William Gibson's Neuro-Metaphor of User Interface

Abstract

The authors actualize the problem of studying neuro-metaphor as an element of the user interface human-computer. By analyzing the epistemological boundaries of the concepts information and interface in theoretical discussions of the philosophy of science and technology, the authors reveal the heuristic potential of the category of interface in media. Analysis of the dialectical-dialogical field of theoretical discussions on the social and technological role of metaphor calls into question the adequacy of defining the intensively developing technogenic environment as an information one. The problems of modern society were predicted in W. Gibsons debut story in 1977. The authors achieve the goal of the study, the clarification of individual properties of the interface with human participation in the media space of modern society, by a set of theoretical means, consistently solving the cognitive problems outlined above. It becomes obvious that the heuristic potential of the interface category in media is not limited to the mobile boundary of human interaction with technogenic reality: almost any human interaction with the surrounding reality can be considered with its help. The study confirms the significant role of metaphor in the functionality of interfaces, due to the absence of such a property of information as informativeness in natural and artificial technogenic information environments, and the value of modeling prospective risks and threats in artistic creativity as a subject of media studies. The article will be of interest to media theorists, cultural scientists and philosophers dealing with problems of mass culture, art and scientific communication.

Keywords

• media
• information
• informativeness
• interface
• cyberspace
• metaphor
• neuro-metaphor
• science fiction
• art modeling
• w. gibson