But the electronic embodiment of cyberspace - specifically the creation of the Internet and its fictional evolution in the novels of William Gibson - did give cyberspace a name, so we began to use a spatial metaphor to talk about its attributes and theorize about its essence. Although the things that reside within cyberspace are made of code - natural and computer languages - the place itself can not be said to be made from code. If the spatial metaphor is to hold up, cyberspace must be considered the place where code exists since we consider space as the place where matter exists. We cannot conceive of matter without space, yet we never confuse the two.
This is not to say that a spatial metaphor needs to embody a Euclidian geometry or a Newtonian physics. Spatial metaphors, as literary tradition will attest, are bound only by the limits of the imagination. Cyberspace is a place but not necessarily a place defined by the rules that govern physical space.
In physical space, not only do things exist but things also occur. Scientists create models of physical space. These models consist of symbols and rules that are used to predict the behavior of physical objects. This presupposes that objects and actions within physical space are all parts of an organized system, an economy. Science, then, is the attempt to create models of various physical economies and, ultimately, the attempt to create one model of the entire physical economy. In cyberspace there are also objects and actions. But objects and actions in cyberspace are made from code. Codes are languages, that is systems of symbols and rules. Cyberspace is the set of all languages, the collection of human experience embodied in language, all symbolic representations of organized systems. Science is a subset of cyberspace.
What are the basic characteristics of objects made of language? Objects made of matter in physical space are measured by the human senses: they can either be seen, touched, tasted, smelled, heard, or some combination of the five. The human senses are also used to measure objects of language; code also may be experienced by using the five senses, but visual and aural codes are, by far, the most prevalent. And perhaps, as the mystic traditions claim, there is information available to humans that does not reside in physical experience, gnostic codes. If theology is a system of symbols and rules that represent models of man's experience of spirit, then this language is also a subset of cyberspace.
David Icke - The Great Illusion of Time and Space
As mentioned before, it is not necessary to limit the cyberspace metaphor with the geometries and physics of the physical world. But that is not to say that there is no geometry and no physics there. In order to conceive of cyberspace as a space, geometry and physics are necessary. So, what is the nature of geometry and physics in cyberspace, the place where the objects of language reside and act?
Matter is distinguished from non-matter through the senses. If something cannot be detected by the senses (or instruments that enhance the senses) then it is said either not to exist or to be made of something that is not matter such as spirit or mind. Metaphysics is the attempt to distinguish between mind and matter. Code is distinguished from non-code by determining whether something has meaning or does not have meaning, whether something contains information or does not contain information. If something cannot be interpreted, it is said either not to have meaning, not to be made of code, or the interpreter is said to lack knowledge of the code. When an interpreter does not recognize phenomena as language, it is said to be noise. So, the metaphysics of cyberspace is the attempt to distinguish between data and noise.
Polymer Phones : Latest Mobile Phone Technology
This mobile phone prototype has a 5-inch display that wraps around the phone and has a long battery life that is way beyond normal phones.
Experience of objects depends upon the proximity of the objects to the individual experiencing them. Technology has greatly enhanced human ability to experience physical space by providing transportation that has expanded the sphere of human experience. Traveling away from one's home place, once limited to short distances or to the professional adventurer, is now quite common. Technology has also greatly enhanced human ability to experience cyberspace by providing devices that record and transport data. Innovations in transportation that allow people enhanced experience of physical space are vehicles of locomotion and tools of navigation. So, to continue the spatial metaphor the innovations that allow enhanced experience of cyberspace should be considered vehicles of locomotion and tools of navigation as well.
sandra bullock the net illusion
Beware the Dragon! Dragon optical illusion
