Varieties of Cyberspace: Problems in Definition and Delimitation

Professor Strate's article "Varieties in Cyberspace" describes what he calls the three levels of cyberspace and their subdivisions. The first level is called zero-order cyberspace. The first of its categories is called paraspace, or nonspace. Paraspace deals with the paradoxical aspects of cyberspace: it exists, but at the same time it is unreal. The other category of zero-order cyberspace is cyberspacetime, which has to do with our perceptions of space and time. The second level is called first order cyberspace. Its three categories are physical cyberspace, conceptual cyberspace, and perceptual cyberspace. Physical cyberspace consists of the electricity, wires, modem, and anything else relevant in the physical world. Conceptual cyberspace deals with the "cognition" and logical qualities of cyberspace. Perceptual cyberspace deals with how we use our senses to obtain information about cyberspace. The last order is called second order cyberspace. This contains cybermedia space, which contains its own subcategories of aesthetic space, information or dataspace, and interactive or relational space.