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Books Front Lines and Frontiers A Transformative Classic: Neuromancer by William Gibson The archetypal cyberpunk novel just turned forty last month–how well does Gibson’s vision of the future hold up? By Alan Brown | Published on August 6, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement. Today, I’m looking at a classic novel of the late 20th century, Neuromancer, took the science fiction world by storm almost immediately upon publication. The book brought terms like “cyberspace,” “matrix,” and “hackers” into the mainstream, and almost single-handedly launched the new subgenre of cyberpunk. Issued as a paperback, Neuromancer not only won the Philip K. Dick Award for best original paperback, but the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards as well. It also gained attention outside the genre, becoming popular with a wide audience. I recently read that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the book’s publication, which in addition to making me feel old, made me wonder how the tale has held up over time. Throughout the 20th century, the science fiction field went through periods of change. The earliest speculative stories gave way to the lurid adventures of the pulp magazines in the 1920s and 1930s, while the 1940s brought on a “Golden Age” where the authors began to pay more attention to the science, bringing greater rigor to their fantastic tales. Those authors were still dominating Analog magazine in the 1960s when I imprinted like a duckling on the square-jawed, plucky engineers who inhabited its pages. I remember hearing something about a “New Wave” when I was young, but other than encountering a few stories based on the softer sciences of psychology and sociology that avoided some of the standard tropes of the time, it didn’t have much impact on me. By the 1980s, however, I was reading a wider variety of stories and trying out new books. And in 1984, like many people, I ran across a novel that immediately attracted my attention: Neuromancer, by a new author named William Gibson. Gibson was part of a group of writers like John Shirley, Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner, and Rudy Rucker, who wrote dark tales of a dystopian future where virtual worlds were becoming as important as the physical world. Their new style, which was dubbed “cyberpunk,” soon became a subgenre, attracting not only attention, but also imitators, not all of whom truly captured more than the surface feel of the original stories. And soon, just like political scandals after Watergate were branded with a name ending with “-gate,” new trends in science fiction began to be labelled with names like “steampunk,” “dieselpunk,” “raypunk,” and “atompunk.” Within a few decades, the new movement began to lose its focus, not because it lacked strength, but because its central ideas had thoroughly spread through the genre and become an inseparable part of science fiction. About the Author William Gibson (born 1948) is an American science fiction writer and one of the founders of the cyberpunk subgenre. A longtime reader of science fiction throughout his early life, he dreamed of becoming a writer. When he reached eighteen, Gibson traveled overseas, and ended up in Canada with an idea of avoiding the draft (although in his case, the draft notice never came). He met a Canadian woman, Deborah Jean Thompson, with whom he traveled to Europe, living on a shoestring, and garnering experiences that informed his later writing. The two married and settled in Vancouver, where he got a degree in English. Gibson began writing, and at a science fiction convention, met writer John Shirley, who encouraged his early career. In his early stories, like “Burning Chrome” and “Johnny Mnemonic,” he began to experiment with the settings of cyberpunk, which reached full form in his first novel, Neuromancer. Two more novels set in the same “Sprawl” milieu followed, garnering him additional Hugo and Nebula nominations. He has not been a hugely prolific writer, producing just over a dozen novels, a number of short stories, and a few nonfiction works and essays. He now lives in the United States again, and his work continues to be well-received by fans and critics both within and beyond the science fiction genre. Gibson is a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and was selected as a SFWA Grand Master in 2019. Overtaken by Events Neuromancer famously begins with the line, “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” The line is intended to evoke the formless gray static a television screen displays when it is not picking up a broadcast—but within a decade, to the many readers who would have their televisions hooked up to cables, the line evoked the image of a featureless black or bright blue screen. That example perfectly illustrates the difficulties a writer faces when attempting to predict the near future. Yet, re-reading Neuromancer forty years later, I was surprised how well the story has held up over time. There are many things in the fictional world of the novel that have not yet come to pass. While urban areas have not reached the point of Gibson’s Sprawl, they continue to spread along the Eastern US coast. Computerized prosthetics have made huge progress, although they are still not linked directly to the nervous system. The world is linked in a web of data not too different from Gibson’s matrix, although it is not experienced through direct cybernetic links. While they do it through more primitive means, hackers already contend with representatives of governments and corporations in an effort