Cyberspace is the hypothetical environment in which communications between computer networks take place. With the rise of the Internet, a significant proportion of human interaction – commercial, social and political – now takes place within its realm.
The term ‘cyberspace’ was coined by the cyberpunk author William Gibson in his 1984 novel, Neuromancer. It entered into popular usage in the 1990s as the Internet came into more widespread use. The Internet, however, had been around since 1969, when an academic research network called ARPANET was created for the military Advanced Research Projects Agency. Yet its genesis was relatively slow and for the next two decades its use was largely restricted to a small number of academics. Then, in 1989, a Briton, Tim Berners-Lee, invented what became known as the World Wide Web. Using hypertext (a software language permitting extensive cross-referencing of materials), he devised a way to link together documents across different networks, and created a browser to facilitate viewing files. Crucially, he allowed his innovations to enter the public sphere for free. The Internet underwent rapid development and before long, anyone with an Internet connection could share information and ideas with other users across the world. By 1995, Internet users still only accounted for about 1 per cent of the world’s population but by 2016 the figure was about 40 per cent – some three billion people. The cyberspace revolution has been so profound that it has been likened to the Industrial Revolution in its impact.
Free for all
One of the defining features of cyberspace is that – unlike physical spaces – no one owns or controls it. This, inevitably, has its plus and minus points. On the upside, it promotes freedom of ideas and expression on an unprecedented level. Indeed, the Internet has been cited as key in coordinating mass social action, as exemplified by the social networking aspects of Barack Obama’s presidential election campaigns and even the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. However, there is a darker side, where the ‘Wild West’ nature of the Internet allows for malevolent activities, from the sale of illicit drugs to the commissioning of international terrorism. All attempts to regulate a set of shared rules and standards – commonly known as cyber-ethics – have inevitably lagged behind the exponential growth in user numbers. Cyberspace, then, remains an only partially charted land but also an extraordinary reflection of humanity.
‘[N]o one could have imagined the effects the Internet would have: entire relationships flourish, friendships prosper . . . there’s a vast new intimacy and accidental poetry, not to mention the weirdest porn. The entire human experience seems to unveil itself like the surface of a new planet.’
J. G. Ballard.