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Re: Special Issue of TIME: Welcome to Cyberspace


Article: news.misc.6573
First 20 lines:
 Philip Elmer-DeWitt (ped@panix.com) wrote:
 ...
 : Whoa! Hold on! The issue is about cyberspace, remember? That's the "big
 : idea" I trace to Gibson, not computer networking or packet switching or
 : store 'n forward message passing. Geeze, I give you guys one sentence and
 : you're already off to the races.
 I got my first ArpaNet (or ARPANet) account in 1972 or '73, then went
 to Intel and didn't get another one until around 1983, about the time
 I was reading "Neuromancer."
 I credit Gibson--and Vinge, whose "True Names" came out in 1981--with
 identifying the tangible importance of cyberspace. Negroponte, too, as
 his work on the "Virtual Aspen" projects was a major inspiration for
 several folks I knew of.
 (Digression on Vinge: While not considered by most to be a
 "cyberpunk," "True Names" was and is seminal. Due to limited
 printings, I didn't get a Xerox copy until 1986.)
 Those of us using the nets, such as they were, mostly did not think in
 terms of "place" but instead thought in terms of the "process" of
 communicating. At least this is my take, having various ties to the
 Bay Area hacker community.

Original from: netcom.com --> news.misc.6573
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