Being in Nothingness Virtual Reality and the Pioneers of Cyberspace

Being in Nothingness Virtual Reality and the Pioneers of Cyberspace:

Being in Nothingness Virtual Reality and the Pioneers of Cyberspace

“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation…A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding…”

–William Gibson, Neuromancer

Suddenly I don’t have a body anymore.

All that remains of the aging shambles which usually constitutes my corporeal self is a glowing, golden hand floating before me like Macbeth’s dagger. I point my finger and drift down its length to the bookshelf on the office wall.

I try to grab a book but my hand passes through it.

“Make a fist inside the book and you’ll have it,” says my invisible guide.

I do, and when I move my hand again, the book remains embedded in it. I open my hand and withdraw it. The book remains suspended above the shelf.

I look up. Above me I can see the framework of red girders which supports the walls of the office…above them the blue-blackness of space. The office has no ceiling, but it hardly needs one. There’s never any weather here.