to control data and systems. Governments could easily continue to weaken and international corporations strengthen as Gibson describes. And there is a small human presence in space, and increasing commercial access to orbit, so orbital habitats of considerable size are still certainly still a possibility. The number of things Gibson missed, where the technology or events he described have been overtaken by actual capabilities, is much smaller than I had originally expected, especially since he created his cybernetic future world on a typewriter. He did not foresee the fall of the Soviet Union (although the 10th anniversary edition I read for this review seems to have substituted the word “Russian” for “Soviet” without adversely affecting the narrative). Like many authors, he missed the advent of cellular technology and miniaturization that put instant communication and access to the internet in everyone’s pocket. His description of the matrix, or cyberspace, is a bit more poetic than the current reality of the internet, but again, that might be realized in the future. And he did a great job of leaving things to the reader’s imagination, avoiding the excessive detail that would surely date the work over the passage of time. All in all, there are few enough anachronisms in the text that even decades after it was written, I was very easily swept back into Gibson’s world of cyberspace cowboys in a decaying world. Neuromancer Case, an American expat in a seedy Japanese bar, is at the end of his rope. He is a former hacker, a cowboy with a custom cyberspace deck, whose employer caught him stealing and used a neurotoxin to strip him of his ability to access cyberspace. He has come to Chiba in a desperate attempt to find an illegal clinic that might restore his abilities. But as his hope ebbs, he is becoming more careless about his safety and what kind of jobs he takes, using more drugs and flirting with death. He has a girlfriend, Linda Lee, who steals from him and gets herself killed. The novel’s opening, in addition to evoking a dark future, conjures the feel of old noir detective novels, with flawed protagonists in situations they cannot control. Gibson writes beautifully, and the reader is immediately swept up in the story. The novel’s plot kicks in when Case meets Molly, a mercenary with silver lenses implanted over her eye sockets and razor-sharp blades that emerge from under her fingernails. She takes him to meet Armitage, an enigmatic man who offers to restore Case’s nervous system in return for doing a job. He agrees, and soon they are off to the Sprawl, the urban blight that covers nearly the entirety of North America’s Eastern Seaboard. But his benefactors also make two other changes when they repair his nervous system: they put blockers in his organs that prevent him from doing drugs, and toxin sacs that will dissolve and kill him if he disobeys directions. Case and Molly begin doing jobs for Armitage, breaking into secure cybersystems and gathering data. Case encounters a mysterious entity in cyberspace that calls itself Wintermute, which may be an artificial intelligence, or AI, and they begin to realize their efforts are repeatedly bringing them into contact with the multinational corporation Tessier-Ashpool S.A. Case encounters an old friend, Dixie, who is dead in the physical world, but still resides as a personality in cyberspace. Case and Molly try to find out more about Armitage, and what his goals are. Case discovers that Armitage is Colonel Corto, an American soldier who led a doomed mission against the Russians. Another member of their team is added, Peter Riviera, a sadistic man who can project images directly into other people’s brains. The team takes a shuttle to Freeside, a gigantic orbital facility at one of Earth’s Lagrange points, a kind of Las Vegas in space. Case is sent on a side trip to the Zion cluster, a Rastafarian facility whose leaders are sympathetic to whatever mission Armitage is pursuing. The Rastafarians are a refreshing change from the other characters, lively, spiritual, and happy, and provide the team with one of their tugs for transportation. The team’s mission becomes clearer. There are two AIs controlled by Tessier-Ashpool that want to merge, which will violate the rules of the Turing organization, whose goal is to limit cybernetic intelligence. Armitage, who turns out to be an artificial personality overlaid over that of Colonel Corto, begins to unravel, and soon is gone. Riviera betrays the team, and Case and Molly must infiltrate a Tessier-Ashpool orbital facility. There they find a nest of corruption and depravity, and have to fight not only to achieve their mission, but for their very lives. Artificial intelligences are at war with insane humans, with the future course of humanity hanging in the balance. The tale comes to a conclusion that, while somewhat enigmatic, is much more hopeful than the story that preceded it. The book is immersive, compelling, exciting, and ultimately very fulfilling. It is easy to see why it is hailed as a classic of not only science fiction, but all of literature. Final Thoughts Neuromancer is a fantastic book, which not only established William Gibson’s reputation with his very first novel, but put the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction on the map. Now that I’m done singing the book’s praises, I turn the floor over to you. What are your thoughts on Neuromancer, or Gibson’s other works? And what other books from the cyberpunk subgenre would you recommend to others?[end-mark] The post A Transformative Classic: <i>Neuromancer</i> by William Gibson appeared first on Reactor.

