A quick and loose waft of text on my current reading: Count Zero by William Gibson (1986). I have a soft spot for this man. In a previous posting I have vented my admiration for Gibson already.
Count Zero takes us back to the world of the Matrix, the Sprawl, Artificial Intelligences and the Turing Police. And of the various Console-Cowboys, mercenaries, plain lowlifes and other misfits, who are roaming the underworld of the super-rich, who themselves are living in orbit of the earth; the new Overworld. It is the second book of the “Sprawl Trilogy”, which started with “The Neuromancer” (1984) and ended with “Mona Lisa Overdrive” (1988).
Personal Note: I am blessed with a wife who gave me the two sequel books after she found them in a second hand book-store. I doubt that I had found them on my own. I had never even realised that there were any follow-ups to Neuromancer.
The name Tessier-Ashpool surfaces again, weaving the Cyber-web back to Wintermute and his projected counterpart Neuromancer. The AI’s have changed themselves into VooDoo entities who are communicating through a bunch of tough guys, reputed to “get things done…” Does this tickle your fancy? If yes, then read this book.
I admit: after leaving the Neuromancer to it’s devices, I missed it a little bit. As well as the Cowboy Henry Dorsett Case, who went after him. And of course the hip-chick Molly he had around him all the time… I have now re-found the comfort of the matrix though, and I am again in the company of these soothing weirdo’s, who make one realise how safe it is, snugly behind a book, at home and un-prosecuted by high-tech police, intangible cyber beings or outright aggressive hoodlums.
For now, earth is still in its cyber infancy, although she is changing rapidly. The question that keeps popping up in my head is: “How right will Gibson turn out to be in a few decades?” If the answer is: “Very much!” then we are heading for big problems indeed. Or maybe not. Maybe we’ll have our cyber-abilities implanted right after birth. Maybe we’ll have genuinely enhanced our evolution; a daring proposition in Gibson’s eighties but one that is quickly gaining normal-ground in our time.
A prophet is never liked in his own country. Gibson is by many Cybertiers recognised as one. His books are regarded as bibles by some; for instance by the (then) emerging Cyberpunks of the eighties. The popularity of films like “The Matrix” seems to underline this position. We humans evidently need our prophets, and if they are smack-bam on the mark like Gibson appears to be – as is by now revealed by the reality of Internet and developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence – they gain a big deal of credibility and popularity. And rightfully so, because a good story is worth something.
For most, credibility and popularity remain, even when the prophecies turn out to be horse-bollocks. With the bible it’s the same thing. The bible is a canon of books, written down by ancient Sci-Fi writers, who stood empty handed as they searched for explanations for the phenomena around them. The Matrix seems to be closer to our world though, because we know so much more nowadays, and we have shaped so much more of our real and virtual realities. By this same rationale, it is of no importance how accurate Gibson’s forecasts will turn out to be. We will still love a good myth and may even make it into the central faith of our lives. Like – again – with the real bible, which still draws a host of fools and deluded believers, despite our advances in science and worldly knowledge.
Next stop: Gibson’s Mona Lisa Overdrive, the third and last part of the “Sprawl Trilogy”. After that, back to real life with Mussolini’s biography.
