William Gibson tweeted this today
"Vaping", coined by Rob Stepney, actually came along only a little later than "cyberspace"
— William Gibson (@GreatDismal) May 12, 2015
which sent me in two directions.
First:
the arrival of vaping seems to have been totally big brand free. Ask the average brand theorist about vaping and they'd have found it utterly, utterly preposterous that vaping could become as big and popular as it is without the 'reassurance' and 'validation' of big, mainstream, well-known brands.
Turns out, utterly not. People are entirely, blithely happy to suck down random vapours from some strange new shop on the corner with a brand name that you've never heard of before that looks like it was knocked up by a designer who fell off the back of Cyberdog. No need for reassurance, awareness, nothing.
Second:
It reminded me how smart Mr Gibson is; to go from the soundscape in your head of the Walkman, to the consensual hallucination of cyberspace.