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The Internet is a non-space, a digital construct that exists nowhere but in the insides of the thousands of computers and
servers around the world and the consciousness of those who subscribe to it. And yet it is often described in the media and
on the net itself in physical and geographical metaphors which both makes us easier for us to find the information we require,
and gives it the illusion of space. One visits sites; enters chat-rooms and travels along the information super-highway to
arrive at ones desired address, location or domain.
Through these spatial metaphors, we have come to regard cyberspace as somewhere into which we can travel, transposing physical
relationships and properties into their digital counterparts as we go. That we are so eager to do so can be partly ascribed
to the way in which many people have been introduced to the whole concept of the Internet as a parallel universe, existing
somehow within our own world, and yet possessing almost unlimited boundaries, either conceptually or spatially. Popular culture,
in the form of books and films has for many years presented such an image, the term cyberspace first being used by the author
William Gibson to describe:
A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, …A graphic representation
of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in
the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding…
Although this is a fictional account of a fictional space, the reality of the Internet is itself built around a fiction, that
of the artificial, scripted matrix of cyberspace, and one could argue that such descriptions have been prophetic, or served
as models for what was to come. They also serve as popular and accessible methods for exploring the possibilities and ramifications
of such technologies, and their implications for cultural and conscious evolution. In such works, cyberspace is often portrayed
as a space into which the subject can become completely immersed, either physically or mentally. It is a space that often
mimics actual perceived perspective and scale, but played against an almost infinite backdrop of receding information, ready
to be accessed, a digital pre-conscious almost. It possesses an ‘unlimited subjective dimension’ where ‘To live here is to
live. There is no difference.’ In Gibson’s book Neuromancer, from which these quotes are taken, the protagonist is able to
‘jack’ directly into his computer and present a digital version of himself within cyberspace, where he can meet with other
users whilst being unaware of his physical surroundings and sense receptions.
Such descriptions have also appeared in cinema, in such films as Tron and The Matrix. Tron in particular provided influential
representations of this data-based virtual reality that was accessed via a computer terminal. A more insidious vision of the
possibilities of cyberspace and virtual reality is portrayed in the 1999 film The Matrix. Instead of cyberspace being a consensual
experience, it is an enforced state of consciousness from which there is meant to be no escape. Although this space exactly
simulates the everyday of the late twentieth century, rather than presents the inside of the data flow, it is unmasked as
such throughout the film.
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Mapping Cyberspace
Such representations of what may come to pass in the future are compelling, but what of modern day images of cyberspace? Of
those who try to give form to such a space, many use ‘conceptual’ maps, which resemble spider-graphs, to represent the relationships
between the different services and networks that go to make up the various regions of cyberspace. Such maps are usually two-dimensional,
and serve mostly to illustrate the possible uses for the net, without implying any notion of spatial effects or the flow of
information between them. Some of these utilitarian maps do attempt to show data flow in three-dimensions, whilst others will
place such charts in an expansive void, as if to imply the almost limitless possibility of further networks, to be either
added or accessed later. It is interesting to note that in many, if not all of the representations of cyberspace spatial depth
and perspective is suggested through the use of wire frames, either explicitly or as armatures, calling on the techniques
and rules first formulated by Alberti in De Pictura in 1435. This new virtual space of binary data is so alien to us that
we have fallen back on traditional, Renaissance perspective to give it form. To achieve an adequate representation of such
a sublime environment may require a sea change in our own consciousness in order to visualise the non-space of the digital
in a way that truly reflects its potential.
Other strategies to visualise the space created and occupied by the Internet rely on traditional cartographic techniques to
superimpose the connections of the Internet or its concentrations of use onto the physical atlas. Many of these images are
beautiful in their own right, and as they often view the Earth from a vantage point that appears to be somewhere in orbit
around the planet, they add to the science-fiction notions that have been mentioned above. On one of the on-line sites devoted
to posting such images of Internet uses, (Cybergeography) several of the images seem tailor made to illustrate William Gibson’s
descriptions of cyberspace
Others, although following the same principles, stick more closely to illustrating the interconnectivity of the world wide
web, resembling telephone pylons and wires, or the trajectories of ballistic missiles, which is perhaps an apt metaphor, considering
the web’s Pentagon heritage. These images illustrate the natural desire to map such an abstract concept as the net onto the
more familiar, concrete world around us, using its server bases and lines of communication to bring this space out of the
electronic ether and into the everyday world we know.
