Come the Neuromancer

I’ve got tickets to hear seminal sci-fi writer, William Gibson speak in Bristol – and I’m excited!  For those not in the know, he is one of the most important living sci-fi writers – scratch that – most important writers living today, IMHO.  His 1984 novel, Neuromancer is a stunning book that defines not only a genre of writing (cyberpunk) but also much of the language and culture of the early Internet – which is still with us today as it has grown.  I read it years ago – then re-read it more recently (post the first dot-com boom) and was shocked at the prescience of how he tackles the messy interface of humanity and technology.  The novel was also the subject of a well received game back in ’88.  Watch the trailer for the new Deus Ex game and the ghosts of Neuromancer are all over it.

Early cover of Neuromancer

I quote:

Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding…