William Gibson’s knowledge of cyberspace in the 80s

How did William Gibson’s knowledge of cyberspace in the 80s help shape the world today?

Presenter: Jalen Milrad

Co-Presenter(s):
Ben Beeman

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 20-21

Semester: Fall

Faculty Mentor: Michaela Grobbel

Department: Modern Languages & Literatures

Funding Source/Sponsor: SYRCE Symposium

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1oECUecaNGZRtWEdlhQ9mcZjeyq5VX6Gx

Abstract:
Ben Beeman/ Jalen Milrad

Grobbel

MLL

November 23rd, 2020

In the early 1980’s William Gibson came up with a revolutionary idea known as “Cyberspace”. “Cyberspace” was an idea based upon our lives on the internet, connecting us as a species. William Gibson also came up with the genre known as “Cyberpunk”, creating a world controlled by corporate goons, gigantic skyscrapers, and dark slums. Gibson started this whole Cyber revolution that is even showing up today in movies, music, video games, and other sources of entertainment that we use today. William Gibson brought up ideas of artificial intelligence thinking for itself, genetically enhanced mercenaries, and inspired many different things such as the Matrix movie series. He thought of all of this at a time where the internet and computers were in their infancy. His inspiration came from the bright lights of Tokyo and the Cold of Vancouver where he lived. Growing up on a changing side, he got to imagine what the world would be like in the coming years. 

Cyberspace was not only a premonition of the changing technological world, but a zeitgeist of the 80’s technological renaissance. The 80s brought about a decade of fascination with new technologies, it spurred pop culture with movies such as Star Wars and ET, it began to spread its tendrils into society with the beginning of the internet, and it most importantly showed what the upcoming technological boom of the 21st century would come to look like for us as a society. Cyberspace was daring, it was new, it was the unknown. It gave society an unknowing peek into just how technologically advanced our society was going to become, For better or for worse.