Snowcrash

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Recommended: Cyberpunk genre research

Snowcrash

The day was finally here, the day to pick our novels to read for the semester. Being Nick I hadnt even looked at the reading list and the time was here to pick my novel. My friend in the class Maygan let me look at the reading list for a brief second. I skimmed through the list looking for an interesting book title and maybe a title that I could relate something in my life to. I picked the novel SnowCrash, by Neal Stephenson. SnowCrash, sounded like a fun snowboarding novel or winter novel that would be fun to read. Maybe something about a snow mobile crash. This book has no snow at all in it. . I was way off. This book has a more optimistic look on our future, and the outcome of our present technology. The book turns out to have a typical underdog vs. the world theme, but the plot is so intriguing that this should not dissuade you of the quality. One of the most distinctive features of cyberpunk is the technological aspect. Traditional science fiction dealt with things that were possible, but not probable. Cyberpunk not only deals possible, not just the probable, but technology that man already has. This is not to say that cyberpunks do not have there fair share of far flung imaginative human interface hookups and so forth, but they are talking about technology that if it were to be developed, it would be within the writers life time or so.

The other difference in the technology that is described in cyberpunk is how it is used. Almost every person in the stories has access to the technology. More importantly, the technology involved normally allows for extreme human inter-action with it. The writer will make computers and humans connect, and allow the computer to alter the mind, human social behaviors, and/or society itself. Cyberpunk futures make computers not only become a part of everyday life, but a integral element for survival and prosperity. This aspect is the main plot in Gibson's novel. His main character, Chase, needs to find a way to reverse the damage in a chip in his head for him to do the type of work he wanted to do. Before cyberpunk, humans had control over their technology, and it was a separate entity, but now the distinction over how much a person is human and how much of them are machine is not so clear.

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