William Gibson's Neuromancer: Cyberspace


    As described by William Gibson in his science fiction novel Neuromancer,
cyberspace was a "Consensual hallucination that felt and looked like a physical
space but actuallly was a computer-generated construct representing abstract
data."   Years later, mankind has realized that Gibson's vision is very close to
reality.   The term cyberspace was frequently used to explain or describe the
process in which two computers connect with each other through various telephone
lines.   In this communication between the two systems there seems to be no
distance between them.
    There are now four categories
that describe the major components of todays
cyber space.   One oof those is commercial on-line services. These large computer
systems can host thousands of users simultaneously.   When a computer user
purchases an account from the company they receive
a screen name and a password.
The user then can use his or her screen name and password to log on and use the
system.   Most of the online systems have chat rooms where users can chat in real
time with one another. some users even think of on-line services as a community.
    The second category
involves Bulletin Boards or (BBS's).   These services
allow the user accounts like their larger on-line service cousins.   These BBS's
have less users because they run on smaller computers.   The system operators,
more   commonly known as sysops, are running the boards.   Since most BBS's are
hobbies there is usually no charge for an account.   The same as on-line services,
users use BBS's for trades, games, and to chat among other users.   Since
bulletin boeard are so easy to set up there are thousands of them located around
the world.   Each board has a theme.   These themes range from astronomy to racist
neo-nazi crap.   A boards theme helps users in their search for a board that will
satisfy their personal preference.
    A third category
is the Private System.   These private systems... [continues]

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