[Domenic_S]

> Trusted Access for Cyber program

Using "cyber" as a noun there seems language coded for government. DC has a love of "the cyber" but do technologists use the term that way when not pointing at government?

[jasongill]

The finance industry does; I know private equity just calls anything security related "cyber", which irritates me.

[cubefox]

Yeah, cybernetics was unrelated to security, and so was the cyberspace or cyberpunk.

[xg15]

Same as with "crypto" which doesn't have any more to do with cryptography either...

I wonder if that was a side effect of all the William Gibson style scifi gaining a browser audience.

Originally, the "cyber" in "cyberspace" was clearly from "kybernetic", focusing on the " virtual worlds", AI, mind uploading ideas, etc.

But the actual plot of e.g. Necromancer heavily involves hacking, warfare and all kinds of topics that would be relevant for cybersecurity today.

So maybe "normies" learned to associate "cyber" with hacking instead of the kybernetic concepts it came from.

[cubefox]

My theory is this: Until recently, "cyber x" meant the same as "Internet x" (because Internet ≈ Cyberspace), except that "cyber" sounds a bit cooler, and security organizations wanted to sound especially cool, so they were the ones who used "cyber" most, causing the shift in meaning.

[nomel]

Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Cyber: Of, relating to, or involving computers or computer networks (such as the Internet)

This is what I've always understood the word to mean, and how I've always seen it used, for decades.

[kevin_thibedeau]

Cybernetics is actually about feedback control systems. The original meaning has been distorted because the general public doesn't have the background to distinguish different kinds of magic. The Sperry autopilot was a cybernetic system, as were electro-mechanical gun computers.

[nomel]

Sure, but that hasn't been the common use for "cyber-" for the past ~46 years, which is about ~2x longer than the time between when the term "cybernetics" was coined and the "cyber" was taken from it in 1980.

[xp84]

When I was like 12, I remember my fellow horny youths (or it could have been anyone, I guess!) in AOL chatrooms constantly asking each other "wanna ciber?"

[fluoridation]

That would be "cyber" as a verb, not "cyber" as a noun. Would anyone have understood what you meant back then if you'd said "I was in a cyber just now" instead of "I was cybering just now"?

[doublerabbit]

a/s/l?

[xg15]

...right, forgot it had that meaning too...

[Domenic_S]

> Cyber: Of, relating to, or involving computers or computer networks (such as the Internet)

You left out the part of speech for that entry, which is "adjective"; as in "the cyber marketplace", not "the cyber".

[timthorn]

It's the same Greek root as Kubernetes