Psyberspace

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.

Donna Haraway – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Donna Haraway Donna Haraway with Cayenne, 2006; photograph by Rusten Hogness

Wired Interview:

You Are Cyborg By Hari Kunzru

For Donna Haraway, we are already assimilated. The monster opens the curtains of Victor Frankenstein’s bed. Schwarzenegger tears back the skin of his forearm to display a gleaming skeleton of chrome and steel. Tetsuo’s skin bubbles as wire and cable burst to the surface. These science fiction fevered dreams stem from our deepest concerns about science, technology, and society. With advances in medicine, robotics, and AI, they’re moving inexorably closer to reality. When technology works on the body, our horror always mingles with intense fascination. But exactly how does technology do this work? And how far has it penetrated the membrane of our skin?

The answers may lie in Sonoma County, California. It’s not the most futuristic place in the world; quite the opposite. The little clusters of wooden houses dotted up and down the Russian River seem to belong to some timeless America of station wagons and soda pop. Outside the town of Healdsburg (population 9,978), acres of vineyards stretch away from the road, their signs proudly proclaiming the dates of their foundation. The vines themselves, transplants from Europe, carry a genetic heritage far older. Yet this sleepy place is where visions of a technological future are being defined. Tucked away off the main highway is a beautiful redwood valley. Here, in a small wooden house, lives someone who says she knows what’s really happening with bodies and machines. She ought to – she’s a cyborg.

Cyberspace—Land of Cyber Cowboys and Women Outlaws – UB Reporter:

They speak their minds in “Reload: Rethinking Women + Cyberculture” (MIT Press, 2002), a groundbreaking collection of theoretical and fictional writing, including cyberpunk, edited by Austin Booth, a senior assistant librarian at UB, and Mary Flanagan, professor of art at the University of Oregon and former UB faculty member.

In it, 27 authors consider the effects of rapid and profound technological change on culture and, in particular, the revolutionary and reactionary effects of cyberculture on women’s lives and identities.

They examine how conceptions of gender are embodied in different technologies and how those, in turn, shape our notions of maleness and femaleness. Their observations are quite explicit, ranging from the use of language in technology to the presentation of women in cyberpunk fiction.

The contributors include women who have lived in some province of the cyberworld as early as the 1930s. Most are contemporary scholars and authors who are up to speed on advanced technology, neuropolitics, culture jamming and the latest technobuzz.

 Booth frequently publishes in refereed journals on women in cyberspace and information studies, and currently is working on a book titled “Bodies at Work: Women’s Work in Cyberfiction, Cyberculture and Cyberfeminism.” Flanagan is the author of a number of articles on gender and narrative in virtual worlds and has produced many innovative media projects, including Internet games, a networked version of the phage computer virus and “Career Moves,” a computer-controlled board game that explores ideas about women and work.

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