When we move to the world of the bit, we encounter a new geography of multiple dimensions. This world is a networked n-dimensional space of multiple copies, existence, connectivity, locations and forms. Our concepts of a physical geography do not easily translate into this new hyper-geographic world. Information can be simultaneously distributed or clustered, singular or plural, static or dynamic, living or dead, past or present, real time, warped, accelerated or delayed. Most of these states appear unnatural and exceptional to us, given our limited physical experience and history.

Sitting in front of the screen we afford ourselves the illusion of two- or three-dimensional pictures of the complex bit world. This is becoming a primary limitation with our best efforts seeing virtual world representations of electronic libraries, bookshelves, offices and stores depicted in the familiar framework of home, office and town.

I find some of this more than irritating. In the real world I am accustomed to the fact that my body has to transport my brain from my desk to bookshelf, or from the meat counter to the checkout. But in a virtual library or store this limitation is still imposed - why?

In the bit world there are no physical limitations, and if I can see what I want, then I don't wish to wait, I want it instantly by click or voice command. The artificial illusion of a physical space and time delay offer us nothing in this world, apart from a frame of reference for navigation.

The realisation of instant access seems the more important but neglected objective. Navigating in the bit world still remains constrained by our limited thinking of real world geometry. Hyperlinks were one useful step, but inadequate for the mountains of data we now have to navigate. Virtual reality and multimedia environments help a little, but are still far too restricted. It looks as though we need a breakthrough in geographic representation, and something that translates the multidimensional bit world back to our limited human abilities and concepts.

We never worry about the location of information in our heads, we just request it and it is retrieved or withheld at will. To some extent this is now true of the Net: do we really care where the server is located any more? Mostly we just get a page on the screen from somewhere and go. Granted, there is a formal process that has some structure, but after that the process and geography are invisible to us. Soon voice activation will make it even more so, and only delay will suggest distance or complexity.

Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is:
http://cochrane.org.uk