Democrats’ new running mate for presidential nominee Kamala Harris signed a bill last year allowing illegal immigrants to receive Minnesota driver’s licenses.  In March 2023, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed legislation allowing Minnesota residents to apply for and attain standard state driver’s licenses regardless of immigration status.  “Ensuring drivers in our state are licensed and carry insurance makes the roads safer for all Minnesotans,” Walz said in a written statement at the time. “As a longtime supporter of this bill, I am proud to finally sign it into law, making our roads safer and moving us toward our goal of making Minnesota the best state to raise a family for everyone.”  Minnesota is home to at least 81,000 illegal immigrants, according to the governor’s office, which touted the bill as a means to “increase safety across Minnesota by ensuring that all drivers are licensed, insured, and have taken driver’s education courses.”  Veena Iyer, executive director of the Immigration Law Center of Minnesota, celebrated Walz’s support for the legislation as “a major victory” after it passed the Minnesota House and Senate.  “Access to driver’s licenses is important for public safety, economic growth, and the dignity of our community members,” Iyer said in a public statement March 6, 2023, a day before Walz signed the bill into law.  In 2003, then Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, took action to block illegal aliens from receiving driver’s licenses in Minnesota. Now, though, under the Driver’s License for All law, there is no need “to show proof of legal presence in the United States to get a standard Minnesota class D driver’s license, instruction permit or standard identification (ID) card,” according to the website for the state’s Driver and Vehicle Services.  During a recent interview on CNN, Walz discussed his opposition to what he called the “Trump border wall,” saying: “If it’s 25 feet, then I’ll invest in the 30-foot-ladder factory.”  Donald Trump sunk the bipartisan border security bill so he could run on the issue. He’d rather play politics for his benefit than secure our border. Kamala Harris will make sure we pass the damn thing. pic.twitter.com/bKLWUyyFWa— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) August 2, 2024 Also last year, Walz backed state legislation to allow illegal aliens to receive free college tuition at Minnesota public colleges. The governor also supported legislation allowing illegal immigrants to enroll in MinnesotaCare, the state’s subsidized health care program. Walz signed the bill into law, and it will take effect in January. The post Kamala Harris’ VP Pick Signed Bill Allowing Illegal Aliens to Get Driver’s Licenses in Minnesota appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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Stumble upon a certain kind of beetle in South-East Asia’s tropical forests, and you’d be forgiven for wondering why there was a prehistoric ocean creature lurking in the leaves. But fear not, someone hasn’t been Jurassic Park-ing – it’s a trilobite beetle, and its bizarreness goes beyond looking like its namesake. What are trilobite beetles?Trilobite beetles are a group of insects belonging to the Platerodrilus genus and were first described by German entomologist Maximilian Perty in 1831, followed by other researchers in the 19th century.With that came comparisons to an unrelated, long-extinct group of creatures – trilobites. It’s easy to see why; these beetles bear more than a striking resemblance to them, with their plated body armor and helmet-like heads.The true curiosity, though, is that only the females look like this (and that they do so both as larvae and adults). What followed was a nearly 100-year hunt to find a male.Swedish zoologist Eric Mjöberg won that particular quest, although as he describes in a 1925 paper, he took to some pretty unusual means to do so; the researcher tied female trilobite beetles up “with a string long enough to allow them to move about in a circle”, placing them within a protective cage that would still allow males to enter.