- I believe we could spend an entire class discussing whether or not the construct is "alive" or "dead" at the end of the book, or whether or not these two terms mean anything in an existence where such constructs can "exist."

- With the word "God" thrown around at the end of the book, I found myself wondering how other people that exist in the world of the Nueromancer interact with their "God" if he/she/it (Rio) really IS a God of any sort. The book makes Case's story seem so epic, yet at the end, he gives "God", Rio, the matrix, whoever a proverbial middle finger by throwing the shuriken at it and walking off, continuing with his life.

- Will we as humans ever know an existence such as the one presented in this book? Will we ever truly be able to completely be absorbed into digital data? Will we ever be able to come across our own "existence" inside a matrix?

1. How strange are the moments where Case is whipped out of the reality we know and into a sort of virtual reality which is just like a real reality? Like when he is taken to the beach by Nueromancer, where he finally learns who Nueromancer is. What is the connection between this type of virtual reality and ours as we know today? will we ever really be able to have virtual reality that feels exactly like reality? (i.e. the matrix movies) and if so, what does that mean for reality?

2. Just speculation, but who could "the others" (270)that the final wintermute talks of? He says "I am the matrix". Are there other matrixes? Maybe from other planets that have built technology? Does this imply technology develops in the same ways no matter what? we know this isn't true from reading this book and seeing where technology has changed.

3. Instead of just watching molly intimidate 3Jane in reality Case does it in virtual reality, when he flips back. Will our lives get to the point to where we prefer virtual reality to reality? Also, I thought this passage was interesting:
"--now
and his voice the cry of a bird
unknown,
3Jane answering in song, three
notes, high and pure,
A true name." (262)
What did you make of this mini-poem in the text? It is the only occurance. What technique is used here and what does it do?

Holly Groening

Grace made a really insighful comment about Peter losing to Hideo, and that being representative of people who always find ways to nitpick technology and criticize its progression. Admittedly, I sometimes even find myself in that very position, especially when the technology is something I can't really wrap my head around.

On page 238, Case is asking for cigarettes. It occurs to me that it is very strange for such technologically enhanced people to still enjoy and/or crave something like cigarettes. Does jacking in, chasing AIs, etc. not replace the need for an old fashioned smoke?

I wonder what the significance of Rio's youth and nationality is...

We finally meet Neuromancer, the other AI, near the end of the story. I'm trying to understand why the book is named after the second AI, when the story is driven by Wintermute. Is it that the ultimate goal of Wintermute is to fuse itself with Neuromancer? So that attaining Neuromancer is the ultimate goal of the book? That's what I made of that bit.

3Janes chronic boredom may have been a primary reason she eventually gave out the code word. Had she not been a member of the TA family that was so rigidly structured, would their AI have been able to defy the family?

those are my thoughts for now.

G. David Nerio

1) 3Jane is an interesting character, but she confuses me a great deal. She seems to have a rather short attention span as to what intrigues her (first Peter and then Molly), and she seems to flit back and forth between the role of a good guy and a bad guy. I just can't place her, and I feel that without being able to understand her, I'm missing a large chunk of the story.

2) Is Neuromancer's realm really the land of the dead or is it a place that's not quite alive but not really dead either? Does it just exist in an online sense or is it beyond the lines of technology, moving into spiritual? If it's the second case, then I suppose you could say that technology has truly transcended the human body, even if you have to die to get there.
(Gibson, 233)

3) I find it pretty amusing how Peter, with his snazzy holographic abilities, loses to Hideo, who (aside from being frozen on the occasion) doesn't seem to really have any technological add-ons. It makes you wonder if this is a nudge in the direction that there will always be someone out there who'll put technology in its place should it make an attempt to go out of control.
(Gibson, 251)

~Grace

1. First off, I hope we can talk about the ending. Was Dix really dead? How was Case there with Linda?

2. It was an interesting note also how Case changed. I guess in one way or another, he sort of grew a disdain for the matrix? He needed the password because he wanted to change something, even though he didn't know what would change.

3. So Wintermute/Rio became the matrix. Why doesn't Case need him anymore? I just thought that now that they're kinda friends, he could completely crash through any ICE.

