The End of Cyberspace
I've been reading the discussions on the End of CyberSpace for over a week now.
Personally I kind of agree with David Sifry's view that we "don't need a new word".
Once it was called "ArpaNet", then it was called the "Internet", and it then it was called "the Web" and now these days some people talk about "Web2.0" or the "semantic web".
But "CyberSpace" has been adopted from Science Fiction -from WIlliam Gibson who invented the term - and somehow it has stuck around.
Perhaps it's because the word "Cyber Space" is convenient in so many ways.
It delineates and demarcates "Real Space" from "Cyber Space".
Cyber Space is nothing but a collection of bytes after all.
I can't eat cyber-food, I can't get warm by a cyber-fire, I can't get drunk on cyber-beer, I can't smoke a cyber-spliff and I can't have cyber-sex.
However - I can watch "movies from cyberspace", listen to "music from cyberspace" and read "books from cyberspace".
This is where "Cyber-Space" protrudes into "Real Space".
This is where where bits and bytes transcend their ephemeral cyber-reality and become real.
In Cyber Space nothing is real and everything is a representation of reality
It's only the bits that intrude into the real world - when bytes become movies, books or music - that the problems occur.
So we need a phrase to demarcate "Real Space" from "Cyber Space" - it really isn't the same - yet.
Not only that, but the "Cyber" prefix is very useful.
If I talk about "Cyber Law", "Cyber Culture" and "Cyber Art" most "Cyber-Savvy" people will have a pretty good idea of what I am talking about.
Affixing the "Cyber" phrase" is a clear cut message that you are not talking about physical reality - "Cyber-Rape" is not the same as "Rape".
One is in the physical domain and the other in the cyber domain.
As I said - a useful phrase that demarcates two distinct spaces - and I'm not that keen on finding a substitute until a new one naturally arises out of the "CyberSphere" or "BlogoSphere" .. or whatever IT is called then.
Yet, despite my reservations, I had a long think about the question:
"What do we call cyberspace when cyberspace becomes so pervasive it disappears?"
I thought of -
"MeshSpace" - because the interconnections of the Web are more like a Mesh than a Net in mathematical terms.
Of course then everyone would go - "Have seen the news on the Mesh today?"
What's wrong with that?- it could be worse - when television started it was called "television".
Formally speaking it's still called "television" - it's just that people say "have you seen the news on TV today?".
But then "WebSpace" is already far a more pervasive term for the Internet - people already say "have you read the news on the Web today?" - so changing their vocabulary might be a little difficult.
Hmmm - lets call it the "Web" then ...
After that I tried really, really, hard to think of a new name for "Cyber Space"
But then inertia overtook me as I realised that even if I came up with the snappiest name in the universe everyone would ignore me until it came into popular fashion six months later and then all claim it as their own.
But now- in the wake of an article called "The End of the Internet?" from The Nation - I think I might have some ideas at last.
Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.
I started to wonder whether we would have more than one name for the Net
BizNet - If you ask the price you can't afford it - too fast for most managers and executives - they prefer to use PubNet
PubNet - Joe Public tries to use this - it's as slow and dumb as the TelCo's think their customers are
ScumNet - For all those hackers and warez kiddies out there .. and anyone else who can't afford any of the above
Or maybe just ...
BigBrotherNet - publicly subsidised Internet access with all your surfing information logged - and have I mentioned there will be adverts yet?
Sure as hell the way things are going we aren't going to have much privacy on the Net for too much longer - nor any bandwidth either - unless we pay $$$s
Oh yeah - and if its anything like any other piece of technology I've encountered in my life - sooner or later it's going to be called a stream of unprintable invectives.
Tags: cyberspace language culture computing end of cyberspace