The sky…was the color of television tuned to a dead channel…

Welcome to Night City, this is where the dregs of society and those seeking a more dubious way of living come. “Night City was like a deranged experiment in social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast- forward button.” (Neuromancer 7) It’s just another part of the Sprawl, and it’s what you get unless you’ve got money and connections. Even then it may very well be the center of some of the most lucrative, albeit illegal, business’ available. Right now all you see is slums and bars and brothels, but there is much more to this world than that. Chances are you’ll spend the day searching out new clients to either sell drugs or other illegal products to. Everything goes and police are unheard of. The only thing you need to watch out for is who you rip off. Mess with the wrong company and your life will be very short. There’s also the Yakuza and organizations like them. After your day at “work” you might go to a bar and get a drink. Just make sure to watch your back because you know there is nobody you can really trust. Even those you may come to regard as “friends” are only trustworthy when it suits them. After the bar it’s time to head “home,” which is really just a cheap hotel that provides with you with a “coffin” (a small tube containing only a bunk and a small closet). Tomorrow, more of the same. This is the world created by William Gibson in his trilogy of novels beginning with the highly acclaimed Neuromancer; a possible look at our own future. Despite it’s harshness and it’s futuristic feel, the Sprawl isn’t so different from our world. The main difference is that it’s not the only world here. The other is an almost a completely seperate yet complexly connected world known as the matrix. Through critical analysis of these worlds and their interaction it is possible to piece together an image of Gibson’s world.

The Sprawl is the physical world. The Sprawl is what’s left of civilization as we know it. True to it’s name, it has very few distinguishing characteristics. There are a lot of people, and a lot of buildings. It is enormous and it has spans the globe. There are no real countries anymore, just huge mega-corperations vying for control. Just Sprawl. One might travel from one end to the other and perhaps not even notice any true differences. Culture and identity are lost to faceless poverty. There is just the individual, and even that is but an illusion. There may be identity on the small scale, but it means nothing in this world. Even if close interpersonal relationships were possible, chances are that it would end in disaster. Yet, when it seems that everything recognizable is lost, the world that Gibson presents is shows striking familiarity. It is a simple thing to adjust to because it is merely the past wearing a different face; all the basic ideas are still there. People, as a whole and on individual levels, are still more or less intrinsically the same. The world is only changed in a very superficial manner. Everything is dislocated in a strange way. It is a giant stew of everything that was once our world. There is no true structure and money rules above all. The Sprawl is the urban world taken to a ridiculous extremes. It truly is the “urban jungle.” Just like with any other large “city,” it contains both rich, poor and those between; the contrasts between the classes are also very extreme. This is the world that seems very plausible when you look at the direction in which things are currently going in our world. There are no real landmarks in the Sprawl; no history to be discovered; no specifics. Such as when Case, Molly and the rest of the bunch in Neuromancer fly to Istanbul, there’s no sense that they’ve exited one culture and arrived in another. Only the graffiti changes. (Cook)

"Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system." (Neuromancer 51)

The other half of this future world is the matrix. As opposed to the Sprawl, which despite being the “real world” doesn’t seem to have any location or identity, the matrix is in some ways structured. A scene in Neuromancer describes Case interacting with a represenation of the New York Public Library in the matrix. We see that all of the structures in the matrix, as virtual as they might be, actually do have some sort of defining characteristics; they are tied to an actual place. People and places have the ability to regain their lost identity in the matrix. As a result of the matrix being a sort of big computer-world, there must be structure. Computers are not chaotic. Therefore there is not random information floating around in cyberspace; all the parts have a purpose and location. Where the defining characteristics of the real world have faded into an endless mass that is called the Sprawl, the matrix has risen up to take the place of the structure that was lost. The populous use the matrix to escape the harshness of the Sprawl; they need it to satisfy the gaps that the Sprawl presents them with. The cowboys (computer hackers) need it for their livelihood. Despite this, people need the Sprawl for everything still associated with being human. They need it to eat and sleep and other natural functions. Alone, the Sprawl is a pretty nasty place. Alone, the matrix has no reason to even exist. Together, they create some kind of tolerable world. (Chan-Norris)