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The New Word
Just as when our world seemed to expand in the fifteenth century, with the West’s discovery of the New World, it was accompanied
by the desire to map such conquests, to bring them officially under the conquest of man and the monarch, a similar urge to
know and intellectually master the freshly discovered continent of cyberspace can be detected in such undertakings. Indeed
to many, the Internet has direct parallels with the opening up of North America, with all its attendant notions of a ‘land
of the free’ and equality and hope. Mitch Kapor, founder of the Internet civil liberty group Electronic Frontier Foundation,
expresses such constitutional concerns when he says:
In fact, life in cyberspace seems to be shaping up exactly how Thomas Jefferson would have wanted: founded on the primacy
of individual liberty and a commitment to pluralism, diversity and community.
Although there are two approaches to cyberspace here, the geographical and the egalitarian, there are obviously important
links between the way both sides' view the Internet. To both, it is an uncharted territory, ripe for conquest and in need
of definition in order to navigate it safely, easily and responsibly. There has been a literal and metaphoric gold rush for
the Internet, with massive financial and intellectual gains to be won and, as in any such land race, a map is essential. By
transposing such maps onto the atlas, we see the full reach of interconnectivity on a global scale, giving us a sense of the
distance from which information can be accessed but without actually abandoning the physical realm, which although transcended
by such networks, still provides the solid base to which it is bound.
Each of these different approaches to illustrating the qualitative and quantitative properties of the Internet highlight alternative
uses and possibilities for cyberspace. Its fictional manifestations highlight the fascination that such a space holds for
us, with its promises of pure immersion, escapism and control over our actions and sensations. In such a world, as the writers
of the visual and narrative script, we would be able to do as we pleased, controlling every aspect of our virtual environment,
including what we looked like and were capable of. Our freedom of action could also increase, because acts committed in such
spaces would largely be without consequences, except within the virtual world, where doing ‘something does not result in any
change in the physical world.’ While this may be true of callously shooting the hostage in a gaming scenario, as people invest
more of their time and interactive experiences into virtual living, the possibilities for abuse have already begun to manifest
themselves, before we have even reached total sensory immersion into cyberspace.
The other, more ‘factual’ attempts at mapping cyberspace serve to enlighten us towards the physical scale and practical applications
of what we engage with, and can sometimes add a sense of awe when the world wide web is represented as just that. These images
are flattering and reassuring, as they show us the extent of our technical mastery, whilst presenting a space we can identify
with in physical terms. They show the artificial world grounded upon the natural, without any unsettling, abstract voids in
which to get lost, or represent the net as nothing more than a graph or chart, the epitome of cool, controlled science, which
is there for our convenience and service.
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Settlers in Cyberspace
Computer games, and the technological gains that are driven by them, often provide the only means by which people can significantly
feel to have entered cyberspace. It is through our identification with such avatars that we get our closest look at how it
may feel to truly inhabit such a realm. It is even possible to have one's own features scanned onto a gaming character, making
it possible to watch oneself engage in heroic or atrocious activities without leaving the front room.
Cyberspace also has a growing population of permanent residents (as opposed to the carbon-based interlopers who only really
visit), in the form of pop stars, models and newsreaders. Although at present nothing more than slightly Aryan-looking infotainment
programmes, they are capable of a certain level of interactivity (replying to fans e-mails etc), and it is not too much of
a wild prediction to suggest that from such acorns the spectral oak of artificial intelligence may one day grow, as opposed
to widely held belief that it will be a product of the military or pure science.
These, then, are some of the ways that cyberspace has been represented. They make up some of the types of space that are being
created to function amongst other things as digital equivalents of the art galleries with which we are already familiar.
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