
purposes (as Sterling did in The Hacker Crackdown and many journalists afterwards),
integrating the metaphor into a wider cyber-culture.

The metaphor has been useful in helping a new generation of thought leaders to
reason through new military strategies around the world, led largely by the U.S.
Department of Defense (DoD).[4] The use of cyberspace as a metaphor has had its
limits, however, especially in areas where the metaphor becomes confused with
physical infrastructure.

Alternate realities in philosophy and art

Predating computers

Before cyberspace became a technological possibility, many philosophers suggested

the possibility of a reality, or suggested that the reality in which we live in now is a
reflection of some reality perhaps more pure than what we are aware of. In The
Republic, Plato sets out his allegory of the cave, widely cited as one of the first
conceptual realities. He suggests that we are already in a form of virtual reality which
we are deceived into thinking is true. True reality for Plato is accessible only through
mental training and is the reality of the forms. These ideas are central to Platonism
and neoplatonism. Depending on how one views cyberspace in relation to physical
reality, either people are living in a cyberspace-like reality in relation to a higher
realm of ideas or cyberspace contains the abstract ideas that take form in the current,
tangible reality.

Another forerunner of the modern idea of cyberspace is Descartes' hypothetical that

people might be deceived by an evil demon which feeds them a false reality, and so
the only thing one can be certain of is that one thinks; in other words, one is a
thinking thing. This argument is the direct predecessor of the modern ideas of brain
in a vat and many popular conceptions of cyberspace take Descartes' ideas as their
starting point.

Visual arts have a tradition, stretching back to antiquity, of artifacts meant to fool the
eye and be mistaken for reality. This questioning of reality occasionally led some
philosophers and especially theologians to distrust art as deceiving people into
entering a world which was not real (see Aniconism). The artistic challenge was
resurrected with increasing ambition as art became more and more realistic with the
invention of photography, film (see Arrival of a Train at a Station) and finally,
immersive computer simulations.

Influenced by computers

Philosophy

American counterculture exponents like William S. Burroughs (whose literary

influence on Gibson and cyberpunk in general is widely acknowledged [5]) were among
the first to extol the potential of computers and computer networks for individual
empowerment.[6]

Some contemporary philosophers and scientists (such as David Deutsch in The Fabric
of Reality) use virtual reality in various thought experiments. Philip Zhai connects
cyberspace to the platonic tradition:

Let us imagine a nation in which everyone is hooked up to a network of VR

infrastructure. They have been so hooked up since they left their mother's wombs.
Immersed in cyberspace and maintaining their life by teleoperation, they have never
imagined that life could be any different from that. The first person that thinks of the
possibility of an alternative world like ours would be ridiculed by the majority of
these citizens, just like the few enlightened ones in Plato's allegory of the cave.[7]

Cyberspace and virtual reality

Although cyberspace and virtual reality are often used interchangeably, these two
concepts have a different orientation. While virtual reality refers to the simulated
experience of reality, cyberspace refers to the plane of reality, or environment, within
which this experience is made possible. Thus, experiences in cyberspace can entail
aspects of virtual reality when a user is fully immersed in this alternate reality.

The difference between the two can be further described using an analogy of
physical (space itself is not physical though) space and concepts of reality. On one
hand, human beings presuppose a frame of reference called "space." Whether the
space people live in is an empty container like a repository (Newtonnian concept) or
people exist in space according to the relationship between things
(Leibnizian concept) is debatable; likewise, human beings relate to reality through
perception (Kantian concept of space as a form of intuition) or through a nexus of
meanings (concept of "lived space" in Phenomenology). Either way, human beings
presuppose a plane of experience called "space." Within this space, humans
physically experience reality through their five senses.

By extension, this sense of reality can be applied to imagined objects. Cyberspace is a

frame of reference within which people can have quasi-real experiences with such
objects; virtual reality refers to the simulated experiences with these objects.

Human experience of reality is also extended to non-physical events or phenomena

such as death and associated emotional feelings about it. Fear, anxiety, joy, and other
emotional feelings are real without association with the physical senses. At the same
time, virtual reality may suggest a false reality that can be virtually experienced. Thus,
the whole question of reality poses a series of questions beyond
current epistemological models in modern philosophy, which presuppose the
primacy of sense perception.

Notes
1. ↑ Principia Cybernetica, Cyberspace. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
2. ↑ John Perry Barlow, A Declaration of the Independence of
Cyberspace. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
3. ↑ Merriam-Webster Dictionary online, cyberspace Retrieved July 16, 2019.
4. ↑ Cyber Conflict Studies Association, CCSA. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
 5. ↑ Alexander Laurence, An Interview with John Shirley, 1994. Retrieved July 16,
2019.
6. ↑ Douglas Rushkoff, Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace (Clinamen Press
Ltd, 2002, ISBN 1903083249).
7. ↑ Philip Zhai, Get Real: A Philosophical Adventure in Virtual Reality (New York,
NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998, ISBN 978-0847689835).

References
 Buci-Glucksmann, Christine. L’art à l’époque virtuel. In "Frontières esthétiques de
l’art," Arts 8. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2004.
 Deutsch, David. The Fabric of Reality. Penguin Books, 1998. ISBN 014027541X
 Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York, NY: Ace Books, 1986. ISBN 978-
0441569595
 Grau, Oliver. Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion. Cambridge, MA: MIT-Press,
2003. ISBN 978-0262072410
 Ippolito, Jon. "Cross Talk: Is Cyberspace Really a Space?" In Artbyte, 12-24. 1999.
 Rushkoff, Douglas. Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace. Clinamen Press
Ltd, 2002. ISBN 1903083249
 Sterling, Bruce. The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder On the Electronic
Frontier. Bantam Books, 1992. ISBN 978-0553080582
 Zhai, Philip. Get Real: A Philosophical Adventure in Virtual Reality. New York, NY:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998. ISBN 978-0847689835

External links
All links retrieved July 1, 2019.

 Computer and Information Ethics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

 Phenomenological Approaches to Ethics and Information Technology . Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
 Cybermatics: A Holistic Field for Systematic Study of Cyber-Enabled New Worlds

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