M A S T E R H A C K E R

Neuromancer is an interesting blend of things. I say things because I don’t really know what else to call them. The story is just a melting pot of different cultures, feels, and topics that seem like they would never go together.

The story is a mashup of cowboys, Japanese culture, and AI beings. I want to talk about the Japanese culture aspect of it first. The first part, at least, of the story takes place in Chiba City, part of the Tokyo sprawl. Now this is actually fairly typical, as Japan was making great technological advancements at the time cyberpunk was being written, so many stories in the genre take place in Japan. Admittedly, the samurai and ninjas were pretty unique, so even the main “typical” aspect of this story wasn't so typical. The city also had a very grimy, black market feel, which was also pretty ordinary for the genre.

Now that we’re past the semi normal part of the story, this is where it gets interesting. The rogue-like hackers are called “cowboys”, which brings in a whole new thing. To me, it kind of gives the story a wild west kind of feel that I thought was pretty cool. The story definitely has lots of gratuitous violence that we attribute to the wild west. Another note, one of the main sprawls is BAMA, which goes from Boston to Atlanta. Neither of those places seem very wild west to me, I'm just saying.

On top of all of this, there’s multiple AI beings that take the shape of humans. So many cool things that feel like they would never come together do in this movie, and it happens so perfectly. Oh yeah I forgot, there’s the Panther Moderns, a group of teenage terrorists who think it’s all a funny prank. Back to what I was saying, Neuromancer feels like a young kid’s awesome fever dream (except the weird parts), and I love it. It’s also interesting how there are now “coding cowboys”, who are freelance coders, much like the freelance hackers in Neuromancer.

Overall, Neuromancer was a very interesting book that, while confusing, predicted pretty accurately the level of coding and hacking we’ve reached today.

Cybertron Might Actually Be Real One Day

One development that we have missed is the creation of artificial planets and space stations. However we have toyed with the idea of colonies on other planets, no one has really brought up the idea of us creating our own worlds in space.

This development would arise as space travel increases and the need for suitable rest stops and checkpoints for space travelers arose. While we have Mars in our solar system, we would still need to create a biodome or something of the such to compensate for an atmosphere and make the colony hospitable. Once we expand our field of travel to other galaxies however, we may come across a system that has no solid planets or anywhere hospitable potentially. If we could construct our own world with an artificial atmosphere or dome or something of the such, it could allow a place for human expansion that wouldn’t need generations of preparation.

The signs that this technology is coming are faintly present right now. This advancement is at least a generation or two away, but with our current construction capacity and the rate it is growing, there is progress. If we are able as a species fund our space programs once again, and the size of our spacecraft continue to grow, we should have no problem assembling a very small planet-like object in space. We also have a pollution problem that while somewhat curbed is still a looming threat to Earth's habitability.

Going off of the last sentence, this development would most likely be nothing but helpful. Humans would be able to leave a possibly over-polluted planet and make longer space travel trips as there would be stops in galaxies with no useable planets. I don’t think that this would hurt anyone, as humans would not be interfering with alien species since they would not be settling on any existing planets, and the environment wouldn’t be involved. However, the environment may be disturbed or destroyed in order to process the insane amount of construction needed, and it may be ransacked for animals to bring to the newly built worlds or colonies.

Honestly, this isn’t too likely to happen. Humans will most likely either just opt to build on other planets like Mars, or create some way to preserve our environment and planet from over-pollution. That pollution thing would be fun to explore, but that’s a project for another day.

Harrison the Replicant

What's not to love about Blade Runner? It's got Harrison Ford, gunfights, giant neon screens everywhere, and sketchy forced romance. Okay, that last one is pretty creepy, but overall Blade Runner is a beautifully crafted movie. The characters all have intense motivations, and the constant dark and rainy skies keep the feel of the movie gloomy throughout.

One topic that I found interesting that the movie addressed was the mass growth of technology and commercialism. As for the technology side of it, technology, nuclear weapons specifically, were what caused the destruction of Earth in the background to the movie. The author also shows flying cars and giant screens and some really cool technology, but the overall feel makes me think we aren't supposed to appreciate the giant boost of tech. There are advertisements and screens flying around you and covering apartment buildings, or any building really, causing you to be bombarded constantly with product placement and consumerism.

Technology also allowed for the creation of replicants, who the blade runners are sent to hunt down to prevent human casualties. even after a great war, technological advancements still are threats to humans and need to be contained. Blade Runner painted technology as something that could advance rapidly and bring great achievement, but needs to be contained for our safety.