In 1984, Neuromancer, the debut novel of a largely unambitious American-Canadian named William Ford Gibson was published. Opening with the line, “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel,” Gibson unwittingly tapped into the emerging literary and artistic aesthetic known as cyberpunk, realized previously in the form of films such as Blade Runner and in the works of fellow science fiction writers such as Bruce Sterling.
In Neuromancer, a disgraced ex-hacker named Henry Dorsett Case, who has been literally drained of his talents after attempting to double-cross his last employer, is hired by a mysterious benefactor willing to restore his talents for the ultimate hacking job. Paired with a cybernetically enhanced street assassin named Molly, Case descends into the Byzantine world of black ops technology and must eventually confront a rogue artificial intelligence seeking to achieve digital transcendence.
Neuromancer depicted a more immediate future than those imagined by other science fiction authors by presenting a society transformed by various transhumanist technologies such as artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and virtual reality. It essentially represents one of the most consistent themes of Gibson’s work: the use of technology to extend the human condition in the form of mediated experiences and biomechanical augmentation. It is also famous for having coined the word “cyberspace,” which Gibson describes as “a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions,” and has since been used to refer to the Internet.
Gibson maintains that he got the inspiration for the term from watching stoned teenagers play videogames. In an interview with Dan Joseffson, Gibson contends that ‘cy...
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Joseffson, Dan. “I Don’t Even Have A Modem.” November 23, 1994. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from: http://josefsson.net/artikelarkiv/36-artiklar/93-qi-dont-even-have-a-modemq.html
Lillington, Karl. “Inventor of cyberspace steps back to the present.” Irish Times. April 25, 2003. Retrieved August 1, 2008 from: http://radio.weblogs.com/0103966/stories/2003/04/25/inventorOfCyberspaceStepsBackToThePresent.html
Newitz, Annalee. “William Gibson Talks to io9 About Canada, Draft Dodging, and Godzilla.” Io9. June 10, 2008.
Rapatzikou, Tatiani. Gothic motifs in the fiction of William Gibson. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004.
No Maps for These Territories. Dir. Mark Neale. Perf. William Gibson. 2000. DVD. New Video Group, 2003.
Posthuman by Nicholas Gane is a comparison of thoughts from selected scholars on the subject of the increasingly complex relationship between mankind and technology and how these technologies are breaking down the barriers that make us human. He starts by introducing us to the history of the concept of the Posthuman, which started with the cybernetic movement of the 1940’s and most influentially the writings of Norbert Wiener. The real popularity of the subject has its roots with Donna Haraways concept of the cyborg. Her concept is a postive rendition of the idea of posthumanism, which focuses on cybernetic technology and genetic modification and how these technologies could radically change humanity. Gane then defines Posthuman as when the
...ysterious technology. When referencing the new technology he states, “They supply the stuff for thought, but they also shape the process of thought” (6). Carr’s main point is the effect of technology, especially the Internet, is changing the programming of the brain.
In William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the theme of cyberspace allowing characters to restructure their identities is prevalent. Yet, does cyberspace, as Gibson outlines it, actually allow characters like Case, Molly, and Linda to create new identities or are these new identities formed superficially? Is Gibson critical of present anxieties about how cyberspace shapes identities or is he simply projecting speculative and hopeful aspects of cyberspace into the future? There are aspects of reality that cannot be replicated or replaced in cyberspace, and this is emphasized through the fact that Case tends to avoid reality in any way possible and instead prefers the virtual world over the physical. Gibson questions whether or not people can remain the same as they transfer from reality to the virtual world.
Gibson chooses words to aid the reader in imagining the "dystopia" of the Freeside, a place where the main portion of the book takes place: "For Case, who'd lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace, it was the Fall" (6). "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" (3). Gibson describes Freeside as if it is one of the worst places to go. Katie Cooper also describes the dystopia portrayed in this book as well. Gibson also uses words out of the science fiction terminology such as "jack-in and flatline" to encourage the reader to feel as though he or she is actually in the mist of cyberspace. Even the title of the novel depicts a certain characteristic of the book: "'Neuromancer,' the boy said, slitting long gray eyes'The lane of the land of the dead. Where you are, my friend Neuro from the nerves, the silver paths. Romancer" (243). Through Gibson's use of specific words he creates a constantly depressing mood and he allows the reader in many ways to visualize cyberspace themselves.
