Jar Of Eyeballs

Twenty five years ago, the best novel ever was published: Neuromancer, written by William Gibson. It’s one of the few scifi novels to receive the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick award, and considered Gibson’s greatest masterpiece.

Here’s a short synopsis of the story. It might contain spoilers, so consider yourself warned. The main character, Henry Case, used to be a hacker. One day he stole money from his employer and they wrecked his nervous system with a powerfull toxin, destroying his hacking skills. Since in the Neuromancer world hacking was done by connecting your nevrous system directly to a computer network (Matrix-style), he was screwed. Out of money, addicted to drugs and with only a few months left to live at best, he’s recruited for a mission that could restore his life. He’s offered a chance to get his nervous system repaired, but in exchange he has to hack an AI of immense power to remove the restrictions that keep it from getting smarter, thus creating an entity of with god-like powers.

What set Neuromancer aside from other novels was the prophetic power of the story. Gibson has often been compared to Jules Verne, for good reasons. Neuromancer introduced the idea of a global computer network, called “cyberspace” by Gibson, or occasionally, “the Matrix”. Although the internet existed twenty five years ago, it was nothing like the world wide web we know today. Some people even claim Neuromancer inspired computer scientists, and without it the internet as we know it today wouldn’t be around.

Another prevalent theme in Neuromancer are surgical enhancements. Although we’re not even close to creating complete cyborgs, the technology has made gigantic leaps the last 25 years. Cybernetic limbs, even though far from perfect, exist. Blind people have had a limited amount of vision restored with brain implants and artificial eyes. Brain-machine interfaces are a reality and are studied and experimented with in universities and laboratories around the world.

Some of the technologies envisioned by Gibson are nowhere near completion, though, starting with artificial intelligence. We don’t even know how human intelligence works, and even the best AI we can create today is very, very limited. I don’t see a real sentient AI happening anywhere in the near future, and perhaps that’s a good thing.

A final remark: Neuromancer was probably one of the main inspiration sources for The Matrix. Neo and Trinity are quite similar to Case and Molly, the main characters from Neuromancer. Some people even claimed Gibson should sue the Wachowsky brother for plagiarism, but Gibson himself considers it a compliment, not plagiarism. Add the brain-machine interface, the ultra-realistic virtual world (called “simstim” in Neuromancer) and the fact that Gibson also used the word “matrix” for his virtual world and it’s pretty clear where Andy and Larry Wachowsky got their inspiration.

Neuromancer is a novel you simply have to read, period. If I was a teacher I would force my students to read it. The two sequels, Count Zero and Mona Lise Overdrive, are also highly recommended. Together they form the so-called Sprawl-trilogy. All three of the stories take place in a gigantic metropolitan area spanning the entire east coast of the United States, know as The Sprawl.

Okay, so there are already plenty of “top X novels” lists around on the internet, but I’m gonna post one myself anyway. These are five books every true geek should read at least once. I’m gonna start at five and count down to one. Ready? Here we go! Oh, and I warn you, the list might contain minor spoilers.

5) “Ringworld” by Larry Niven. An expedition consisting of a two humans and two extraterrestrials explore a gigantic ring built around a star, hoping it can be used as a refuge from a deadly shockwave from the galactic core that will destroy most of the galaxy in the distant future. They discover the remains of the civilization of the Ringworld builder, who turns out to be the ancestors of the human race. It won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus award, popularized Larry Niven’s Known Space universe and was an important inspiration source for Halo. After his fans pointed out such a structure wouldn’t be stable and drift away from it’s star, it got several sequels.

4) “Snow Crash” by Neil Stephenson. The United States has disintegrated into a multitude of privately owned city-states, each with its own laws and army. Hiro Protagonist, a hacker, swordfighter and pizza courier, discovers a dangerous drug wich only seems to target hackers, but is a part of a conspiracy by a powerful cult. Stephenson invented the term “avatar”, and his Metaverse (a 3D virtual world) inspired Second Life (wich, by the way, is a piece of crap imho). Great book, even though my copy has a crappy cover. An American flag with a biohazard symbol would be better for a Tom Clancy novel than a scifi story.

3) “Microserfs” by Douglas Coupland. The story starts when a Microsoft employee starts a journal because he has trouble getting to sleep. Realizing he has little or no future at Microsoft, he decides to quit his job and join his friend’s new company, where he works on a Lego-like design program. Geeky and funny, packed with sitcom-style humour and characters. In fact, it would make a cool sitcom. It’s sequel, “JPod”, actually did spawn a short-lived sitcom.

2) “The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. Aliens demolish Earth to make way for their new galactic bypass. Sounds crazy? It sure is! Earth is destroyed and only two humans survive. They are picked up by the president of the galaxy, who turns out to be a complete moron (where have I heard that before? president…. moron… ). Together, they go on a journey wich leads them to a civilization that builds custom-made planets (wich includes Earth) and leads them to the real meaning of life (it’s not what you’d expect).

And the winner is (drumroll)…

1) “Neuromancer” by William Gibson. The most epic masterpiece of all time! Winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick award, this is the one scifi novel every living soul should have read at least once. A hacker is recruited for a mission wich turns out to be led by an artificial intelligence. The aim of the mission? Disable the systems that prevent the AI from getting smarter, thus creating a true godlike intelligence. A truely prophetic writer (compared to Jules Verne by some), Gibson invented the term cyberspace and was one of the main inspirations for The Matrix. According to many people, Neo and Trinity are based on the main characters from Neuromancer, wich Gibson considers a compliment rather than plagiarism.

So there you have it. My personal top five. An interesting fact: even though my native language is Dutch, I have read all these books in English (some also in Dutch). In almost every case, I found the story much easier to follow in the English version. Also, things often got fucked up horribly in translation. For example, in Snow Crash, even names were translated. “Hiro Protagonist” became something like “Hiro Main Character”, even though protagonist is a real word in Dutch. The horror!