Cyberspace: First Steps

Cyberspace: First Steps. Michael Benedikt, ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1991, 1992. Ills

A hefty anthology of essays, largely Theoretical (sic: capital "T"), including speculation by Nicole Stenger on "electronic transcendence and cyber Sacred Space." Rev. James A. Connor, S.J., American Book Review 14.1 (April-May 1992): 7, source the quotation. Cited in Brent Wood's "William S. Burroughs and the Language of Cyberpunk," SFS # 68 = 23.1 (March 1966). Begins with a short story by W. Gibson but mostly an anthology of articles on real-world possibilities for cyberspace, understood as a far extrapolation of Virtual Reality (VR): "In a true cyberspace . . . events will occur and time will pass independently of the participant, and multiple participants will be able to react accordingly." Rev. W. D. Stevens, SFRA Review #199 (July/August 1992): 38-39, consulted for our annotation and whom we quote.