Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

mbh4h.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 427 posts

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#231

Post by tracerbulletx »

Findecanor wrote: post #78
pieds wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gibson was obviously very inspired by Japan. The Matrix was also in part directly inspired by Ghost in the Shell, even creating The Animatrix at the same time. But Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner was told from the inside. It is about the authorities chasing down rouge elements. Neuromancer and The Matrix is from the perspective of the outsiders. Like someone else said in the comments here, cyberpunk is countercul…

> Grand Theft Auto, ... Andor Those were made in Britain by British creators.

Tony Gilroy isn't British.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#233

Post by GuB-42 »

keiferski wrote: post #8
amarcheschi wrote: post #2

If you're interested in reading about cyberpunk and why today it feels "dated" - or at least to me, how it didn't manage to reinvent itself and remains crystallized in time -, there's a wonderful article here: https://forums.insertcredit.com/t/what-was-cyberpunk-in-memo... Be advised it's quite long

Cyberpunk was essentially a sub-type of counterculture, and counterculture itself has pretty much been dead for a couple decades now. When the hackers are primarily interested in VC funds, the cryptocurrency ethos overtaken by the finance industry, and the goal of every artist to “make it” as a creator, there’s basically no room for culture that explicitly wants to operate outside the system. You could probably tie t…

Computers, the internet, it is all mainstream now, the opposite of a counterculture.

If you want a counterculture, look the other way. "digital detox", permaculture, degrowth, etc... In the tech world you have the "small web".

"Maker" movements, repair/reuse/recycling, etc... used to be countercultures but they have gone towards mainstream in the last few years (and I think it is a good thing).

Not all countercultures are "good". For instance what we now call "wokism" used to be a counterculture, it is now mostly mainstream. The opposite is now a counterculture, including incels, red pill, etc...

Countercultures change and go. Very few countercultures of the past still remain, they either integrate in mainstream culture, or become so niche that they effectively disappear.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#234

Post by Duanemclemore »

Great read - it's nice to see something I take for granted with fresh eyes (I think I've read all the Gibson). The fact that it's someone steeped in the genre humble enough to go back to a foundational text is a great device for explaining it.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Apple adaptation. I think they did as good a job as The Peripheral deserved (although it did end on a really dumb note). Although Gibson's writing has gotten less strong as he's aged, his world-building is still top-notch and some good writers of narrative taking a pass at it was I think mostly successful.

The Sprawl Trilogy is great front to back, each book has its charms. And of course the world is so rich, beyond Neuromancer. So if they do it right they could set themselves up for a compelling multi-season series.

The question with Neuromancer that took until now to start realizing was - how do you do it and not look like a fool by mangling a classic? I think that its world has advanced sufficiently (as the author of this piece highlights) that a lot of the kinks have been worked out by reality. Now, a central conceit of an ultra technological society without cell phones is going to be interesting in and of itself! I'll stop now, but excited to see this continue.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#235

Post by beefnugs »

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…

Yes that is something special. The only reason star wars successfully created cute robots is because of a complete lack of technical knowledge.

And the only reason every tech based scifi story is interesting is because nobody bothers to consider that all tech leads to absolute fascism and tracking of every living being in existence way way before the creation of the really powerful interesting stuff

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#236

Post by Krasnol »

anton-c wrote: post #91

Necromancer was cool. Never managed to get through the other cyberpunk classic Snowcrash though. Did I get the right book? Pizza delivery?

There is a huge difference between both.

Snow Crash would be a hollow joke without Gibson etc.

It is now just a joke with some encyclopedia mixed in.

Terrible ending. As always with the author btw.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#237

Post by wslh »

wrp wrote: post #230

Cyberpunk got the future exactly wrong. In the 1980s, being into computer technology meant being into hardware. You could scrounge it and tinker with it, and had to be clever and highly motivated to do that. Cyberpunk took the computer geek themes of cleverness, effort, and hardware and added heavy antiestablishmentism. I've been in education all through the rise of digital culture and am now dealing with the first C…

In the 1980s, many kids had new computers, but most were just playing games rather than programming, despite having to type a few commands to load and run them.

Today, the cybersecurity scene feels more comparable in terms of power it can provide. The "classic hacker" archetype seems less central now, overshadowed by state sponsored actors and the rise of cryptocurrency related crimes.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#238

Post by Krasnol »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #187
selfmodruntime wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be weird to you, but this was indeed cool at a point.

I wrote the same review over 20 years ago on amazon.com. It was never cool. That kid you went to school with that only wore black jeans was not one of the cool ones.

It says more about your own perspective then about the actual coolness of those guys.

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#239

Post by [deleted] »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #187
selfmodruntime wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be weird to you, but this was indeed cool at a point.

I wrote the same review over 20 years ago on amazon.com. It was never cool. That kid you went to school with that only wore black jeans was not one of the cool ones.

[deleted]

Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025

#240

Post by margalabargala »

wrp wrote: post #230

Cyberpunk got the future exactly wrong. In the 1980s, being into computer technology meant being into hardware. You could scrounge it and tinker with it, and had to be clever and highly motivated to do that. Cyberpunk took the computer geek themes of cleverness, effort, and hardware and added heavy antiestablishmentism. I've been in education all through the rise of digital culture and am now dealing with the first C…

On the other hand, I could see this causing a resurgence of exactly that same aesthetic. Software will be eaten by LLMs and computers will remain ubiquitous, but hardware for now remains where it was. Specialized, niche, and able to be combined into something cool only by someone knowledgeable.

Having to solder or breadboard something together is approximately the same experience it was in the 80s. And the sorts of results you can expect are similarly rare and exotic. An at home automated solution for soldering is not coming any time soon.

Post reply on HN