Neuromancer

This week I tackled the cyber-punk bible, William Gibson's Neuromancer. William Gibson is a prodigious American writer that you may recognize for having coined the word "cyberspace" (or for the poorly made film called Johnny Mnemonic).


The story centers around Case, a down and out hacker (called cowboys in the book) who is on the verge of death caught between illegal business deals gone bad, a drug addiction, and a cash crunch. To make matters worse, Case is unable to enter the "mass consensual hallucination" known as cyberspace due to a chemical he was injected with by a previous employer as payback for skimming off the top.


A mysterious pair come and retrieve Case from his personal purgatory and promise to get him back into working order in exchange for working a job for them. He agrees and the cyberpunk crime thriller begins.


The book is largely concept driven with the characters being somewhat flat. But for technophiles, that works out just fine. Highlights include: 


1. A world dominated by physical upgrades to the body. The female sidekick Molly possesses optical lens implants that provide vision in all sorts of environments and even have a small LED readout used primarily for displaying the time. She also has a juiced up nervous system allowing her to best most with faster reaction speeds. Finally, Molly also has ultra-sharp retractable razor blades implanted in each finger allowing her to slice her way through clumsy opponents.


Other characters utilize "Microsofts" which seem to be memory enhancers. Gibson writes about an art dealer at one point who has many of these implanted in his head allowing him to possess a competitive edge in dealing.


2. The Singularity coming to fruition. In Neuromancer, the mega-corporations own AIs that are strictly regulated by the world government(s?). While they are extremely powerful, they have strict controls and safety measure in place to prevent them from truly becoming super-human. As you would expect, this is very difficult to do, even with an AI of average intelligence simply because, just like real life blackhats, they are free to attack from any number of vectors and time is 100% on their side. 


In Neuromancer, Gibson doesn't probe the consequences of a super-human AI. Instead, he leaves it with a statement that applies to many characters and aspects of the book: "Things are still things".


3. Cyberspace- Mass Consensual Hallucination. This concept has been pretty well hashed out by popular sci-fi movies of the past two decades. In many ways, we are already living in cyberspace. We socialize in cyberspace (G+, Facebook, Twitter). We shop in cyberspace. Many of us even make our living by working in cyberspace (building websites, doing customer service via chat messengers, improving security). 


The primary difference is the medium of interaction. Gibson presents a version in which your mind is supplied sensory inputs allowing you to "actually" be there. Not only that, but the popular entertainment form of the day is supplied by "Simsuits". The suits are worn by entertainers and allow the user to feel their sensations. So, if you were watching an action movie, you would feel the heat of explosions, the wind of fast car chases, the recoil of a shotgun. 


I would be lying if I said the book was an easy read. However, if you are at all interested in cyberpunk, future tech, or the singularity; I think it is worth it. Just thinking about Neuromancer makes me want to dive back into the sprawl and read the rest of the trilogy ( Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive).