Cyberspace

I find myself on a writing assignment about cyberspace and digital identity. I suppose that having had a digital identity for almost 25 years, I must be somewhat qualified to write about it; this is similar to the state of a man who, having had gallstones, is entitled to write about the experience.

What surprises me is the plethora of stuff people have written about that space since Gibson coined the term in Burning Chrome. It is an informational space, like any other; it is a social space, like any other.

And yet, in both ways, not like. It overcomes distance and other barriers, it creates illusions better. It is not like radio, television, print, or film. It is not like letter-writing or financial transactions. It can subsume all of these things and create new spaces, new properties.

But this is true of any technology. A new technology is a catalyst for human thought. It opens up new conceptual spaces, and creates new sciences of human application. It changes the possibilities of sociology, anthropology, psychology. It even makes us extend our grasp of philosophy.

And this is what cyberspace is. A technology-created space, like any other. And of course, like any other, not like any another.