“All efforts were, however, in vain,” Mjöberg wrote.He eventually had his day when, after offering a reward, a collector came up to him with a wrapped-up banana leaf. Within was a male and female trilobite beetle, mid-copulation.This revealed sexual dimorphism – when males and females of the same species look visibly different – to the extreme. Male trilobite beetles lack the trilobite-like appearance, looking like regular net-winged beetles with long, slender wings and a much smaller body overall.Adult male trilobite beetles of various species.Image credit: Masek & Bocak, ZooKeys 2014 (CC BY 4.0)They could easily be mistaken for another species entirely, so how do you know if you have a male trilobite beetle on your hands? There’s genetic testing, but that’s not the most practical if you’re out in the field.The other option is to make like Mjöberg and find a male and a female mating. Given the wild differences between the two, it begs the question…How do trilobite beetles have sex?The next time someone tries to brag about how long they can last in bed, knock them down a peg or two by directing them to a 1996 paper by Alvin T.C. Wong. Three years previous, at a field station in Gombak, Malaysia, Wong had set up a trap to catch trilobite beetles in the act, using a female as bait and checking the trap every few hours to see if a male had been lured in.His plan was successful. Eventually, a male beetle was found with its “long, curved genitalia […] firmly inserted” (that’s the actual description by the way, we’re not quite that NSFW) into the female’s genital pore, known as a gonopore.But the story doesn’t end there. The male beetle remained attached to the female for a whopping five hours, before releasing the female, and then dying a few hours later. What a way to go.Unfortunately, the eggs laid by the female after never hatched – but given that this encounter led to the first thorough record of how trilobite beetles mate, the male beetle’s efforts didn’t go entirely without reward.

Ever had someone make you jump and find yourself clutching your chest? It's like something just zapped behind your sternum, you feel a little shaky even. You lean against the wall as you recover, wondering why your friend is such a jerk, and why you can physically feel it in your chest when you get a fright.When we write about fear in fiction, phrases like “heart-stopping” often get thrown around, but the science of fear tells us this isn’t what’s happening, quite simply because it wouldn’t make any sense. When we get scared, the sensation we’re feeling is all to do with preparing ourselves to tackle an oncoming threat, and cardiac arrest wouldn’t get us very far if we were being chased down by a lion.What happens when we get a fright?If something makes you jump, it activates what’s known as the sympathetic nervous system. It’s an internal tool that basically prepares us for the fight or flight response by releasing certain hormones and influencing our physiological function.A key ingredient is adrenaline (epinephrine) that gets squeezed out by the adrenal glands into the blood. This causes a pretty instant reaction from the cardiovascular system as the heart starts pumping faster, delivering more blood to your organs and muscles. That’s because they’re going to need as much oxygen as they can get if you’re about to leg it from a predator.How does adrenaline make you feel?As anyone who has ever had to use an EpiPen will tell you, a sudden rush of adrenaline isn’t a good feeling. As a stress hormone, it brings on feelings of nervousness and anxiety similar to how you might feel if you were about to do a bungee jump, and a rush can be a symptom of PTSD when thinking about traumatic incidents from the past.We use adrenaline as a medicine because it can have a positive influence on people experiencing a medical emergency. It’s effective for anaphylaxis brought on by exposure to an allergen like peanuts because it can open the airway. It’s also used in certain cases of cardiac arrest because of how it influences the strength and rate of heartbeats.Shakiness, rapid pulse, and chest tightness are all part of the unpleasant symptom set for a sudden surge in adrenaline. Add to that increased alertness and you become suddenly very aware of the changes in your body, and this becomes all the more noticeable in a scenario where you’re not actually in danger – such as your mate jumping out at you when you thought you were home alone.It’s important to note that while sympathetic nervous system activation is a normal response to a surprise, certain heart conditions can be triggered by fright. Anyone experiencing chest pain or ongoing discomfort should contact their medical practitioner. After all, it is theoretically possible to be scared to death.The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions. 

