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| (image by Tony Werman) |
CYBER-
Combining form.
[Shortened from CYBERNETIC, CYBERSPACE, etc. Cyber from Greek kubernetes steersman, from kubernan to steer.]
Forming words relating to (the culture of) computers, information technology,
the Internet, and virtual reality, or denoting futuristic concepts.
There was a time when sticking cyber onto something made it sound really edgy and cool. It was that heady period between the mid-90s and the early 00s; we were all getting our first email accounts, and how we marvelled at its convenience, only requiring a quick bus ride into town to the cybercafe run by that beardy-student-type guy that projected his BO like a badge of honour. Lurid tales of cybernauts, cybersex and cybersquatting emerged, and for a brief time it seemed as if anyone who could navigate cyberspace and think of a cool business name like Cyberweartronics Internationicom was destined to become a dot com billionaire. Now, though, cyber as a prefix sounds dated and passé. We've even stopped wondering if we're in The Matrix because, frankly, we just don't care either way. We've succumbed to cyberfatigue, a neologism I've just coined, one I would normally be excited about, but it's still all a bit ... m'eh.
Do please leave your most techcentric (or cyberphobic) comments in the box below.
A role model when I was a mere 19 years old was Hek Belov, a cyberneticist who repaired sentient and psychologically damaged computers.
ReplyDeleteOh the memories this conjures up in my mind! Our first access to "cyberspace" came from a community lab at my school across the street... oh the joy of junior high kids when we learned how to send emails to each other as we sat only feet from each other. Too much cyberfun to handle. Not to mention dial-up and my father yelling at us to let him use the phone...
ReplyDeleteAnd now it's all just a fact of life...
It's kind of sad that new ideas and inventions lose their novelty so quickly...