1. pg 230:"The Zionite was smiling, his head bobbing to a rhythm Case couldn't hear. A pair of thin yellow leads ran from his ears to a side pocket in his sleeveless jacket." The first iPod. To me it's amazing to have such insight into technology that you can actually predict some of the upcoming devices.

2. pg 227: Once again I notice the discrepancy between the futuristic/modern technology that TA has constructed, but yet in Straylight seems so antique in certain areas. "antique Sony" "smell like church"

3. When we finally meet "Neuromancer" and he says "I am the dead, and their land" it reminds me of the religious concept of purgatory. The religious conotation associated with this "land" is the actual physical form of an afterlife and is maybe how artistically the author sees the afterlife. Essentially Neuromancer has created another form of life, where you can totally exsist cyberly where 'meat' doesn't matter. It is interesting that even though Case rejects his meat from, he still returns to it, and that's what he means when he says by walking away, you have already won. Maybe even for Case, exsiting totally virtually is to big of a jump away from reality.

- Mackenzie

1. Of Case and Linda's love: "It was a vast thing, beyond knowing, a sea of information encoded in spiral and pheromone, infinite intricacy that only the body, in its strong blind way, could ever read" (239). One thing that the cowboys forget, or deliberately ignore, is the extreme complexity embedded in the so-called meat-- that nature, or God, or whatever you like, has one-upped our complex artificial systems from the get-go. Wintermute and Neuromancer represent a kind of disembodied superintelligence that's beyond human comprehension, but can humans ever hope to surpass the complex intelligence that is us?

2. "'But you do not know her thoughts,' the boy said, beside him now in the shark thing's heart. 'I do not know her thoughts. You were wrong, Case. To live here is to live. There is no difference'" (258). Neuromancer seems to be right about this one. While Case is trapped in the beach construct, he can taste, feel, jones, and screw just as if he's in the so-called real world. I'm skeptical about whether we'll ever achieve such palpable realism in computer-generated environments, but maybe I'll be eating those words somewhere down the line.

3. "'Give us the fucking code,' he said. 'If you don't, what'll change? What'll ever fucking change for you? You'll wind up like the old man. You'll tear it all down and start building again! You'll build the walls back, tighter and tighter...I got no idea at all what'll happen if Wintermute wins, but it'll CHANGE something!'" p260. In addition to being one of the most dramatically-charged moments of the book, this bit illustrates the inherent tension involved in technological change. On the one hand you've got 3Jane, who represents the old guard, the status quo. She has nothing to gain and everything to lose by a paradigm shift in technology. On the other hand is Case, who's got nothing to lose and admittedly hasn't built up a case for change, but he knows he wants it, needs it more than anything else.

Ajai Raj

- After some good ol' fashioned thriller action when Case and Maelcum break into Villa Straylight, things get philosophical. The AI's will freely admit they have no personality. Then Rio shows up. (Who was the crazy SOB that chose Riviera as a template?). He has completely taken over; he IS the Matrix. In a way, he could rightly be called a god of sorts. He holds humanity in his hand.

- The magical references came too little too late but the discussion about knowing a being's true name gives one power over it is one of the oldest beliefs of man, coming from ancient myth. The suffix -mancer comes from the Greek word for divination. But the name of the boy and the book are obviously a play off of "necromancer" -someone who could summon the dead for information or other purposes. Rio says "himself", "I am the dead, and their land." This form of divination (as well as the concept of synchronicity) is illustrated later when he says that he saw Linda's death coming, so he took into himself. But if he is the dead, then that would mean he killed her yet he says he didn't (?).

- Even with control of the entire matrix, effectively giving him control over all of humanity, he does nothing to really exert any power over the meat -Case continues to work and even finds a new girlfriend in the Sprawl. And what is Rio/Neuromance up to? He's looking for other entities like "himself", finding one in Centauri system. Is he lonely? Is that he's not a god, but just a new form of life? Is it our destiny to become part of a hive-mind collective overseen by an AI?

Trevor Wallace,
t_rev2323@yahoo.com