ABSTRACT
In the science fiction novel Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984) coins the term cyberspace, sharing with readers his vision of a virtual frontier:
Although other metaphors for the spaces of Internet life have come forward-the information superhighway, for instance-none seems to have the aesthetic significance of Gibson’s, a feature too often ignored in analyses. Indeed, Neuromancer is often considered the most extreme of future visions; other possibilities, like that outlined in William Mitchell’s City of Bits (1996), do not go so far in imagining such a richly and holistically technological world. We begin with Neuromancer, in part, because we find the term cyberspace most appropriate for this chapter but also because we ourselves fascinated by the romantic appreciation with which readers appear to view the Gibsonian cyberpunk and the prominence of a guide, or necromancer, in the novel. Like the necromancer for Case, we seek often to be guides for our students, and we too enjoy imagining the different ways that cyberspace can be a home for innovative teaching and learning.
