From: eschneid@sparc53.tamu.edu (Erich R Schneider)
Subject: PHIL: "Cyberspace" - did Gibson really coin the term?
Date: 16 Nov 1992 22:17:10 -0600
Organization: Texas A&M University



Today in my Computer-Human Interaction class, we were discussing a
paper on VR (by Rheingold, I think). Our prof said that he doubted
that William Gibson was the "real" coiner of the term cyberspace. His
claim was that terms like cybernetics and hyperspace had been around
for years in relation to the computer field, plus the fact that CDC
had a series of computers called the "Cyber". Thus, he thought, it's
likely that some researcher had used the term before Gibson had, and
that perhaps Gibson had picked it up there, or developed it
independently.

I countered with (1) Gibson was computer illiterate when he wrote his
first cyberspace stories and wouldn't have know the term and (2) with
all the interest in VR now, it's likely that if someone else had used
the term "cyberspace" before the 1980's, a reference would have been
uncovered by now. Neither argument conviced him.

So I ask you: have any of you encountered any uses of the term
"cyberspace" _before_ William Gibson started using the term in his
stories? (That probably would have been in 1982 or '83, when he wrote
"Burning Chrome".)

Thanks!
--
Erich Schneider  eschneid@cs.tamu.edu

"Today/Yes  Winners/Yes Losers/Yes  In the Zone/Yes  Tomorrow/No"
                       - Walter Jon Williams, _HardWired_