ABSTRACT
Synopsis: although the colonising of cyberspace is only 30 years old, Norbert Wiener foretold its existence and its future 70 years ago. Wiener saw the personal computer as an extension of the mind, not as a replacement for the brain, and predicted the vast reach of the electronic networks enabled by Facebook and Twitter. He foresaw that a new set of ethical principles would be needed to govern the human interactions in this new environment. Marshall McLuhan interpreted the new medium while Steve Jobs opened up an all-encompassing communication web which people instinctively knew how to colonise. Many of the program designs for this web were enabled by Christopher Alexander’s pattern language, which also provides a pathway to collaborative design for future cities, landscapes and ways of living.
