Gibson’s “Nueromancer” presents the dark side of technology. This is not at all an overstatement, as it seems to me that Gibson only noted the negative effects of technological advance. In my opinion technology goes hand in hand with pure innovation and that is why I believe everyone has to encourage and support technological advances. Maybe, it is related to the fact that I use a computer on a daily basis. It is so helpful and within easy reach so why would it be dangerous? Yet, I am not able to get out of my head the image of the world depicted by Gibson.
In his book, Gibson shows how if we rely too much on machines, we will eventually become one with the machine. He tries to warn us by depicting a world in decay with nothing human left in it. There is a permanent sense of degradation and death: “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel” (Gibson 3). It is interesting how Gibson tries to show the threats of digitized world. Actually, the main character of the book believes that Cyberspace represents a better life. In this respect, there is a passage that reflects the relation between body and mind: “In the bars he’d frequent as a cowboy hotshot, the elite stance involved a certain relaxed contempt for the flesh. The body was meat. Case fell into the prison of his own flesh.” (Gibson 6). This was particularly striking as there is absolutely nothing human about meat. For Case, the body appears to be a prison, a limitation. He would much rather be inside the Matrix and see everything thorough someone else’s eyes.
It is worth wondering whether Gibson’s “Neuromancer” has indeed produced the desired effect which was to send a warning. A lot of people might share Case’s disgust at the ordinary life, and, thus, might be eager to escape into Cyberspace, into a world that presents them with new exciting adventures. In their pursuit of leaving something great behind some might choose to live in the virtual life forever, and program themselves into ROM data constructs…
I agree with you that it's scary to imagine a virtual world so much like Neuromancer. I especially liked your comment how "there is absolutely nothing human about meat", as though our bodies, an essential part of ourselves, is anything but. It certainly is scary to picture this world as our future.
ReplyDeleteIt is so true that, "technology goes hand in hand with pure innovation and that is why I believe everyone has to encourage and support technological advances". I can not imagine how I would get everything done without technologies such as my computer and cell phone. However at the same time it is scary to read about the world described by Gibson because it could become reality.
ReplyDeleteI read Gibson's book Virtual Light, set in a much more human future than Neuromancer. The characters are not as cold and damaged, not so close to the machine.
ReplyDeleteYou and Brett put your fingers on why "meat" is the perfect term for bodies in Gibson's world: people's lives have been cheapened to the point where they become little more than meat.
Somehow we need a future that taps the potentials of technologies, even if we develop AIs and neural interfaces, without cheapening human life. I'll admit it to be a struggle.