Cyber

By Deane Barker • •

This prefix comes from the field of cybernetics, which is the study of the command and control of groups and beings (yes, it’s very vague). It’s usage in that field dates to the 1940s.

That name came from the Greek “kubernetes” for “steersman” or “governor.”

Sometime in the 1980s, this morphed into a general way of referring to the burgeoning field of computers, and then in the 1990s it became a way to refer to the Internet.

Its usage as such seems to be related to how vague it is. It sounds modern, and it can apply to anything. It was just a neologism that got picked up into common usage.

Why I Looked It Up

I just always wondered.

Links to this – Neuromancer October 15, 2023
I tried to read this years ago, but didn’t get too far. It’s a weirdly tough read. I picked it up in an airport on the way home from a conference and tried again. Gibson has an odd writing style. He’s done a lot of world-building, and he uses all sorts of nomenclature and jargon without much...
Links to this – Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature November 3, 2023
I’ve become interested in interactive fiction lately. I found an article about ergodic fiction, and when I defined that word, I found this book, in which the concept was apparently coined. It’s called Cybertext because the word cyber comes from a prefix refering to the control of systems. This in...
Links from this – Neologism March 21, 2022
A new word, coined to explain a new thing or phenomenon, but that hasn’t been totally accepted by the mainstream yet.