In his book, Neuromancer, William Gibson repeatedly melds nature with technology, often in startling ways. He sets this standard even in the first line of his novel, where he describes that "[t]he sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." This unexpected comparison reveals that Gibson does not only depict nature in terms of technology – a television-colored sky – but also defines technology using the natural world – a dead or lifeless (rather than broken) channel. The imagery continues as we meet some of the first characters in Neuromancer. Ratz, for instance, smiles as he tends a seedy bar exposing a "webwork of East European steel and brown decay" as teeth (3). He scratches his stomach with a "pink claw," or prosthetic arm (4). Case, the protagonist, retells his first encounter with Linda Lee, a love interest. He watches her play a video game, "her face bathed in restless laser light, features reduced to a code" (8). Gibson highlights Linda's allure with artificial illumination and relates it to digital coding, rather than employing traditional notions of beauty resembling or deriving from nature.
Gibson pushes boundaries of imagination when describing Case's world. Many people lead destructive lifestyles of drugs and alcoholism, knowing they can easily replace organs, change their blood, and make other enhancements. While walking the streets of Ninsei, Case looks into a typical surgical "boutique;" given this term usually describes small shops selling trendy clothing, gadgets, or accessories, clearly body modification is a routine procedure in this context. Case stares at a "flat lozenge of vatgrown flesh... tattooed with a luminous digital display wired to subcutaneous chip," and wonders "[w]hy bother with the surgery... when you could just carry the thing around in your pocket?" (14) He seems less confused about an LCD screen embedded in flesh than the waste of time it takes to get the screen sown into your skin. Later, Case meets Molly who has mirrored lenses embedded into her face, a time read out added to her optic nerve, and artificial burgundy nails with four-centimeter scalpel blades in each finger. Gibson gives many more examples of nearly un-human individuals.
I suppose I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to altering the human body – only do it if there is no other option – but I wonder how others feel about getting physical upgrades. I joke about my cellphone equating to a vital organ, but could you ever picture yourself with electronics literally attached to you? It's fascinating to see the picture of technological ubiquity that Gibson paints for us, but I don't think that lifestyle will ever be a normal thing. The only current procedures that come close – corrective eye surgery, replacement joints, artificial hearts, etc. – try to replace or correct a normal function, not add new features and abilities. I wouldn't mind seeing in the dark like Molly does, but would we be messing with nature too much with such dramatic changes?
I think that we are closer to Gibson's world than many people think. The only thing that seems too far-fetched is the concept of a 'matrix.' Almost everything else is in the development stage. Within our lifetimes I think we will have the ability to 'grow' organs for replacement surgery, like Case's pancreas. At some point, though, I think there will be a push for augmentation, instead of replacement. Why be stuck with a faulty heart when scientists can grow a stronger one in a vat?
ReplyDeleteOf course, I think there will always be a segment of the population that pushes back for ethical or religious reasons, and I can certainly understand that sentiment. I'm not even saying I would be first in line for cybernetic implants or artificial organs. But I would have to disagree with the idea that the lifestyle in Gibson's novel will never be normal. There is a strong subculture that bases itself on body modification, and another subculture that almost worships technology. I think there will be an overlap between those groups sometime in the future.
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ReplyDeleteI'm not too enthralled about the idea of physical upgrades either, especially when it comes to performance enhancement. I admire elite athletes mainly because of their willingness to commit themselves to thousands and thousands of hours of hard work.
ReplyDeleteFor me, upgrading a body for performance purposes(although much easier) seems to be a short cut that isn't worth it. It's kind of like the idea that the journey is more important than the destination.
Then again, I'm also a fan of Captain America, and he went from scrawny solider to All-American hero due to a physical upgrade...
Hard work pays off in the end, and physical upgrades, well they can lead to complications, since they aren't natural approaches to body enhancements.
ReplyDeleteI feel like some of the physical upgrades presented in "Neuromancer" are a little on the extreme side. Molly's built in eye glasses, in my opinion, are a little extreme. However, I feel that some of the body modifications, like the one that allows Case to no longer be drug addicted, are beneficial.
ReplyDeleteWe all know that technology can malfunction and short-out. It is a scary thought that something like that could happen when such a thing is surgically attached to or in your body. I think there are people out there that are wary of technology for reasons other than religion or ethics. Some people just don't trust it. And I have to admit that when people start having blue tooth chips embedded into their ears, for example, I will have to be one of those wary-about-technology people.
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