What does “[a] consensual hallucination experienced daily by millions” mean? William Gibson, author of the novel “Neuromancer,” gives us the phrase this assignment originates from; “Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation . . . Unthinkable complexity…” But what does this really mean? And more importantly, what does it capture and fail to capture about the reality of how we conduct ourselves on the internet? To fully articulate my reading of the phrase, I think it is important to break it down to its most straightforward form, bit by bit.
Surprisingly, despite being written in the 1980s, I believe the phrase captures the reality of the internet pretty well, especially compared to other readings from the time period. First, the internet is something that is consensually used (or experienced) by millions every day; it is not something that happens by accident. You can’t freely explore the internet without hitting paywalls, login pages, and, of course, terms and conditions that you must accept before continuing on your way.
Second and finally, while it could be argued whether the internet is a “hallucination,” I like to believe it is. While yes, it is based on reality, that doesn’t take away the fact that the internet and technology, as a whole, have blurred the lines between reality and fantasy. VR headsets and 3D social networking sites have made it so that we can simply plug in to go off to some “far away land” utterly detached from our own. That is truly crazy! And while I don’t believe this is what Gibson had in mind, the phrase still rings true in 2023.
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