Physical space and cyberspace: August 17, 1998 issue of New Thinking

August 17, 1998 New Thinking:
Physical space and cyberspace

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August 17, 1998

Physical space and cyberspace

By Gerry McGovern

The best way I have found to understand the Internet and how it behaves is to think of it as a ‘space.’ All spaces and things require a name so that we can have a handle for them. Perhaps there is no better name for Internet space than ‘cyberspace,’ the name coined by science fiction novelist, William Gibson, in his 1994 novel, Neuromancer.

Trying to understand what cyberspace is is difficult at the best of times. However, a good way to try and see what its components and parameters might include is to analyze what constitutes physical space.

In physical space we have two basic sets of components: natural components and artificial components. Natural components occur naturally, without any human intervention. They include the basic entity that is the earth and its atmosphere; the natural resources found on the earth (oil, iron, gold, etc.); the life forms that inhabit the earth (fish, birds, insects, animals, humans).

In cyberspace there are no ‘natural’ components per se. Everything is artificial (made by humans). The closest things to natural components are probably the telecommunication networks and computers that create the physical structure of cyberspace.

The human is a tool-making animal and from the earliest times we have used tools to fashion the world that we live in. Over time there emerged two basic types of artificial components: public artificial components and private artificial components. (Depending on the country we’re talking about, the balance between public and private may change.)

Public artificial components include the following:

The civil service, political and legal structures that facilitate governing and planning.
The ‘free’ services and public utilities that governments and public institutions provide: government and planning, policing and armed forces, certain education, health care, environmental protection, road networks, water, street lighting, public parks, etc. (These ‘free’ services are of course funded through taxes.)
The charged-for services and public utilities governments provide: electricity, public transport, telecommunications, certain health care and educational services.

Private artificial components include:

Private industry and capitalism: everything from private houses and buildings to Coca-Cola and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.
Communal services and structures that are provided by private citizens for free or minimal charge in the interest of the larger community. These include everything from local committees promoting tourism or employment in an area, people who help organize youth activities, people who visit old people, people who contribute to the building of a community centre, etc.

These artificial components of physical space have evolved over thousands of years. Right now, cyberspace is borrowing a lot of the components from physical space. The same basic legal structures are being used, for example.

One of the problems in cyberspace today is that of an addiction to speed. We expect cyberspace components to be developed in the same time frame as a new computer chip or version of software.

This cannot be the case. We need a long-term view here. There are those who say that government should stay away from cyberspace. I say that there has never been a greater need for governments and planners to engage with cyberspace, so as to help create the artificial components of that space which will become the building blocks of Digital Age civilizations.

Gerry McGovern

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There has never been a greater need for governments and planners to engage with cyberspace.