Visions of the Future
Gibson's vision is of a multi-dimensional space inhabited by vast 'data structures', where glowing and pulsing representations of data flow within the ubiquitous computer/ telecommunications networks of military and corporate memory banks.(see Johnny Mnemonic)
During the 80's, the Cyberspace vision was being fleshed out in the work shops and laboratories of silicon space , of seeing it, being in it, touching and feeling it, flying through it and hearing it were being developed. The inter-relationship between the vision and the practical, working 'virtual reality' machines (such as W industries ' Virtuality and VPL's Reality built for two) were on sale in both the us and Britain by 1990. By 1994 cheap headsets and programmes were available to mostly anyone.
The Cyberpunk future includes the likes of a computer-generated artificial environment known as virtual reality. (Not so futuristic, perhaps: VR arcade games are already here.) It includes dreams of virtual sex. (Not so futuristic, either: text based 'sex' already exists on computer networks. Call it Phone Sex: The Next Generation.) It includes further developments in robotics, artificial intelligence, even artificial life. More to the point of punk, it includes 'smart drugs,' legal substances that allegedly increase mental capacity.
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