End of Cyberspace

David Pescovitz:
In the current issue of Wired, my Institute for the Future colleague Alex Pang and I have a short article about the "End of Cyberpsace." The notion is that the Internet is becoming less of a place we "go to" and more of a layer atop our entire everyday reality. As a result, the term "cyberspace," coined by William Gibson in 1984, just doesn't seem relevant anymore. So Alex and I asked a slew of really smart people to suggest a new word to replace it. Wired printed six of the responses. Here are a couple of them:
William Gibson
Science Fiction Writer

If I had that word, it would be the title of my next book. I think cyberspace is past its sell-by, but the prob­lem is that everything has become an aspect of, well, cyberspace.


Katy Börner
Director, InfoVis Lab,
Indiana University

A global brain, dominated by implants that merge biological creativity with digital resources and speed.
Link


Unfortunately, lots of people, including Cory, gave us great suggestions that didn't make it into the final article. I'm delighted that Alex, who is researching this idea in great depth, has posted their comments on his new blog, The End of Cyberspace. Here a couple:
Cory Doctorow, author, co-editor of Boing Boing

Chattergoods: Cyberspace is the "place of the mind." The world of intelligent, networked, self-optimizing, plentiful objects is a world where everything around us is continually negotiating its place and role: advertising service-queues, determining available RF spectrum to occupy, negotiating to share load, storage, and functions. Chattergoods are goods that converse with one another, all the time, the network chatter of the physical environment.


Ross Mayfield, CEO, Socialtext

On: When kids use the Net, they are either On, using it as a conduit for social interaction, or Off, a way of not being present. We need to retain Off as a right.
Link


UPDATE: If you have suggestions, please post them in the comments on the End Of Cyberspace blog instead of emailing them to me. Thanks!