Editing Cyberspace (section)

===Predating computers===
A forerunner of the modern ideas of cyberspace is the [[Descartes|Cartesian]] notion that people might be deceived by an [[evil demon]] that feeds them a false reality. This argument is the direct predecessor of modern ideas of a [[brain in a vat]] and many popular conceptions of cyberspace take Descartes's ideas as their starting point.

[[Visual arts]] have a tradition, stretching [[Zeuxis and Parrhasius|back to antiquity]], of artifacts meant to [[Trompe-l'œil|fool the eye]] and be mistaken for reality. This questioning of reality occasionally led some philosophers and especially theologians<ref>Ranging across history, from the interference of depictions of newly died in the 
[[Great Dreaming]] of Australian aboriginal ancestors; East Roman/Byzantine iconoclasm movements in the 8th and 8th c. CE; in Islam, [[Sunni]] and other exegetes from the 9th century onward; in Judaism, Joseph Karo's [[Shulkhan Arukh]] (Code of Jewish Law: Venice, 1563); and, in the Bahai faith, the concerns of [[Shoghi Effendi]], the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith (1921–57).</ref> to distrust art as deceiving people into entering a world which was not real (see [[Aniconism]]). The artistic challenge was resurrected with increasing ambition as art became more and more realistic with the invention of photography, film (see ''[[L'Arrivée d'un Train en Gare de la Ciotat|Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat]]''), and immersive computer simulations.