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“KALAM” International Journal of Faculty of Arts and Culture, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka

William Gibson’s and Its Relevanceto Culture and Technology

Noeline Shirome .G South Eastern University of Sri Lanka

Abstract

We live in a time where technology is in a rapid growth. These advancements have made various changes in the cultural sphere. have drastically started to influence the lifestyle of people through various systems of . Thus, within a fragment of time anyone can access to any sort of resources on the planet. This advancement is in way shrinking the division of and machine as most people depend vastly on the outside sources of intelligence through technological devices. The concept of , trans-humans, cyber space, , and etc. have interested the writers and influenced them to project these ideas in their literary texts. Thus the present paper explores the relationship between William Gibson’s cyberpunk Neuromancer and its relevance to culture and technology. It first focuses on the novel Neuromancer, and then goes onto its cultural and technological relevance with present time, and discusses the close connection between reality and cyberpunk literature.

Key words Cyberpunk, cyber space, mind uploading, mindclones, mindfile, William Gibson

Introduction in the novel named Henry Dorsett Case is a The link between technology and hacker who eventually gets into the digitalised literature play an important role in society, as system and logs into the Matrix where the literary texts reflects the contemporary copy of his exists forever. The situation. In this context, cyberpunk science similar idea of this mind uploading is now an fictions play an important role in exploring emerging concept in the twenty-first century. the high-tech advancement in science and Thus the most general background of Cyber technology. This can be traced back to the literature projects the increasing role of cyberpunk movements in 1980s. During the technology in our society. latter part of 1980s, the cyberpunk writers identified the breakdown of the boundaries Research Objectives

between humans and machines, and their This study highlights how William Gibson’s writings welcomed the new kind of science cyberpunk science fiction Neuromancer fiction which represented the present state of reflects the impact of technology on culture techno- reality. and demonstrates the increasingly complex relationship between culture and technology William Gibson being the pioneer writer of which may lead to future subversion. this genre coined ‘cyber space’ which is the virtual local used in these fictions where Research Question technologized bodies projects the image of The study addresses the main research question “what are the ways in which the near future. His novel Neuromancer is cyberpunk science fictions reflect the published in 1984 and soon after it won the relationship between culture and technology?” “Triple Crown” for science fiction. His This question is examined through William creation of leads the interaction of Gibson’s novel Neuromancer and its humans with technology. The main character relevance to the contemporary times.

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“KALAM” International Journal of Faculty of Arts and Culture, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka

Methodology metaphysical world called as ‘cyberspace’. The secondary data is used for the research. Case in Neuromancer represents the present The Secondary data is collected from William day computer users. His life is dependent on Gibson’s novel Neuromancer, books, the streams of information in the computer. journals, and research articles related to the He spends most of his time immersed into the research topic. The analysis is comparative; it data networks and plug-in his head into the compares the work of William Gibson with network and literally merges with the the other related literary texts and theories. It information. Case is a computer hacker who also uses the descriptive analysis to show how makes his living by breaking into security cyberpunk science fiction highlights the systems. He gets caught by his employer and complex relation of technology and future. his is damaged as punishment so that he cannot jack into the cyberspace Neuromancer called matrix. After this incident he joins with William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer won Armitage who pays his debts and cures his the ‘Triple Crown’ award after its publication nerve system by exchanging Case’s ability of in 1984 and became a milestone in the hacking. Finally he gets into the artificial cyberpunk writing. At the earlier times, world of matrix. It is in the latter part of the technological concepts in cyberpunk literature novel Case realizes that he was actually are considered to be superficial. Along with controlled by the , even the progress of technological development, though he escapes and comes to the real the fictional ideas of the past came into a world, whenever he logs into matrix, he finds realistic picture. In 1984 William Gibson the glimpse of himself, his dead girlfriend and portrayed the merging of humans with Neuromancer inside the computer program. technology, which is practiced to a certain He finds out that the copy of his extent in the 21st century high-tech world. consciousness still exists in the digitalized Play stations, gadgets, virtual games, video world. Gibson portrays Case as a trans-human conferences, usage of microchips, , at the beginning of the novel and ends it by android, and etc. are example of portraying Case as a part of technology technologically developed applications and merging into the world of matrix. methods where a person merges into the artificial intelligence through the mode of Mind uploading / uploading consciousness virtual reality using a computer or other The concepts of merging into computer data electronic devices. The gradual transformation are possible to certain extent at the present of virtual world into reality can be seen time scenario. Scientific researches based on through this process where the virtual realities the concept of trans-humans, are now creating stimulate the reality and blur the reality itself. robots and humanoids having artificial Thus reality is starting to resemble the data- intelligences in a rapid speed. The saturated worlds explored in cyberpunk advancement in the field of information literature. This concept of stimulations is technology presently explores the concepts of mentioned in Jean Baudrillard’s philosophical uploading and downloading consciousness treatise ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ (1981) which were considered to be fictional at the where he brings in the concept of originality time Gibson wrote his cyberpunk novel. having no value and loses its identity soon Director of engineering at , Ray after the copy is created by the simulation Kurzweil, claims that people will be able to which is called as simulacra. "upload" their entire brains to computers and Gibson’s novel centers on the character called Case. Gibson creates a transpersonal realm where the main character Case gets into a VOLUME VIII (1), JUNE 2014 ISSN: 1391-6815 P a g e | 49

“KALAM” International Journal of Faculty of Arts and Culture, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka

ecome "digitally immortal" by 2045.6 In the of William Gibson is not only taking the form field of science, progress has been made in of reality, it has gone to the extent of the Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) where the creation of humanoids. The recent brain’s nerve is electronically stimulated to mindboggling creation called BINA 48 is the restore sound to help people with hearing most advanced in the world. problem. , a lawyer, author The artificial intelligence is provided to it and entrepreneur, and chief executive officer through the consciousness downloaded from of a biotech company United Therapeutics the mindfile of its owner. This is similar to the Corp has introduced the concept of ‘mind- novel Neuromancer where Case has the copy clones’7 which is a process of ‘mind of his conscious mind which is digitalised and uploading’ which digitalises human uploaded in the computer system which could consciousness into data. Although these be accessed whenever logging into the concepts are new to the present day scenario it computer. These types of humanoids blur the is already proposed by Gibson in his boundary between humans and machines and cyberpunk fiction Neuronacer where Case has merges into cyber culture.This increasingly the copy of his consciousness running in the complex relationship between culture and virtual world of matrix which can be technology has the tendency to subvert the connected to him whenever he logs into and lifestyle of people in the near system. future.

The progress of these types of technologies is Conclusion the stepping stone for the future The increasing advancement of technology transformation of our society into the high- has a tremendous influence in culture and tech world. Present society depends vastly on lifestyle of people. Unlike the past, at the network and digital data. Social networks play present time, people are vastly depended on a major role in uploading the consciousness computers, mobiles and other electronic even without the knowledge of the user. The devices for various purposes, these gradual unavoidable interface with digital world in the processes of merging with the machines are form of social networks such as facebook, increasing in the present day with the latest twitter and etc. lead a person to update his or inventions of the interface communications her consciousness in the form of status in with computers and artificial intelligence, timeline. This is once again similar to the social networks and applications which scenario of Gibson’s cyberpunk writing. recognize human senses. This type of culture Similarly computer hackers are also common is predicted by a group of cyberpunk writers in the present times. Like Gibson’s character in 1980s. Among them, William Gibson is the Case, there are computer hackers who break pioneer in explaining the concept of cyber into computer networks. The futuristic writing space, where people merge into the electronic data and live in the virtual reality in the digitalized form. In his novel Neuromancer 6 "We'll be uploading our entire to he illustrates this idea of cyber space and computers by 2045 and our bodies will be replaced by machines within 90 years, Google expert transferring the consciousness into data files claims". Daily Mail (London). PUBLISHED: 14:22 which is used in a virtual village which is GMT, 19 June 2013 | UPDATED: 14:22 GMT, 19 controlled by the artificial intelligence. These June 2013 stimulated cyber space and cyber culture are only considered fictional in 1980s. But it has 7 'Mind Uploading' & Digital May Be Reality By 2045, Say. Live Science | By taken the form of reality with the progress of Tanya Lewis science and computer technology. Gibson’s Posted: 06/18/2013 9:43 am EDT | Updated: idea of merging with the computers is the 06/18/2013 9:43 am EDT VOLUME VIII (1), JUNE 2014 ISSN: 1391-6815 P a g e | 50

“KALAM” International Journal of Faculty of Arts and Culture, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka

emerging concept of the 21st century. William Gibson in a way has predicted these Converting a person’s consciousness into types of technological changes in his novel mind-files and uploading it into computers Neuromancer. Thus the most general brings in the concept of digitally eternalising a background of Cyber literature projects the human being in a computerised immortality. increasing and changing roles of technology The progress of this concept is evident with in our society at the present time. the creation of the humanoid BINA48.

Reference

1. Chu, S.Y. (2011), Do Metaphors Reality By 2045, Futurists Say. Dream of Literal Sleep? USA, Retrieved 5 26, 2014, Hardvard University Press 7. from http://www.huffingtonpost.co 2. Evan Carroll, J. R. ( 2010). Your m/: http://www.huffingtonpost.co Digital : When Facebook, m/2013/06/18/mind-uploading- Flickr and Twitter Are You 2045-futurists_n_3458961.html EstateWhat's Your Legacy? Voices 8. Manuel Castells and Donna That Matter. Berkeley CA: New Haraway.(2007). Cyberculture Riders. Theorists.Oxon: Routledge. 3. Gibson, W. (1984).Neuromancer. 9. Natale, P. G. (2007). BINA48 New York: Ace Books. Mock Trial: Judge's Decision. The 4. W. S. (2006). Cyber culture, Journal of Personal Cyber and Science Fiction Consciousness. .Amsterdam. New York: NY: 10. Woollaston, V. (2013, June 19). Editions Rodopi. Mail Online Science & Tech. 5. Kurzweil, R. (2006). The Retrieved May 26, 2014, Singularity Is Near: When Humans from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/: Transcend . Duckworth http://www.dailymail.co.uk/scienc Publishers. etech/article-2344398/Google- 6. Lewis, T. (2013, June 18). Huff -claims-uploading-entire- Post Science, 'Mind Uploading' & MINDS-computers-2045-bodies- May Be replaced-machines-90-years.html

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