Cyber and Control

Super-smart-dude Ed Felten notes Obama's plan to establish a "National Cyber Advisor," and uses the occasion to consider the background of the word (an old Greek word meaning "(roughly) one who guides a boat, such as a pilot of rudder operator").

He notes the ironic switch of meaning when Gibson coined it in Neuromancer to mean the "space" where network group interactions occur:

The odd thing about this usage is that the Internet lacks the kind of central control system that is the subject matter of cybernetics. Gibson knew this — his vision of the Net was decentralized and chaotic — be he liked the term anyway.

Ed goes on to discuss how the meaning of "control" is becoming more and more relevant in the concept of "cyberspace."