The ways in which characters communicate and interact with one another are redefined in William Gibson?s Neuromancer. An all-encompassing web of intrigue, the Net enables humans and non-humans to access and to communicate an infinite amount of data across time and space. Medical implants open another door on virtual communications. Non-living entities such as artificial intelligences and the Dixie Flatline construct overcome the physical barriers of communication. With the implementation of these new communications technologies, the physical and virtual realities of the society waver and meld into one another, resulting in an alienating cyber culture where this new reality of combined realities emerges.
Warrick, Patricia S. "Science Fiction Images of Computers and Robots." The Cybernetic Imagination. N.p.: The MIT, 1980. 53-79. Rpt. in Contemporary Lieterary Criticism. Ed. Jean C. Stine. Vol. 26. Detroit: Gale, 1983. 53-56. Print.
...e. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernatics, Literature and Informatics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999.
In Bruce Sterling's article, "Cyberpunk in the Nineties," he explained how public opinion had defined himself, Rucker, Shiner, Shirley, and Gibson as the cyberpunk "gurus" in the 1980's. Because of being labeled cyberpunk "gurus," the public had come to understand the definition of cyberpunk as "anything that cyberpunks write." To break this definition of cyberpunk established by popular public opinion, I will pursue giving cyberpunk a more definite definition. After reading numerous cyberpunk fiction stories, I noticed reoccurring themes in these stories. I believe these themes can form a criteria under which a story can be defined as cyberpunk. These criteria are total enhancement and integration of everyday life by technology, some degree of pleasure (by the author) in explaining this technology, cyber-lingo, and some degree of global connectiveness.
Stemming from World War II, a period full of death and uncertainty, post-modernist literature sought to deviate from the past and create something new. David Foster Wallace exemplified these ideas through his unique style. His writing contained jumbled ideas with copious footnotes and acronyms that he invented. The use of dark irony in his work parallels his psychological troubles, which are also echoed in this image. A dark eerie background surrounds Wallace with his only company being the singular light source to his left. Looking away from the viewer, he appears in a solitary state and disconnected from the rest of the world. By creating this mysterious façade, Wallace personifies his writing style, being unusual and different. His audience
When William Gibson's futuristic novel Neuromancer was first published, it seemed farfetched that technology could reach the level of sophistication he described. Science fiction movies have since repeated and expanded upon this theme, portraying corporate anxieties and paranoid fears of people to be controlled by aliens, man-made machines and artificial intelligence. Neuromancer takes us into the subculture of cyberpunk, a dystopia of an amoral society ruled by abstract powers. Gibson creates a world of fear and terror where technology permeates this futuristic world into its smallest detail and instead of serving humanity, rises to become its ruler and God.
Nicholas Carr gives a sense of unbiased in his work when he writes, “I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the database of the internet. The web has been a godsend to me as a writer” (394). Though this statement it is clear that he sees both sides of the argument and by demonstrating this to the author he strategically is appealing to ethos and supporting his own argument. In hopes of building credibility, he begins to write, “Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going ─ so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think” (394). Granted that he writes this in the beginning of his essay he is trying to credit himself as a victim which helps him support his argument against the constant usage of the internet. Nicholas Carr is aware that without building credibility within his essay the audience will dismiss his points as uneducated and meaningless.
"The Heart of the Well" " Composing Cyberspace Edited by Rich Holeton, San Fransisco: McGraw Hill, 1998, 151-163
Hollinger, Veronica. "Cybernetic Deconstruction." Storming the Reality Studio. Larry McCaffrey, ed. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1992.
In conclusion, technology has evolved and influenced our society drastically when it comes to human interaction. William Gibson’s Burning Chrome is a postmodernism/cyberpunk story that blurs the boundaries between what is being human. The story also blurs the line between the physical and the virtual that a human being interacts. The advances we had made with our technology have gotten to the point where it has entwined with human anatomy. Gibson’s novel was partly based on how our civilization is more and more coming together with technology. Another thing Gibson portrayed was how a person’s mind is transferred into a whole new world with the use of our modern devices. In the end, our society’s interaction with both machines and humans is getting to the furuturistic virtural world that Burning Chrome depicts in its text.
The text of “Burning Chrome” by William Gibson, is based on the tale of two professional hackers, Automatic Jack and Bobby Quine. Jack buys a piece of unknown software that turns out to be a sophisticated and almost untraceable Russian hacking software. Bobby decided to use this software to break in and steal money from a high level and well connected criminal known as Chrome. After Jack agrees, the two hackers successfully break in and steal money as well as take down Chrome. These two characters live in a futuristic world where human anatomy and customizable technology have become one and both software and hardware have become crucial to the people of this time. In this essay I will briefly explain how software and hardware play a crucial part within the plot and how they differentiate from one another.