William Gibson’s Neuromancer, cyberspace, internet as the third place

1. 1982 WILLIAM
GIBSON AND THE
CONCEPT OF
CYBERSPACE

2. WILLIAM GIBSON
(CA 1948 - )
William Ford Gibson is an
American-Canadian speculative
fiction writer and essayist widely
credited with pioneering the
science fiction subgenre known as
cyberpunk.

3. NEUROMANCER AND CYBERSPACE
[YT NARRATED]
In 1982, writer William Gibson, thirty-four at the time, used a
strange new word in his short story “Burning Chrome” to describe —
presage, really — the emerging ecosystem sprouted by computer
networks. But it wasn’t until Gibson used it again in his 1984
novel Neuromancer (public library) that the new term —
“cyberspace” — caught on like cultural wildfire.
[YT Gibson explains cyberspace 3:02]

5. INTERNET AND THE THIRD PLACE:
SOCIOLOGIST RAY OLDENBERG FIRST
PIONEERED THE CONCEPT IN HIS
1989 TOME THE GREAT GOOD
PLACE, IN WHICH HE EXPLAINS THAT
YOUR THIRD PLACE IS A HANGOUT
SPOT, COMMUNITY CENTER OR
“HOME AWAY FROM HOME” THAT
PROVIDES AN ESSENTIAL ZONE
OUTSIDE OF HOME AND WORK.

8. STATE OF
CYBERSPACE [THE
ATLANTIC]
the idea of cyberspace, a
transnational, individualistic, largely
unregulated, and free place that was
not exactly located in any
governmental domain, has
completely collapsed.

9. A CYBERSPACE
GENEVA
CONVENTION?
(WORLD
ECONOMIC
FORUM)