The Possibility of Resistance within The Rhizomatics of Cyberspace
The Possibility of Resistance within The Rhizomatics of Cyberspace

William Gibson’s Neuromancer

Summary/Abstract: In his “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” Deleuze introduces contemporary society as a control society, delineating it as a rhizomatic one which, by its very nature, trespasses national boundaries, attains a global dimension and develops a new mechanism of control. As opposed to the strict striations of disciplinary societies, for Deleuze, control society is characterized by its smooth spaces that allow for the endless circulation and flexibility of capital, control, information and production. The rhizomatic and machinic aspect of control society resonates with the contemporary theories of cyberspace, particularly that of William Gibson, who introduced the term in his novel Neuromancer (1984). For Gibson, cyberspace is a virtual domain or a non-space where the taken-for-granted limits of materiality and the body are transcended. In Deleuzian philosophy, likewise, cyberspace is a disembodied space that has no fixed organizing principle but a molecular plane of disorganization that frequently meets the moments of reterritorialization aimed at molar organizations. In both cases, cyberspace corresponds to a space which can smooth over the social striations and ontological boundaries, and offer the dynamism of becoming instead of Being and the disorganization of body without organs instead of body as organism. In this regard, this article addresses the possible affinity between Deleuze and Gibson’s conceptual constellations of cyberspace, and discusses the implications of resistance within the rhizomatics of cyberspace in light of Deleuzian philosophy.

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