I think it may not be that straightforward. I was part of a group interview with Gibson years ago, and I didn't fully appreciate one of the things he said at the time until years later. It was something about how everyone who loves a written story gets a very specific, vivid, custom image in their head of what it would be like to see it on screen. It can be so powerful that it's easy to forget that different people can come away with very different versions, based on what elements of the story resonated with them. He said this is why movie versions of beloved stories often get massive…
I'm not so much thinking of the future, but the these are my memories of programming / computers as a teen of the 90s (vaguely in chronological order, but it was a while back, forgive me): - Grey, so much grey. Backgrounds, buttons, shadows - Marvel at my FrontPage geocities prowess. - DHTML - OS/2 is going to be huge! So much power to be able to multi task - Eventually everyone will have an AOL account - Eventually everyone will have a hotmail account - Access will rule the world. Visual Basic. VBA. Gaudy block colorf UIs will be du jour - OMG Java Applets ruling the world - VRML…
> That first sentence characterizes the novel's diegetic (in-narrative) setting by giving the sky a property of an alternate medium (television). Unlike gentler rhetorical assertions such as simile, the declaration that the sky possessed a property of television suggests that the setting--like the intra-diegetic setting of the (Morrocan) beach in which an unnamed adversarial AI imprisons Case--is also a media construct in which the reader is imprisoned. That's a very interesting take. I never took it to have such a deep meaning, I took it rather at face value (and its…
I realize you say this somewhat in jest, but I want to respond to this because the first sentence of of William Gibson's _Neuromancer_ is paradoxically both timeless and time bound. > The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. That first sentence characterizes the novel's diegetic (in-narrative) setting by giving the sky a property of an alternate medium (television). Unlike gentler rhetorical assertions such as simile, the declaration that the sky possessed a property of television suggests that the setting--like the intra-diegetic setting of the…
I'm pretty sure that there's no way to do this without effectively just releasing pristine copies that somebody will cut the ads out of within 5 minutes of them being posted. They could use their own DRM'd file format and media player, but that would be broken in a week and have the effect of just releasing copies that somebody would cut the ads out of within 5 minutes of them beng posted. I can't think of any scheme except maybe releasing content through torrents that no one would care about enough to cut the ads out within 5 minutes of it being posted. Wait - maybe intense product…
cyberpunk in the 90s was a lived experience, particularly so in Eastern Europe. I read Neuromancer, watched johnny mnemonic and blade runner on pirated VHS tapes, and armitage and bubble gum crysis on pirate tv[0]. there were old grandmas selling cd releases from RAZOR 1911 and PARADOX all over the place. "ooh, little munchkin, you're into 3d modeling? here's a new cd I got lightwave 3d, 3d studio max and Maya, cracked[1], $3". there were dozens if not hundreds of BBSes, and your local friendly FIDO point administrator. there were several large markets where you would buy computer parts grand…
I read it twice, once in the mid-1990s, then a couple of years ago. I still love Gibson's language, and I love the ideas about AIs, but the flaws were much more apparent the second time around. For one, the creaky mechanics of the plot were much more transparent to me on re-eading it. The characters rush from location to location to find the next McGuffin, Case mostly being a passive spectator throughout. It feels like there's a checklist of items being ticked off one by one, and Gibson is never able to make it feel like an organic progression of events until near the end, where a very…
Nobody's really like Stephenson, but to the extent that he is something of a cyberpunk author, I'd say you might like some of these folks if you're not familiar with them yet: 1. William Gibson - Neuromancer, 'nuff said. The rest of the Sprawl Trilogy is great as well. 2. Rudy Rucker - I haven't read any of his stuff yet, but he is on my short-list of authors to start reading. Gets recommended a lot in these circles. 3. Richard K. Morgan - wrote the books that were the basis for the Altered Carbon series on Netflix if you're familiar with that at all. 4. John Brunner - not really…
There are numerous science fiction books that have explored the potential impact of artificial intelligence on humanity, ranging from utopian to dystopian scenarios. Here are some of the most interesting and relevant titles that address the questions and fears you've mentioned: "Neuromancer" by William Gibson (1984): This cyberpunk classic envisions a future where AI is deeply ingrained in human society and plays a significant role in shaping it. "2001: A Space Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke (1968): The novel, as well as the film adaptation by Stanley Kubrick, explores the relationship…
A real classic. As an author who was asked by my publisher to perform my own audiobook: 1. There is a reason 'reader of audiobooks' is a profession - it is stupid difficult. I will never do it again. 2. I loved this tape so much. It does such interesting things with its soundscape (from memory - if it actually is just Gibson reading it, then he must have embedded those memories through the sheer brilliance of his performance. 3. My fiancee is partially-sighted (I see her as an investment that will appreciate as biohacking becomes more and more prevalent) and she reads mostly by…