The point that Gibson makes is that there are these two seperate but equal worlds that now exist. It is not just the flesh world anymore. There is also this other technologicaly advanced virtual reality world that is a representation of the “real world” fed through powerful computers. Throughout the novels one almost forgets which world is the real world. As Case's jumps between landscapes come with increasing speed, especially towards the end of Neuromancer, the notion of what is real is called into question. After exposing the reader to Case's exterior (the Sprawl; the physical) landscape and then his interior (the matrix; the virtual) one; Gibson also presents yet another perspective, the view through Molly’s eyes from the matrix. Is what he sees through Molly's mirrored eyes “real” in that he is viewing her exterior landscape or virtual in that his senses are being fed data from her through cyberspace? The reader is introduced to notions of virtual and real, but then these are blended. They are blended again with the two Artificial Intelligences. Wintermute, a powerful artificial intelligence system, starts out as purely virtual and Case first encounters it while in the matrix, the expected realm of a cyber-technology. But then Wintermute invades the exterior landscape of the Sprawl; Wintermute appears to Case and Molly and interacts with them through a computer screen; a small but significant encroachment into the physical world. As it has no identity of it’s own it simply taps into the memory of Case’s and extracts an identity that supposedly Case would relate to. This is the identity of The Finn, a man Case once knew. Wintermute then steps out of the matrix landscape in another way and starts effecting reality such as killing the Turing agents with robots it has gained control of. These examples show the fuzziness that exists between the two landscapes. By blending what is classified as virtual into the real landscape, Gibson shows how interchangeable these aspects are in his world. (Schwartz) A scary concept to us and something that most would probably like to avoid. Unfortunately this may be impossible.

The future is a thing that human beings have been attempting to control since the beginning of time. Once they figured out that they were unable to truly control the future, they turned to predicting the future. Whether or not William Gibson intended his novel to be a sort of prediction is unknown. What is clear is that as the years progress his vision becomes more and more likely. With the advent of powerful technologies and the globalization of the world, it is hard to not see some truth in Gibson’s world. In fact, this world he has created may not be very far off at all. The decline of social and political morality is painfully obvious. The spread of technology is growing at an exponential rate, and the integration of society and technology is beginning. It is easy enough to see that we are heading down, if not the exact path, then a path very similar to the one laid out by William Gibson. One question that comes to mind is if we might actually want this world that we are creating? Is it not possible that despite it’s drawbacks, that it may very well be a better world? It is hard to say; as always there are many variables. Chances are that most people would not want this sort of technology-dominated world, but again, there are some appealing aspects.

Frightening and depressing as Gibson’s world seems at first, it has a very special appeal to the human mind. Human beings crave adventure and excitement; the technology and fantasty, the struggle and strife, all things which naturally appeal to the human psyche. Though we may not like some of these things, they still appeal in the same way violence appeals. Any rational person would tell you violence is wrong, yet it has a strange and mezmorizing appeal. This “fantasy” world, where anything is possible, yet so much seems out of reach. This is a world where the technology exists to cure every disease, to feed every person, to make everybhody happy, and yet every day is a struggle for survival. Social Darwinism is prevalent and anything goes. It is exciting. Gibson introduces a brand new (at the time) notion of a technology dominated dystopian society in which social decay is apparent everywhere and lasting interpersonal relationships do not exist. There is corruption and suffering everywhere and the essence of being human seems to be slipping away. The world of Neuromancer presents an ugly image of the future and some of the negative externalities that directly effect human nature and social interaction. Strangely enough, Gibson focuses almost entirely on the negative aspects of technology and neglects to represent any positive aspect it may have. Gibson’s world seems extremely technologically advanced yet upon closer inspection you find that none of the technology is successful. The populous willingly allows itself to be controlled and manipulated by the technology and use it for evil and material gain, rather than to propogate social well being and happiness. Will technology really transform us into such a rude, materialistic, hedonistic and self-centered society?

Works Cited

· Gibson, William. Neuromancer. Novel-1984

· Cook, Steve. Gibson’s Sprawl – the Dominant Element in Neuromancer. Essay-1998 http://landow.stg.brown.edu/cpace/scifi/gibson/cook2.html

· Chan-Norris, Jesse. Cyberspace and the Sprawl. Essay-1998 http://landow.stg.brown.edu/cpace/scifi/gibson/chan.html

· Schwartz, Lora. Landscapes of the Virtual and Real in Neuromancer. Essay-1998 http://landow.stg.brown.edu/cpace/scifi/gibson/schwartz.html