Life In A Cyber Age

Cyberspace :
A study of its future evolution, applications and implications

1.0 Introduction
'Cyberspace': The brain child of a computer illiterate science fiction writer.
'Cyberspace': A new technological frontier, bursting with hidden possibilities,
and the promise of forbidden fruits. Imbuing its users with God like powers :
To know anything and be anything or anywhere instantly, to create new life, or d
estroy it.
'Cyberspace': A word increasingly on the lips of computer scientists around the
world. A word uttered excitedly from the dizzy heights of the Pentagon in the
USA, to virtual reality conferences in England, to architects at the university
of Texas and to computer game writers everywhere.
'Cyberspace': The newest and possibly the most exciting application computers h
ave ever and will ever be used for, and possibly the definitive application for
the technology of virtual reality. This dissertation seeks to explain firstly w
hat cyberspace is, how it might evolve, the issues involved, its applications an
d implications.
But what is cyberspace? Cyberspace is not an easy thing to define, as there are
probably almost as many definitions, as there are people who can define it. Ho
wever, we do have a starting point. In 1984 a science fiction writer named Will
iam Gibson wrote a book called 'Neureomancer', in which he coined the word cyber
space, and defined it thus:
'Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legiti
mate operators in every nation. A graphical representation of data abstracted f
rom the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. L
ines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of
data. Like city lights receding.'
Gibson wrote about a future where the greatest resource is information. Cyber
space was Gibson's answer to this, a omnipotent almost God like structure in whi
ch all information, and thus all answers could be found.
For someone new to the concept of cyberspace, Gibson's definition is probably le
ss than readable. To visualise it, imagine looking at a 3 dimensional graphical
representation of the room you are in on a computer screen, as if you had drawn
the room using CAD software. The computer screen acts like a window or a porth
ole through which you can see the room. This room does not exist, it is 'virtua
l', it only exists in your mind, and on the screen of the computer. It is a non
place, a synthetic place, a cyberspace.
Now imagine that by using a connection between the computer and your brain, you
are no longer just looking at the room through a computer screen, but actually i
nhabit it! To draw an analogy it is the difference between looking at a fish ta
nk, and actually putting on some scuba gear and diving in. Imagine that you are
not the only person in this room, others are there, and outside this room there
is a virtual building, and outside that there is a virtual world, and swirling
around you in this world are countless geometric architectural shapes of varying
size, shape, colour, textures and sound, each representing a separate piece of
knowable information. This virtual world is cyberspace, created like the single
 virtual room by an almost infinite number of computers connected together in a
enormous world spanning network. This was William Gibson's dream, a dream of th
e future scientists couldn't wait to build, couldn't wait to live in, and couldn
't wait to sell.
Today's dream of cyberspace is not too unlike Gibson's, except we don't expect t
o be neurally jacking to the Matrix (Cyberspace) like the console cowboys' in N
eureomancer for some time to come. Part of Gibson's dream is accessible today t
hrough the technology of Virtual Reality (VR). Infact there is little differenc
e between VR and the cyberspace envisaged by Gibson, except that VR is the enabl
ing technology of Gibson's cyberspace, but is not cyberspace itself. The distin
ction between the two is fuzzy, but cyberspace has two additional concepts. Th
e network : countless computers connected together to form the Net (Cyberspace)
. Information : the contents of cyberspace is the realm of all information repr
esented by perceivable virtual objects, the abstractions of computer data. Sinc
e the many users or cybernauts also appear as physical objects in cyberspace, th
ey too are information.
The Net today is not too unlike Gibson's fictional cyberspace of the future. In
the jungle sprawl and ever growing network of computers a cyberspace exists in
which people send E-mail messages, download shareware, and move around sizeable
chunks of data on just about subject under the sun. Services like Internet, Com
puserve, and JANET fit into the concept of cyberspace except without the graphic
al frills. The notions of network and information remain intact.
NOTES FOR THE REST OF THE DISSERTATION :
2.0 Evolution
History
BBS
Habitat
Now :
VR
Internet + Compuserve
Who is doing development + How far they have got
Enabling technologies
Future :
Design issues e.g. movement, representation of data, rules?
What will cyberspace look/feel like?
3.0 Applications

4.0 Implications
What this might mean to us all.
Leisure.
Work.
Especially and first of all its affect on the computer industry and IT.
Make predictions (See thread).