Cyber Space

‘’Cyber space is made up of ideas which are supposed to be the space where your consciousness is located when using computer technology on the internet...’’ – Neil Postman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49rcVQ1vFAY )(1)

Cyber space is a new medium of communication, rather electronic medium of communication, which threatens to replace the traditional modes of communication rapidly entering into everyday parlance.

Cyberspace has 2 major components. Firstly, we have the virtual reality. Here people ‘’enter’’ & ‘’move through’’. People are aware of the fact that they are in an imaginary space. This is very interesting as we have simultaneous co-existence of technology & man, for ex- the film THE MATRIX. The concept of virtual reality has been a major influence for the video game industry.

The 2^nd one, more feasible and utilitarian- ‘’The World Wide Web’’; the world of computers linked with cables & routers, which enables us to communicate, store & retrieve information. (2)

Space can be divided under certain facets like place, distance, route, size etc. In materialistic world we ask questions like ‘’where is the office?’’ – (For place), same can be applied in cyber space too (‘’where is the location of website in a server??’’). The best example can be the use of chat-rooms & sending emails in particular mail address. Similarly, size in cyber space can be related to the concepts of downloading files, memory of a computer etc.

The vanguards of Cyber space declare the democracy/independence of it. John Perry Burlow says- ‘’we are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force or stations of birth....’’ (Steven Conway, ppt slides, class lecture). (3)

Barlovian concepts of Cyberspace deals with individualistic, libertarian society (utopian world) which is very similar to Habermas’s concept of ‘’Public sphere’’ where he calls for the ‘’refeudalisation of society’’ (boundaries between the state & society are blurred).

However, this burgeoning, rapid use of internet, technology, storage of data (‘’It is possible to attain immortality in cyber space, because there everything is DATA only’’ – Javi Peltola) are basically the weapons of empowerment. This, according to many thinkers for instance Baudrillard ‘’electronic communication’’ is a simulacrum, or an illusion of empowerment.

To quote- ‘’ Even when our media appear to exponentially increase communication, this is predicated, as Baudrillard suggests, on a separation from one's proximate environment and finds fulfillment only in so far as it simulates or promises that symbolic relationship they claim to promote but which their use actually replaces. Phone calls, for example, act not just as a means of communication but also as a means to avoid communication.’’ (Steven Conway, ppt slides, class lecture).

Javi Peltola said- ‘’Bodiless consciousness live there’’, however, back in the 90’s people perhaps forgot that every new forms of media evolves from the old concepts only. For them it was a revolution, completely out of the blue, a new discovery. Cyber space exhibits characteristics associated with theories like substantival, relational, Einsteinian etc. It throw us into an exciting realm of new medium which allows us to ‘’communicate, teach, learn & understand’’ in a better way.

Bibliography:-

1) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49rcVQ1vFAY )

Re Rebecca Byrant, What is space (pdf)

2

3) Steven Conway, power point, class lectures

4) David Hakken, Cyborgs@cyberspace, Routledge (Idea taken from few chapters of the book,ch-4(self identity in cyber space,pg-84, ch-5-The knowledge question in cyber space,pg-179)