William Gibson and the trademarking of cyberspace

From the first days of the web, people have repeated the story that Autodesk trademarked “cyberspace” and Gibson retaliated by trademarking “Eric Gullichsen”.

从互联网诞生之初，人们就一直在重复这样一个故事：Autodesk 公司注册了“赛博空间”（cyberspace）的商标，而吉布森（Gibson）则以注册“埃里克·古利克森”（Eric Gullichsen）的商标作为报复。

In 1989, I was working at the Autodesk Research Lab on early virtual reality, a project started after we visited Scott Fisher at NASA Ames. Our nascent system was a 386 with a pair of Matrox graphics cards on the ISA bus, a VPL EyePhone, a Polhemus tracker, and a data glove. It ran at six to ten frames per second on models with a few hundred polygons. Sluggish, but marginally enough to get us Through the Looking Glass.

1989 年，我在 Autodesk 研究实验室从事早期虚拟现实技术的研究，该项目始于我们拜访美国国家航空航天局（NASA）艾姆斯研究中心的斯科特·费舍尔（Scott Fisher）之后。我们当时初具雏形的系统是一台 386 电脑，配备了一对 ISA 总线上的 Matrox 显卡、一个 VPL EyePhone 头显、一个 Polhemus 追踪器和一只数据手套。它在处理几百个多边形的模型时，运行速度仅为每秒 6 到 10 帧。虽然迟缓，但勉强足以让我们“穿过镜子”。

Our motto was “Reality Isn’t Enough Any More”.

我们的座右铭是“现实已不再足够”。

I was also spending a lot of time hanging out with Timothy Leary, whose suggestion was responsible for my quitting my job at MCC and moving to California. I’d met him at the Hackers 2.0 conference in 1986 and gave him a ride to the San Jose airport. We became fast friends, and I did quite a lot of writing with him, most of which remains unpublished. But that’s a story for later. Timothy, who appears in a samizdat Autodesk virtual reality video, nicknamed our VR lab “Cyberia”.

当时我还花了很多时间与蒂莫西·利里（Timothy Leary）混在一起，正是他的建议促使我辞去了 MCC 的工作并搬到了加利福尼亚。我是在 1986 年的“黑客 2.0”会议上认识他的，当时我还开车送他去了圣何塞机场。我们很快成了朋友，我与他共同撰写了大量文章，其中大部分至今未曾发表。但那是后话了。蒂莫西曾出现在一段 Autodesk 的地下虚拟现实视频中，他将我们的 VR 实验室戏称为“Cyberia”。

Timothy was a tremendous fan of Gibson, and considered his seminal 1984 novel Neuromancer extremely prescient about the impending digital revolution.

蒂莫西是吉布森的超级粉丝，他认为吉布森 1984 年的开创性小说《神经漫游者》（Neuromancer）对即将到来的数字革命有着极具预见性的描述。

As our VR developments crept slowly towards becoming a product, we at Autodesk applied to register a trademark “cyberspace”. Timothy informed me Gibson was plenty miffed about this, so I wrote him what I felt was a conciliatory letter, though ending snarkily by quoting his own words, “The street finds its own use for things.”

随着我们的 VR 开发项目缓慢地向产品化迈进，我们 Autodesk 公司申请注册了“赛博空间”的商标。蒂莫西告诉我吉布森对此非常恼火，于是我写了一封自认为带有和解意味的信给他，尽管信的结尾我尖刻地引用了他自己的话：“街头自有其用处。”（The street finds its own use for things.）

In reply, Gibson had his lawyers send Autodesk a letter. Which I recall we ignored.

作为回应，吉布森让他的律师给 Autodesk 发了一封信。我记得我们当时无视了它。

Timothy - ever the incorrigible prankster - circulated the rumor that Gibson was attempting to trademark “Eric Gullichsen” in retaliation. Then Barlow, for reasons of his own, embellished that rumor. Later amplified by Rudy Rucker.

蒂莫西——这个无可救药的恶作剧者——散布了这样一个谣言：吉布森试图通过注册“埃里克·古利克森”的商标来进行报复。随后，巴洛（Barlow）出于自己的原因润色了这个谣言。后来，鲁迪·鲁克（Rudy Rucker）又进一步将其放大。

About a year later - after I’d already left Autodesk for my VR startup, Sense8 Corporation - we were invited to the inaugural Art Futura 1990 in Barcelona. And there, in the lobby of some swank hotel, I met Gibson. He opined in a laconic drawl that although the street finds its own use for things “Autodesk is not the street”.

大约一年后，在我离开 Autodesk 并创办了自己的 VR 初创公司 Sense8 Corporation 之后，我们受邀参加了 1990 年在巴塞罗那举办的首届 Art Futura 大会。在那里，在一家豪华酒店的大堂里，我见到了吉布森。他用一种简洁而缓慢的语调发表意见说，虽然“街头自有其用处”，但“Autodesk 并不是街头”。

There was plenty of cava consumed in the small hours before the time Barcelonans sit down to eat endless rounds of tapas. As I recall, after all the many Art Futura parties we’d put the matter behind us, or close enough.

在巴塞罗那人坐下来享用无尽的塔帕斯（tapas）之前，我们在凌晨时分喝了不少卡瓦酒（cava）。我记得，在参加了 Art Futura 的多场派对后，我们已经把这件事抛诸脑后了，或者说至少差不多放下了。

And there was a memorable visit to Gaudi’s Park Güell, whose giant lizard of crazy-quilt ceramic appears in Count Zero.

此外，还有一次令人难忘的对高迪（Gaudi）桂尔公园（Park Güell）的访问，公园里那只由碎瓷片拼贴而成的巨型蜥蜴曾出现在《零伯爵》（Count Zero）一书中。

So: Autodesk did apply to register Cyberspace, and Gibson really did object. But Gibson trying to trademark Eric Gullichsen was Timothy Leary’s prank, propagated until it became accepted history.

总之：Autodesk 确实申请注册了“赛博空间”商标，而吉布森也确实提出了反对。但关于吉布森试图注册“埃里克·古利克森”商标的说法，其实是蒂莫西·利里的恶作剧，经过传播后竟成了公认的历史。