Cyberspace Essay

The idea of the internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture for some time, particularly in the popular medium of film. But is the concept of cyberspace still relevant to our contemporary society? Discuss with reference to your own experience of contemporary media.

A mission of computer subterfuge, executed by a group of criminal experts, in a world of highly advanced technology and fierce crime; a virtually created world. [1.] Cyberspace. The concept of cyberspace portrayed in Neuromancer, a novel written by William Gibson 25 years ago in 1984, was a shocking one when it first emerged. Published back in the days when computer technology as we know it had just begun, no one wanted to think that it could ever be as it was in the book.

Now, society seems to be drawing ever closer to this very concept of virtual worlds. Cyberspace, as it is today, is defined as a non-physical environment, created by computer networks. [2.] This virtual space, where so many of the world’s citizens reside, is often described as an actual “place” with terms like electronic frontier and information superhighway being implemented. [6.] None of them, however, are quite as popular in present times as the term cyberspace when describing this rapidly growing virtual world, a world in which the interaction of people has no requirement other than that of directing a mouse and hitting some keys. Gibson described it as a “consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators” (p. 51)

There are many sub environments in this vast non-physical realm, where you can buy most things online and have them delivered straight to your home, where you can socialize on the vast array of sites created purely for the purpose of social networking, where you can watch almost anything you want, where you can be anyone you want and no one can really stop you. More and more of the physical world embodied in our corporeal lives is becoming ever so swiftly embedded in that of the digital world instead. [9.] Soon everything, even the most human of activites, will be done through virtual reality, like the act of sex is in the movie Demolition Man (1993).



The possibilities that cyberspace offers its users, the ability to access information and communicate with whom they want, to be“freed from the material and social constraints of their bodies, identities, communities, and geographies” mean that these technologies are regarded as a potential form of liberation for those who are at a disadvantage, whether it be socially, materially or physically. [7.]

World of Warcraft (WoW), the fourth title in the series of a massively popular MMORPG franchise that began in 1994 [4.], is by far one of the most notable and widely played games in the world today and exhibits perfectly how a user has the ability to be freed from their constraints, to become whoever and whatever they want no matter what they are in real life. Over ten million users across Australia, Europe, Asia and the U.S.A play this game, a lot of them for a surprising 20 hours per week. And the concept is rather basic, too. You get a character, who you raise or “train”, and abandon the real world to undertake heroic quests in the “World of Warcraft” where as well as embarking on such quests, you earn money, traverse the world and interact with others doing exactly the same thing as you.



Then there’s Second Life, which is another form of escape into the cybernetic world where, just like World of Warcraft, you can be whoever you want to be. It differs from Wow in that it is more like “real” life, similar to The Sims, though much more widespread and more easily real-character interactive. Just as its name suggests, it’s like having a second life. You get a job, you go to the gym (I assume), you eat and such (I would expcet, if it’s anything like the Sims) and you go on dates to “fall in love.” [5.] How the last of these is achieved online I am quite unaware of, but the rest seem to be pretty average, mundane activities that one must perform to progress, just like in the real world. Except all online.



The Matrix (1999), a film made a decade ago, encompasses all the activities mentioned in the last few paragraphs (even the Demolition Man reference there) in that the characters’ entire reality is a virtual one. Everything they do, all that they feel and smell, touch, see and hear is not through the “real” world, but through a network that everyone is “jacked-in” to, created by machines that use humans as an energy source. In The Matrix “a reality of millions is declared to be due to cognitive manipulations effected by machines and computers.” (p. 107) [8.] Much of the film revolves around what is reality and what is not, and how to overcome the limitations of the cyber world. It brings to the forefront of our minds the possible idea “that the world we inhabit may, in fact, be an illusion, a projection, or a simulation.” [10.]



The concept of cyberspace is still relevant in the real world; things like The Matrix and Neuromancer are still being produced and continue to be popular with society because they are a prediction of where our internet addicted culture is heading in the not-so-distant future. And games like World of Warcraft, but especially Second Life and The Sims, give us a glimpse of what to expect: more and more of life will be lived online. Hopefully the real world won’t just simply fade into the background of such an existence.

Resources/Bibliography

1. Neuromancer Plot Summary and Quotes, Bookrags, viewed 23rd October 2009, <www.bookrags.com/Neuromancer>

2. Kayne, R 2009, What is Cyberspace? wiseGEEK, viewed 23rd October 2009,
<http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-cyberspace.htm>

3. MacKay, M. 2006, History of World of Warcraft, Buzzle, viewed 23rd October 2009, <http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/1-27-2006-87479.asp>

4. 2009, World of Warcraft Basic Guide, viewed 23rd October 2009 <http://www.supermandoc.com/world-or-warcraft-basic-guide>

5. What is Second Life, Second Life, viewed 23rd October 2009 <http://secondlife.com/whatis/>

6. Cyberspace and Virtual Places Paul C. Adams Geographical Review, Vol. 87, No. 2, Cyberspace and Geographical Space (April, 1997), pp. 155-171 Retrieved from Jstor 23rd October 2009

7. Cyberkids? Exploring Children's Identities and Social Networks in On-Line and Off-Line Worlds Gill Valentine and Sarah L. Holloway Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 92, No. 2 (June, 2002), pp. 302 Retrieved from Jstor 23rd October 2009

8. Botz-Bornstein, Thorsten 2008, Style and Substance in the Matrix [Review] in Film-Philosophy, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 107-116. Retrieved 20th October 2009 from Google Scholar


9. The Ontological Crisis of Melancholia, Christopher Parsons, 2007 Accessed: 23rd October 2009 <http://www.christopher-parsons.com/Academic/The_Ontological_Crisis_of_Melancholia_(3_1_for_web).pdf>

10. Woodward, Steven 2008, “The Matrix Trilogy: Cyberpunk Reloaded” in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 442-447. Retrieved 21st October 2009 from inform world

11. Sponsler, Claire 1992, “Cyberpunk and the Dilemmas of Postmodern Narrative: The Example of William Gibson” in Contemporary Literature, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 625-644. Retrieved 23rd October 2009 from JSTOR.

12. The Matrix 1999 (DVD) Feature Film, Warner Brothers, United States

13. Demolition Man 1993 (DVD) Feature Film