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Spaceship Earth
Review of Neuromancer by William Gibson
I finished the book in 4 days, reading it page by page, glued to it when I wasn’t taking care of the rest of my life. I did something that I have done a few times prior, which entailed listening to the audiobook when not reading the book after getting about 100 pages in. So, I was reading ahead while listening to the same pages I had just read in the time when I was unable to have the book in hand. Essentially, the effect of hearing it from a narrator’s perspective allows for more intake of the concepts as well as a nice backtracking on the plot and pick up of the details that were missed while was absorbed in reading.
This book’s major accomplishment is its understanding of a future that felt prescient in a way I haven’t experienced. I still can’t comprehend how Gibson was able to imagine what AI’s impact would become while at the same time create a world in which nothing felt out of the realm of possible. Truly a work of a mind that can postulate on ideas that had not yet been poured over so much in the 40 years between my reading and its creation. AI is not a new concept, but in 1983 during the book’s creation, AI was essentially philosophical in a way that required filling in the blanks around its implications that are more fleshed out today.
The duelling concept of two types of AI and what AI could come to represent will frame my understanding further as we enter the AI-age. I need to dig more into it, but so many things Gibson proposes are totally inspiring.
The plot itself pulls you along with it at a great speed that many novels fail to achieve. There’s never a point where you feel you’ve skipped details that are necessary to understand where you are. I loved this aspect of it. I could see the scenes without much effort and his ability to jump into cyberspace and out without giving the reader a hint of where you are before the scene begins felt fresh and special as I was reading it.
Highly recommend everyone to read it. And read it again if you already have, it resonates today as if he were predicting the future instead of entertaining with a a story.