Library · Tag

Cyberspace

An annotated collection of 3 books on cyberspace, spanning 1984 to 1997. Featuring works by William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Pierre Lévy — each with editorial commentary oriented to digital product practice.

Neuromancer

William Gibson, 1984 · Ace Books

Gibson coined the word "cyberspace" in a short story two years earlier, but Neuromancer gave it a geography. The novel describes a "consensual hallucination" — a graphical representation of data abstracted from the banks…

Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson, 1992 · Bantam Books

If Gibson imagined cyberspace as an abstract datascape, Stephenson imagined it as an inhabited city. The "Metaverse" in Snow Crash is a virtual boulevard with real estate, architecture, social stratification, and economi…

Cyberculture

Pierre Lévy, 1997 · Éditions Odile Jacob

Lévy's project was to provide a philosophical framework for the emerging digital culture at a moment when most commentary oscillated between utopian celebration and dystopian panic. He refused both. Drawing on his earlie…