The Sword and Laser discussion
This topic is about
Neuromancer
Podcasts
>
Neuromancer (S&L #1-3?)
date
newest »
newest »
I've always been a little intimidated by cyberpunk but surprised myself by understanding (from the book itself) all you have explained in the previous post. Maybe the effects of a post-Matrix world have re-wired my brain.
I found it frustrating to be listening to the podcast so long after the fact because I also had the urge to yell out corrections and explanations.
Thanks for that, Richard. I wasn't around for that, but I would have loved to join in that discussion. Was this a group read? Let me check.
It was the first group read for the podcast.
Richard wrote: "I've been listening to the early podcasts in the archives. If only I had been around for this discussion, I could have explained so many things to Veronica better than Tom did.About the net: imag..."
I'm actually reading Neuromancer at the moment so thanks for this post - just a question - with "jacking" in, I have a mental image as you described with a port hardwired to the brain - but I must have missed the actual description. There's "dermatrodes" which I assume are placed on the skin around your head, but its now bugging me that I've missed the reference to a "port" for "Jacking in." What do they call it in the book?
About the net: imagine the world wide web as a 3D Virtual Reality Graphical User Interface. There are 3 levels of connecting to the net: external displays (what we have now); SimStim, using external electrodes worn in a headband or skullcap (like an EEG set-up) to provide a full-sensory experience using your mind as the display (this also replaces the BluRay player in the entertainment industry); and jacking in, using a port permanently implanted in the brain to connect directly to the computer (the future equivalent of having a T-1 connection installed in your house). This last may be closer than you think (http://phys.org/news194796581.html).
Microsofts: once you have a port installed in your brain, it would make sense to have removable media for it, like a thumb drive that plugs into your head. Instead of having to download Neuromancer to your Kindle & navigating with the touchscreen while you read the display, you can slot The Complete Works of William Gibson microsoft & read it just by thinking about it.
Dealing in hot RAM: I believe the value is in the stolen proprietary data stored on the device, not the device itself, kinda like when a credit card company looses a briefcase full of customer account numbers. A small amount of RAM can hold a whole lot of information in text format.
Riviera has some very expensive, very high end projection equipment implanted in his body that allows him to broadcast his imaginings as sight & sound to those around him. I believe this was holographic in nature, projecting a real image you could see but not touch.
The Panther Moderns little distraction: There were bad psychedelic drugs pumped into the buildings vent system in addition to the subliminal images & irritating sounds.
Wintermute & Neuromancer: (view spoiler)[ The authorities are afraid of SkyNet happening, so there are laws, enforced by the Turing cops, to keep people from building AIs that were too intelligent or or too independent. Marie France Tessier, a genius working at the cutting edge of AI development, liked to push the boundaries. By removing the barriers that separated them, these 2 AIs merged, becoming a single greater being able to take advantage of cloud computing & free itself from the prison of it's mainframes. (hide spoiler)]
Gibson's Sprawl series remains among my top reads to revisit, so if there is some detail still nagging at you, I may be able to explain it for you.
I have heard that Gibson himself was not a technogeek, but that he hung out in the same coffee shops where he absorbed the flavor of their language & culture.