Cyber Space

The opposite of 'Meat Space', i.e. the real world as we know it (or perhaps not... see The Matrix). Conceptual or virtual plane created by the interconnectedness of real machines (computers), the passing of information between said computers, and the people operating them.

Sometimes used as a given for certain species of Cyber Punk, of which the best-known is probably that of William Gibson, and the most unworthy that of Tom Clancy's 'Net Force' series.

Until recently Meat Space held a certain primacy over Cyber Space, in that if a Meat Space artefact pulled the plug out of a computer, there wasn't much Cyber Space could do in revenge. Now though, in the days of computerised information, Meat Space seems to have deliberately surrendered its advantage. Carbon-based cretins.

TA, can you add more to this?

I could do. I'd go for a historical and textual perspective as a key to understanding the term and its contextual baggage. Shit, i didn't know i was that postmodern. -- TA

Surely the term is now in such common use that everyone knows what it means?

Well, there's John Perry Barlow's Cyber Space Declaration Of Independence: <http://www.hax.com/CyberSpaceDeclaration.html>.

Maps: <http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/atlas.html>, etc.

Anyway, all predicted in 1971: <http://www.vcn.bc.ca/web-prophet/>.