1996 is many years to late, maybe 118 years[1], maybe 14 years[2] but late anyway. Hard to say [3], but to answer your question: "no, probably not" 1: The Tele

1996 is many years to late, maybe 118 years[1], maybe 14 years[2] but late anyway. Hard to say [3], but to answer your question: "no, probably not" 1: The Telephonoscope was already imagined in 1878: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Telephonoscope.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Telephon... 2: William Gibsons is often credit with the idea of "cyberspace" as in a virtual environment where people choose their own avatar and move around interacting with each other, with systems or data. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Chrome#Reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Chrome#Reception 3: Gibson might have played MUD in the 70s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD1