Losing Our Senses Online: Investigating How Aesthetics Might be Used to Ground People in Cyberspace

Abstract

The term cyberspace was coined by William Gibson, who used it in his book, Neuromancer in 1989. Gibson defines cyberspace as "a consensual hallucination." Cyberspace also describes the virtual environment of the Internet, alongside its more whimsical portrayal as a global village. The Internet has become ubiquitous, available to anyone with a device and connection, easier to find than clean drinking water in some countries. Beyond being easily and constantly accessible, it is increasingly remolding our social realities, the way we communicate, and the way we behave Certainly, cyberspace is an area of information that does not correspond with the physics of the environment in which our bodies spend time, and when interacting in this environment we become almost desensitized to our physical surroundings. By entering into the world of cyberspace, we change the way we find one another, communicate with one another, participate, interact, and work with one another. Though it has been observed that "humans and other animals are remarkable in their ability to navigate through complex, dynamic environments",this statement refers principally to our sensed physical world.