The backdrop to William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer, takes place in both real life and cyberspace. Case was once the best console cowboy (computer hacker) in the Sprawl, until Case stole data from his employers. As punishment for his theft, his nervous system was damaged with mycotoxin to prevent him from accessing cyberspace. Out of desperation to connect with cyberspace again, Case searches the “black clinics” in Chiba City, China for a cure. Molly, a modified headhunter is contracted by Armitage to find Case, and force him to join his team. In exchange for Case’s hacking abilities, Armitage repaired his nervous system, but in the course he also installed a slowly dissolving poison near his pancreas to blackmail him into doing missions. Case and Molly run Armitage’s first mission to steal the personality ROM construct of McCoy Pauley (Case’s former mentor) at a media conglomerate called Sense/Net. The ROM, nicknamed “The Dixie Flatline,” is important to Armitage because he needs the Flatline’s hacking expertise. While preparing for the run, a street gang named the “Panther Moderns” is hired to create a terrorist attack on Sense/Net. This distraction allows Molly to infiltrate the building and steal the ROM. The ROM cassette replicated “a dead man’s skills, obsessions, and knee-jerk responses” (74). Case and Molly discover that Armitage’s former identity was Colonel Willis Corto. Corto was the only surviving member of Screaming Fist, which was an operation to disrupt Soviet computer systems in Russia. The team attacked the Soviet computer center, and the team was defenseless against the Soviet lasers. The only member that survived was Corto. Corto felt betrayed by his Russian military because they conducted Screaming Fist, while knowing Corto and his team would be defeated. Corto disappeared into the criminal underworld. Case and Molly also learned that Armitage was backed by Wintermute, a Swiss AI owned by Tessier-Ashpool. After learning about Armitage and obtaining the Flatline construct, Case, Molly and Armitage head to Istanbul to recruit Peter Riviera. Riviera is an artist, thief, sociopath and drug addict who is able to create holograms with the force of his mind. Armitage orders Molly, Case, and Riviera to travel to Freeside, which is owned by Tessier-Ashpool. Winertermute’s nature is revealed when Case is in cyberspace at Freeside. Wintermute tells Case, “this is all coming to you courtesy of the simstim unit wired into your deck” (117). Wintermute was programmed by Tessier-Ashpool to merge with Neuromancer, the other AI. However, Wintermute could not do this without the help of Armitage’s crew. Case was supplied with a high-grade Chinese military icebreaker that he launched after Wintermute killed the Turing police who arrested Case for involvement in the “conspiracy to augment an artificial intelligence” (154). While Case uses the icebreaker, Riviera goes to Villa Straylight (residence of Tessier-Ashpool) to obtain the password to the Turing lock from Lady 3Jane, one of the 20 clones of John Ashpool and Marie-France Tessier. Molly also goes to the Villa, but upon entering 3Jane’s private cave, Riviera injures Molly’s leg. Case and Maelcum decide to go after Molly. Before they arrive, Case is sucked into an alternate reality in cyberspace by Neuromancer, who tries to stop their mission. Case rejects Neuromancer when “he turned and walked away” (236). Case and Maelcum find Molly, 3Jane, and Riviera. 3Jane has Riviera killed, and with the 3Jane’s password they drive the icebreaker into the Tessier-Ashpool core. Wintermute and Neuromancer unite, and together they were “the matrix…the sum total of the works, the whole show” (259). After the run, Case spent his Swiss account on a new pancreas, liver, and ticket back to the Sprawl. Molly leaves him forever, and Case continues to live his life. One night when he is in cyberspace, Wintermute-Neuromancer contacts Case to tell him that he located another AI transmitting the Alpha Centauri system. The novel ends with the sound of inhuman laughter, a trait associated with McCoy Pauley during Cases’s work with the ROM construct.
After Neuromancer, I was left to conceptualize the idea that humans integrate and modify themselves with technology to be more “machine like,” while the machines want to alter themselves to be something greater (or maybe something greater than humans). Although this is not much different than today, the humans of Neuromancer receive implants to modify themselves. The difference lies within the fact that today we modify ourselves through plastic surgery to aim for “the perfect beauty,” while humans of Neuromancer modify themselves to become “technologically beautiful.” For example, Molly augmented herself with cybernetic modifications that include a retractable, 4 centimeter double-edged blade under her fingernails, an enhanced reflex system, and implanted mirror lenses in her eyes. Peter Riviera also had implants put in to project holographic images that he sees through someone’s memory. Another example is Corto, who was terribly injured in Screaming Fist, received “eyes, legs, and extensive cosmetic work” (80). The humans of Neuromancer, just like us not only have an addiction to modifying themselves, but they also are addicted to integrating with technology. Today we have our addictions to facebook, while the humans of Neuromancer have an extreme addiction to cyberspace. When Case looses his ability to connect with cyberspace he became depressed and “the arc of self-destruction [is] glaringly obvious” (8). Gibson seems to show the humans’ dependencies of technology throughout their lives as goal for humans to be technologically advanced or modified. Gibson also highlights the opposing side where an AI named Wintermute tries to become a “superintelligence.” Both humans and the AI tried to achieve to be something greater. In the end Wintermute is unsuccessful in merging with Neuromancer to become the superintelligence that it wanted to be, while humans successfully modify themselves with technology, but never actually become “one” with technology. This may suggest that humans and AI’s can never fully achieve their image of perfection, but will always aim for those tendencies.
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