For this week we discussed the network society and all the intricacies inside that, including the history of our cyber world & theories inside that. A key part that stood out to me in our lecture was actually Cyberspace & Cyberpunk.
Cyberspace. A common known concept that describes widespread connected digital technology where communication is freely distributed through computer networks. Coined by popular culture and science fiction, it has now been adapted and used in every day society. It can also be known as a electronic environment.
Cyberpunk. Is is a very similar concept, cyberpunk is also a genre and theme of science fiction. Always set in a lawless state, the society is highly oppressed by computer technology. Frequently its a futuristic setting that focuses on the “low life and high tech”.
These ideas are discussed in more depth in Dyson’s 1994 study “Cyberspace and the American Dream”. Dyson and the other authors, have gone in depth to discuss the aspects of our world that have already changed with the cyber world.
A part of cyberspace and cyberpunk that really stands out to me is actually how possible some of things depicted can actually be or become – which is what Dyson discusses in his research. Our technology is developing everyday, and the network of communication of technology is something that definitely exists, so who is to decide how much is actually going to become true in the ‘fiction’ part of cyberspace?
How much more can our cyber world connect with each other and have its on society and communication?
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