Editing Cyberspace (section)

===Influenced by computers===

====Philosophy====
American [[counterculture]] exponents like [[William S. Burroughs]] (whose literary influence on Gibson and cyberpunk in general is widely acknowledged<ref>Alexander Laurence, [http://www.altx.com/int2/john.shirley.html An Interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103104953/http://www.altx.com/int2/john.shirley.html |date=2007-01-03 }} with [[John Shirley]], 1994</ref><ref>[http://www.streettech.com/bcp/BCPgraf/CyberCulture/bgtg.htm "Burroughs/Gysin/Throbbing Gristle"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061113202227/http://www.streettech.com/bcp/BCPgraf/CyberCulture/bgtg.htm |date=2006-11-13 }}, retrieved December 31, 2006</ref>) and [[Timothy Leary]]<ref>"Internet will be the LSD of the 90s", quoted by [http://www.timothyleary.us/timothyleary.html an on-line biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061209063453/http://www.timothyleary.us/timothyleary.html |date=2006-12-09 }}</ref> were among the first to extol the potential of computers and computer networks for individual empowerment.<ref>[[Douglas Rushkoff]], [http://www.deepleafproductions.com/utopialibrary/text/rushkoff-godfathers.html "Godfathers of Cyberspace"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061214074317/http://www.deepleafproductions.com/utopialibrary/text/rushkoff-godfathers.html |date=2006-12-14 }}</ref>

Some contemporary philosophers and scientists (e.g. [[David Deutsch]] in ''The Fabric of Reality'') employ virtual reality in various [[thought experiment]]s. For example, Philip Zhai in ''Get Real: A Philosophical Adventure in Virtual Reality'' connects cyberspace to the Platonic tradition:

{{blockquote|Let us imagine a nation in which everyone is hooked up to a network of VR infrastructure. They have been so hooked up since they left their mother's wombs. Immersed in cyberspace and maintaining their life by teleoperation, they have never imagined that life could be any different from that. The first person that thinks of the possibility of an alternative world like ours would be ridiculed by the majority of these citizens, just like the few enlightened ones in Plato's allegory of the cave.<ref>{{cite book |last= Zhai|first= Philip|author-link= Philip Zhai|date= 1998|title= Get Real: A Philosophical Adventure in Virtual Reality|edition= 1st|publisher= Rowman & Littlefield|page= 82|isbn=9780847689835}}</ref>}}

Note that this [[brain-in-a-vat]] argument conflates cyberspace with [[reality]], while the more common descriptions of cyberspace contrast it with the "real world".