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Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

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Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#131

Post by itomato »

reactordev wrote: post #125
macleginn wrote: post #50

One thing that I found remarkable about Gibson is how a-technical he was at the time: "When I wrote Neuromancer, I didn't know that computers had disc drives. Until last Christmas, I'd never had a computer; I couldn't afford one. When people started talking about them, I'd go to sleep. Then I went out and bought an Apple II on sale, took it home, set it up, and it started making this horrible sound like a farting toa…

Sometimes, ignorance is truly bliss. Imagine if he had known what was going on in there. It would have been a much different environment if he even would have the inspiration to write about it at all. Sometimes, a butterfly flaps its wings. Sometimes, it’s because someone didn’t know. And sometimes, the mystery is more intriguing than the actuality.

Māyā.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#132

Post by johngossman »

stevenwoo wrote: post #129
johngossman wrote: post #118

Somebody really should mention John Brunner. His "Stand on Zanzibar" and "The Sheep Look Up" predate Gibson and Sterling by a decade and both those authors have cited his influence on their works. I love Neuromancer but Zanzibar is also brilliant.

Zanzibar holds up as well or better than Neuromancer. I recently reread both and Molly having a clock in her eye inserts really dates that one bit in Neuromancer, the chyron like news updates in Zanzibar call to mind todays social media sound/video bites.

Agree. Same experience. Zanzibar (1968) is almost eerie sometimes.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#133

Post by harimau777 »

makeitdouble wrote: post #7

Overall an interesting read. To go straight to the nitpicks: > The Matrix Trilogy, Ghost in the Shell, [...]. Except Gibson did it first. Ghost in the Shell started publication around 1989, but it's author was writing cyberpunk in 1985 (Appleseed), with already many of the themes approached in it. 1985 is a tad later than Gibson's Neuromamcer, but given the timeline to start a series with the level of details Masamun…

Do you know how the Japanese think of and/or talk about "Japanese Cyberpunk"; e.g. Tetsuo: The Iron Man? It's interesting to me that there is "Japanese cyberpunk" and then there is regular cyberpunk made by Japanese artists (e.g. Ghost in the Shell). Do the Japanese consider these completely separate genres? Variants of the same genre? Are most fans even aware that Westerners make the distinction?

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#134

Post by reactordev »

itomato wrote: post #131
reactordev wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes, ignorance is truly bliss. Imagine if he had known what was going on in there. It would have been a much different environment if he even would have the inspiration to write about it at all. Sometimes, a butterfly flaps its wings. Sometimes, it’s because someone didn’t know. And sometimes, the mystery is more intriguing than the actuality.

Māyā.

Precisely

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#136

Post by dfxm12 »

macleginn wrote: post #50

One thing that I found remarkable about Gibson is how a-technical he was at the time: "When I wrote Neuromancer, I didn't know that computers had disc drives. Until last Christmas, I'd never had a computer; I couldn't afford one. When people started talking about them, I'd go to sleep. Then I went out and bought an Apple II on sale, took it home, set it up, and it started making this horrible sound like a farting toa…

My ignorance had allowed me to romanticize it

Clearly, this helps make works of sci Fi/speculative fiction/cyberpunk and related genres relevant far into the future.

If you try to extrapolate current tech 50 years into the future, you'll probably get it wrong and people reading your books during the time it's set in will think it quaint.

When you have to invent new future tech, it still feels mysterious and interesting.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#137

Post by selfmodruntime »

angry_octet wrote: post #124

My favourite lesser known post-Neuromancer works: George Alec Effinger "When Gravity Fails" (1987) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Gravity_Fails Walter John Williams "Aristoi" (1992) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristoi_(novel) And just pre-Gibson: Michael Berlyn "The Integrated Man" (1980) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2144056.The_Integrated_M... Bruce Sterling "The Artificial Kid" (1980) This is not a hac…

Thank you so much! Neuromancer had such a profound impact on my career and my life. I've been searching for similar works for years and by this point, I've read all the obvious ones twice over.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#138

Post by NitpickLawyer »

elcapitan wrote: post #3

Related: Is there some place that collects the predictions, ideas, concepts from Scifi stories, without all the plot and character stuff? Every time I try to read Scifi because I heard about some interesting parts, I have the feeling there's a 1 page thesis about the future and technology trying to escape, but buried under some mildly interesting generic storyline and tons of made up terminology and worldbuilding.

Ender's Game (1985) has a ton of spot on predictions of the future, if you haven't read that you might enjoy it (and the story and later universe are fascinating as well, with twists and turns, and the "two threads" storylines, where you can read the same events from two different characters in the plurilogies of books)

Some predictions in the first book:

- touch-screens in general and tablets in particular

- use of AI to adapt difficulty levels in games

- use of AI and virtual simulations for military training

- the Internet, and more specifically:

- the wide usage of forums, blogs, etc. (lots of references that kinda seem like social media, with propaganda spread, message control, etc.)

- the usage of sock-puppet accounts to influence elections and general political discourse (and the creation of "influencers" out of ... thin air)

Later in the series we also get:

- Cryptocurrencies

- AIs in control of financial systems

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#139

Post by ilamont »

daremon wrote: post #107

I had the opposite experience with Neuromancer. I read it too many times! Sorry for the long post (translated by GPT as it was originally in Greek). In September 1993, I started my final year of high school in Greece, aiming to study Computer Science. A girl I barely knew heard I was into computers and handed me Neuromancer, the 1989 Greek edition. I still have it. I already loved science fiction, though my reading h…

Wow. What a great story. An in translation, no less. The Greek translator must have been very talented.

(Kind of curious now ... were the other translated editions in non-English languages as powerful? Do readers of science fiction in other languages seek out works by specific translators or publishers known to have great translations?)

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#140

Post by jfengel »

macleginn wrote: post #50

One thing that I found remarkable about Gibson is how a-technical he was at the time: "When I wrote Neuromancer, I didn't know that computers had disc drives. Until last Christmas, I'd never had a computer; I couldn't afford one. When people started talking about them, I'd go to sleep. Then I went out and bought an Apple II on sale, took it home, set it up, and it started making this horrible sound like a farting toa…

I find that very believable, since Neuromancer isn't at all about computers. The computers involved are little different from what you might have seen on Star Trek. They are story engines -- except for the ones that are really just people.

This is not a negative. Sci fi is always about people.

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