William Gibson who is considered one of the founding fathers of the Cyberpunk culture described cyberspace in his novel Neuromancer as "consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity" (Gibson, 67). The term cyberspace and the concepts developed from Gibson's novels have brought an interesting tie between cyberspace and psychedelic drugs.

The role of Drugs and Cyberspace plays an important part in Cyberpunk lore. Throughout many forms of cyber-sci-fi, we find a common link between drugs and cyberspace. Typically cyberspace is used to expand your environment, to look beyond the physical and let your mind explore in a different environment. Psychedelic drugs are thought of in the same context, to expand or leave your environment and let your mind explore a boundless environment. In science fiction commonly cyberspace is an important part of the futuristic life, people perceive it as an additional reality. If we think about our existence, our surroundings, are we fully aware of what we consider reality? Could it possibly be just small electronic signals our brain picks up? These questions are commonly brought up and can be seen through many cyber-sci-fi works, upon closer examination of these forms we are able to see a reoccurring trend, the use of drugs and cyberspace to expand the mind and leave the physical form. After all the chief function of our body is to transport one's mind, with cyberspace we have an additional environment where we can expand to depths not yet imaginable.

A close observation that can be made in cyberpunk media, is the sense of one's self. The self isn't focused on the physical body in cyber-sci-fi works but more focused on the mind and the soul. A lot of times it questions, what constitutes living, what constitutes ones self, is it this body, or does it go beyond what we consider reality. Commonly in Cyberpunk media the use of virtual reality is comparable to the usage of psychedelic drugs in the 60's and 70's where our mind is taken from the physical environment and allowed to interrupt and analyze without the form or link of the body.

The following quote is from the whiteroom scene of The Matrix where Morphus and Neo discuss what reality is. In this scene Neo has just been exposed to the truth that he has been living his life through a computer simulation. "What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is just electrical signals interpreted by your brain" (The Matrix). This is a dilemma brought up in many cyber-sci-fi works. What is reality, is it your environment? One's environment is typically a series of laws and illusions that your brain processes.

We live in a time where cyberspace is becoming a reality, almost an additional reality. Cyberspace is generally defined as a network of computer systems where the coding of the program is such that the user interface is that of a real or a plausible plane of existence. In Gibson's novel Neuromancer, cyberspace was a visual Internet, where a device the size of a small matchbox allowed us to interact with other users in a graphical environment. Even though visually we are lagging a bit behind, we have that corner stone of Gibson's vision of Cyberspace, which we call the Internet. The Internet is where a network of computers and users interact much like Gibson's view of Cyberspace. What is amazing is that when Gibson wrote Neuromancer, he had never touched a personal computer in his life he came up with the concept of Cyberspace from watching how people interact with technology. How people became emotionally intense over a video game or by a cartoon. Interactions on the Internet are becoming quite emotionally stimulating for people. As the Net progresses we are seeing a rapid increase in technology. Web cams, voice, high-speed access is all extremely affordable even for a poor college student such as myself. These newly developing technologies allow us to stimulate more of our senses, allowing us to explore more of this artificial environment. Another form of cyberspace interaction we are currently witnessing is the use of Avatars. Avatars are images, which people can visually associate with you, these may not graphically represent the physical you, but they represent your identity in this different environment. Avatars are the key for interaction in the Metaverse in the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stevenson. Stevenson describes the Metaverse, a form of Internet, as "all a part of the moving illustration drawn by his computer according to specifications coming down the fiber-optic cable. The people are pieces of software called avatars."(Stephenson, 35) His description of the Metaverse is almost identical to the actual Internet. In his novel, it's used as an additional reality to interact with people, to move and think within a place that follows different environmental laws.
In the television series "Star Trek" they have developed a device, called the holodeck, which allows the user to fully interact in a seemingly endless environment without having to strap on any gear. Different programs or simulations can be purchased or programmed by the user, allowing for endless explorations. These Star Trek holodecks take a form of exploring and interacting in an environment one may not of experienced before. For example the holodecks are often used to recreate scenes or periods of history.
It allows the user to fully interact during parts of history, at times allowing for a greater sense of education and allowing the user to experience what it may of felt like to be experiencing that event at that time. Holodecks are also used to relive memories from a past experience; the show portrays these recreated experiences of the holodeck as being mind expanding.

Cyberspace in my experience is almost psychedelic, and, in fact, cyberspace is already crawling with delighted acid heads. Timothy Leary, an advocate of virtual reality, wrote a book titled Chaos and Cyber Culture. His publication is a look into the future of cyberspace and it's ability to expand the consciousness, thinking, individual creativity, and the empowerment of computer and other brain technologies. Experiencing cyberspace isn't like tripping, they do have their differences, but it does coerce some of the same questions, most of them having to do with our fixation and rigid definition of reality itself. The usage of cyberspace/virtual reality in cyber-sci-fi seems to almost mirror the usage and thoughts of psychedelic drugs in the 60's.

Arguably begun in the 60's, this subculture revolves around the use and effects of psychedelic drugs, particularly psychedelics like LSD and mushrooms, to expose new ideas, new ways of thinking, new ways of approaching reality and consciousness. Timothy Leary at the time was trying to find a way to step out of one's self in order to analyze one's self.

One of the mysteries of modern day society is the nature of the mind and consciousness. Psychedelic culture is vital in exploring these areas. These areas in turn are vital to our understanding of who and what we are as humans and the basic philosophical questions humans have asked for centuries; what is reality? Recently, psychedelic culture has morphed with the virtual culture as seen in the potential exploration of the technological advancements of virtual reality as a means of "opening the doors of perception". Here-and-now extrapolations are evident in the use of "mind machines" as well as the resurgence of 60's guru Timothy Leary as a spokesperson for virtual reality. And need we mention the unbelievable explosive return of LSD across the US and other parts of the world.

Despite the consumption habits of Gibson's characters in his cyber-sci-fi novels, cyberspace has become a supplement to drugs as a preoccupation for the majority of its advocates. For many writers and adventurers cyberspace is, at this stage at least, a safe alternative to chemical use. The idea of a technology coming along which has the fun of the Sixties' idea of what drugs were, along with the shelter and insulation you have with computers, is a very alluring mix.

As Gibson himself says it is not really a prediction at all: "What's most important to me is that it's about the present. It's not really about an imagined future. It's a way of trying to come to terms with the awe and terror inspired in me by the world in which we live" (Gibson, 27).

The primary difference between cyberspace and the experience of psychedelic drug use is the individuality, or the social dynamic of each. While psychotropic drug usage is primarily a private, or at best a socially limited experience, cyberspace has or is quickly becoming a globally experienced form of consciousness. While both are simply perceived artificial realities, as the experience becomes shared by greater numbers of people it becomes, in many ways, more real.

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Gibson, William. "High Tech High Life. William Gibson and Timothy Leary in Conversation" Mondo #7, (1989)

Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 1984

Schnall, Marianne. "Timothy Leary in Cyberspace" Ecomall Online. Internet. 15 July 2000. available: http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/tim.htm

Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash. New York: Brantom, 1993

The Matrix. Dir. Wachowski Brothers, The. With Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. Warner Brothers, 1999.