cyberspace

Etymology

Blend of cybernetics + space, coined by American-Canadian speculative fiction writer William Gibson in his 1982 short story collection Burning Chrome and popularized in his 1984 novel Neuromancer.

noun

1. A world of information accessed through the Internet.
2. (by extension, somewhat dated) The Internet as a whole.
   Meanwhile, the pioneers of the computer-mediated communication networks collectively referred to as cyberspace are not willing to wait. Employing whatever tools they can find, they are constantly pushing the techno-cultural envelope. Life in cyberspace is often conducted in primitive, frontier conditions, but it is a life which, at its best, is more egalitarian than elitist, and more decentralized than hierarchical. 1993 March, Mitch Kapor, “Where Is the Digital Highway Really Heading?”, in Wired Magazine
   However, some have accused cyberspace of provoking a dangerous collapse in the old order of civilised society. The shift in the balance of power online has given rise to a more powerful concern: the rise of the uncivil web. April 19, 2012, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in The Guardian
   “We call on all states, including China, to uphold their international commitments and obligations and to act responsibly in the international system, including in cyberspace,” according to a statement from NATO. 2021-07-19, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, David E. Sanger, quoting NATO, “U.S. Formally Accuses China of Hacking Microsoft”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
3. (science fiction) A three-dimensional representation of virtual space in a computer network.
   I knew every chip in Bobby's simulator by heart; it looked like your workaday Ono-Sendai VII, the ‘Cyberspace Seven’, but I'd rebuilt it so many times that you'd have had a hard time finding a square millimetre of factory circuitry in all that silicon. 1982 July, William Gibson, “Burning Chrome”, in Omni, volume 4, number 10, page 72