Cyberspace is not a matter of place, but the instant, the eternal present, where pasts and futures are continually recycled in eternal replication. In the computer world of the Web, the physical real is digitized and the digital becomes the real.
Electronic speed has fueled and facilitated the collapsing of space and time in all media. Many traditional media are unable to keep up. Thus, products are often out of date before the consumer gets them home: clothes, software, newspapers, and magazines (the news and weather are now reported immediately on the Web and render many newspapers out of date and irrelevant). In contrast, on the Web the only real currency is the current. For example, one of the authors recently brought the latest version of Norton Anti-Virus, only to be confronted, on loading the software, with the warning that the virus library used to identify malicious code was out of date. However, the program also offered to download the latest library via the Web. This principle is taken one stage further by an innovative piece of software, Oil Change, which allows a person's computer to automatically update its software via the Web the instant an upgrade becomes available. It also undoes any changes so that the user can work with previous versions of the software if he or she chooses.
The Web enables on-line, 24-hour, 365-day buying, selling, and consuming, with real-time delivery of certain products, services, and software. The Web facilitates the decoupling of local time and local space, the desynchronization of local schedules, and the synchronization of global ones. Thus, a wired person can work or teach a class simultaneously in Paris, New York, and Tokyo--while living in the Alps.
The two sides of postmodern time, desynchronization and synchronization, are particularly apparent in cyberspace. On the one hand, the Web is the ultimate source of instant gratification, while on the other, the Web is the ultimate titillation, where gratification is always deferred--one click, one instant, one hypertext link away. The Web feeds desire's ultimate object, desire. This may explain the addictive, drug-like nature of the cyberspace commented on in many magazines and newspapers. Surfing the Web echoes the all-consuming board-surfers' search for the perfect wave.
Fragmentation and digitization of time and space allow recombination into novel configurations that surpass the traditional limitations of space and time. Thus, the Web is facilitating an explosion of virtual companies: teleworking (where distance is negated) replaces local-working (where space and distance predominate--i.e., commuting distance, physical location, quality of the physical offices, etc.).
The U.K.-based Internet Shopper Ltd. is run entirely through Web-mediated teleworking, boasting a staff of some 20, all of whom work from home. Employees are based all over the U.K., from the South East Coast to the Scottish Highlands. All staff were hired over the Internet, work via the Internet, socialize via the Internet (many of the staff have never met face to face), and find their next job via the Internet. Products are developed, refined, sold, and supported via the Internet. In this case, teleworking has dramatically changed working patterns. Employees can structure their days as they please, working when it suits them rather than when one is traditionally expected to be at work. Furthermore, the distinction between work and holiday is becoming increasingly blurred, with employees working via cell phones while basking on the beach.
Finally, the Web is also the ultimate source of endless recycling, replaying, and re-editing of the past. Consider retro-software and retro-computer sites, where one can relive the earliest versions of space invaders, or run your favorite Sinclair ZX spectrum program. Furthermore, because all communication can be recorded on the Web, it is possible for people to relive on-line relationships at any time. Alexa is creating an Archive of the Web for pages that are no longer available. You can relive your favorite Web site of 1996, even though it was erased a year ago.
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