Neuromancer

For this being such a short book A LOT happens in it. It is a very dense story with lots of twists and turns. The book establishes the setting of an environmentally damaged, alienated, dystopian society dominated by global computer networks. It is pretty much the archetypal cyberpunk work. There are artificial intelligences, monopoly capitalism and a world culture that is apathetic and alienated to their own humanity. The characters are mostly lowlifes, drug-ingesting antiheroes, and outlaws, who also happen to be brilliant hackers undertaking a wild adventure in the virtual reality of “cyberspace.”

It is interesting to me how, for a novel published in 1984 (a time when most people were blissfully unaware of the potential of networked computing), the book is eerily accurate to how the internet is perceived nowadays and the conversation that surrounds its effect on human consciousness. I mean, we obviously don’t have the specific technology mentioned in the book, but the idea that technology has advanced so much that it allows humans to have a second “virtual” life hits pretty close to home for a lot of people. The book’s focus is on the existence of AI’s (Artificial Intelligence) who are capable of feeling and of developing the same needs as a normal human being. However, while these advancements made machines seem more human like, they also made the normal humans lose their humanity and made them resemble more and more the machines they created. This proves that while technological advancements may have their perks, they can also be dangerous if they are allowed to suppress humans and get out of control.