Who coined the term "cyberspace" in the 1982 story "Burning Chrome"?

William Gibson coined the term “cyberspace” in his 1982 science-fiction story “Burning Chrome.” The story presents cyberspace as a shared, computer-generated environment—famously described as a kind of “mass consensual hallucination” experienced through networked computers.

“Burning Chrome” follows hackers Bobby Quine and Automatic Jack as they attempt to break into the systems of a powerful criminal figure. It was first published in the magazine Omni in July 1982 and became an important early work of cyberpunk fiction. Gibson later developed its ideas more fully in his 1984 novel Neuromancer.

A common mix-up is crediting Neuromancer with inventing the word. That novel made the concept internationally famous, but the term first appeared in “Burning Chrome.” Gibson also did not invent every idea associated with cyberspace: earlier writers explored virtual environments and computer networks, while Gibson gave the emerging concept its enduring name and vivid cultural image.