cyberspace

cyberspace jargon
/si:'ber-spays/ 1. (Coined by William Gibson) Notional "information-space" loaded with visual cues and navigable with brain-computer interfaces called "cyberspace decks"; a characteristic prop of cyberpunk SF. In 1991 serious efforts to construct virtual reality interfaces modelled explicitly on Gibsonian cyberspace were already under way, using more conventional devices such as glove sensors and binocular TV headsets. Few hackers are prepared to deny outright the possibility of a cyberspace someday evolving out of the network (see network, the).
2. Occasionally, the metaphoric location of the mind of a person in hack mode. Some hackers report experiencing strong eidetic imagery when in hack mode; interestingly, independent reports from multiple sources suggest that there are common features to the experience. In particular, the dominant colours of this subjective "cyberspace" are often grey and silver, and the imagery often involves constellations of marching dots, elaborate shifting patterns of lines and angles, or moire patterns.
[The Jargon File]
(1999-02-01)

cyberspace

Like the Land of Oz, cyberspace was originally the invention of a writer, the science-fiction novelist William Gibson. While Oz remains the domain of a wizard and a little girl from Kansas, however, cyberspace has leapt off the page to become a subject of wide public interest and debate. As both a dream and a reality, it has sparked renewed discussion about the social and economic assumptions underlying our present means of communication, as well as the role of technology in our lives. By the beginning of 1995, there was a growing consensus that cyberspace had become a region that could significantly affect the structure of our economies, the development of our communities, and the protection of our rights as free citizens

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