Cyberspace: First Steps

Cyberspace, a term first coined by the writer William Gibson in his award-winning 1984 novel "Neuromancer", has been described as "an infinite artificial world where humans navigate in information-based space" and as "the ultimate computer-human interface". However one defines it, the "virtual reality" known as cyberspace is one of the most radically innovative of computer developments. These original contributions by leading thinkers in computer science, architecture, the visual arts, philosophy, anthropology, and industry, provide an insider's view of this new technology. "Cyberspace - First Steps" focuses on the theoretical and conceptual issues involved in the design, use, and effects of virtual environments, offering fictions, predictions, and proposals, forming a collective search for appropriate metaphors and possible structures that might provide the basis for future virtual worlds. Contributions discuss the philosophical basis for cyberspace in ancient thought, the relevance of the body in virtual realities, basic communications principles for cyberspace, the coming dematerialization of architecture, the logic of graphic representation into the third dimension, the design of a noncentralized system for multiparticipant cyberspaces and the ramifications of cybespace for future workplaces. The contributors to this volume are: Michael Benedikt; William Gibson, writer; David Tomas, University of Toronto; Nicole Stenger, MIT; Michael Heim; California State University, Long Beach; Allucquere Rosanne Stone, University of California, Santa Cruz and San Diego; Marcos Novak, Univesity of Texas and UCLA; Alan Wexelblat, Bull Worldwide Information Systems; Chip Morningstar, F.Randall Farmer, Lucasfilm Ltd; Carl Tollander; Autodesk, Inc; Tim McFadden, Altos Computer Systems; Meredith Bricken, University of Washington; Steve Pruitt, Tom Barrett, Texas Instruments and Electronic Data Systems; Wendy A. Kellog, John M. Carroll, John T. Richards, IBM.