William_Gibson

William Gibson is an author who was born in Conway, South Carolina. At the age of 6, his father died from chocking to death; at this time, the Heimlich manuver had not been invented yet. because of his father's tragic accident, him and his mother packed up and moved to a small, mountainous area in Virginia. His moving to a new area had made him into a quiet child, and his love of science-fiction would soon begin to blossom. []

At the age of 15, out of the deep anxiety and dpresiion of his mother, he was sent to a private school in Arizona. He would there, read a lot of other writing from other science fiction writers, to try to get a better idea of a better type of science fiction. But at age 18, his mother literally dropped dead. Due to the loss of his mother, he dropped out of high school early, and traveled around to places like California adn Europe, but eventually settled down in Canada in order to dodge the draft. He met his current wife here.

Gibson's writing career started with his wife, when they moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1972. Here, he earned "a desultory bachelor's degree in English" at the University of British Columbia ([].) His time studying English literature gave him time to expolre a wide variety of other types of fiction. At the university is where he was encouraged to write his very first short story,"Fragment of a Hologram Rose." After this time there, he took on many different career paths before he decided to write full-time. He still spends most of his time in Canada, and still lives in Vancouver, but still retains his dual citizenship.

Gibson was the the writer who coined the word "cyberpunk," a term that's used to categorize a story with a high level of technology, and high levels of crime. The majority of his stories include virtual reality, cybernetics, and cyberspace, a computer-simulated reality. His books included a futuristic view in to the dystopia of the world that we live in today. His first book, "Neuromancer," which was introduced in 1984, was the beginning of a new era in science fiction. Many of the movies you have seen may have been made off of the concept that was started by Gibson. Many of these forms of media include, "The Matrix," "Johnny Mnemomic," and "Aeon Flux."

"Neuromancer," Gibson's first book, was about an ex-cyber hacker named Case. Case was once a great cybercowboy, who would steal encrypted computer programs, aritficial intelligences, and ice(intrusion countermeasures electronics) for a good profit by jacking his consciousness into the "Matrix." Double-crossing the wrong group of people, they injected his body with a mycotoxin, making him inable to jack into the matrix. Now he's just a hustler on the streets, living one day after another living in cheap coffins, and getting off on cocaine and beer almost everyday. One day he is solicited by Armitage, the main patron of the story, to steal and hack an artificial intelligence. To make sure he is ready for the mission he is going to receive, Case is sent to a surgeon to get his body purified of the mycotoxin that inhibits his ability to jack into the matrix. After he is examined, Case learns that the mycotoxin that prohibits his jacking into the matrix has accumulated onto his arteries in the form of sacs, and are slowly but surely dissolving into his bloodstream. Armitage tells Case he has an enzyme that can dissolve the bonds that hold the sacs together, and will give it to him if he agrees to help with the job. Case, only looking after himself, agrees, and continues to get a new pancreas and liver, which now prevent him from getting drunk or high off of cocaine. Together with a Bladerunner named Molly, he tries to hack a powerful artificial intelligence, but he slowly starts the question, who is really behind this entire mission?

Our society is entering a new era of increasingly more advanced technology. We are now inventing technologies that can be replacements for human functions, such as eating, breathing, and hearing. Our techonologies are progressing to the point that we can now replace human functions with mechanized replicants. Even now, we are slowing gaining more understanding about the relationships between nerves and the signals to the body. Not only that, the internet is one of the most used tools in our society today. It has become a constant avenue for information to be gathered, and we may even develop it to the point that we are able to digitalize our minds,and can traverse onto the internet as digitalized programs. Technology will only continue to advance, because there will always be a need for new ideas, or a need for a less stressful way to do things.