Nutty Putty Cave has become synonymous with the tragic death of a caver who became trapped in its narrow tunnels in 2009. But while many people have learned about the cave through this accident, they are less familiar with the cave's longer history.For decades prior to the incident, the cave system was a popular destination for amateur and professional cave enthusiasts alike.What is Nutty Putty Cave?Nutty Putty Cave is located near the city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, in the United States. The cave system was first discovered and explored in 1960 by Dale Green and friends. Because many of the passages contained a soft, brown clay that could be molded by touch, Green decided to call it Nutty Putty Cave, after the popular children’s toy, Silly Putty. Like the toy, the clay could shift from a solid to a flexible fluid when gently squeezed.This viscous clay is composed of tiny particles of silicon dioxide, or silica as it is often known, which is commonly found in nature in the form of quartz.Whereas caves are often formed by surface water that descends into the ground (known as epidemic caves), Nutty Putty is an example of a hypogenic cave. This type of cave system was formed from below, when superheated groundwater rose to the surface, dissolving limestone as it went. This is because the groundwater was probably slightly acidic.Over time, it ate at the rock and created a complex network of passages and domes. According to one survey of Nutty Putty, there are over 410 meters (1,345 feet) of chutes and tunnels in the cave system, the most famous (and tight) being “The Big Slide”, “The Birth Canal”, “The Maze”, and “The Helmet Eater”.The Nutty Putty Cave DeathAfter it was discovered in 1960, Nutty Putty became a popular cave that attracted many visitors. However, some of these cave explorers were inexperienced and unprepared for the tight network of tunnels it contained. NBC News reported that rescuers had to be called to the cave five times in the decade preceding the 2009 incident.There were no fatalities following these callouts, but they nevertheless required rescuing. Then, in 2005, the deaths of four Utah youths in the nearby cave on “Y” Mountain led to further concerns.In 2006, Nutty Putty Cave was closed due to mounting safety concerns, but it was eventually reopened in May 2009. In order to protect visitors, a management plan was signed with Timpanogos Grotto, to provide an online reservation system that restricted access to one group at a time.                IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.Unfortunately, it was only a matter of months after this that tragedy struck.On November 24, 2009, John Edward Jones, a medical student, visited Nutty Putty Cave with his brother Josh and friends. Unfortunately, while he was trying to find the Birth Canal, Jones entered an unmapped portion of the cave near “Ed’s Push.”Jones, believing he was in the wider opening elsewhere in the system, attempted to push himself headfirst through a tight sport to turn around, but he became wedged at a 70-degree angle and could not escape.Throughout the following day, teams of rescuers attempted to save him, but he soon started to lose consciousness because of the position he was in. His heart was under increased strain to pump blood from his brain, a process that is usually aided by gravity.During the rescue efforts, a pulley system was installed to help free Jones from his position, but it could not be secured against the soft, clay walls. In fact, one rescuer was struck in the face when the pulley tore free from the point it was anchored to.Despite the efforts to rescue him, Jones was declared dead a few minutes before midnight on November 25. Due to his position in the cave, rescuers were unable to recover his body. As such, he was left in place and Nutty Putty Cave was officially closed to the public. The site remains a sealed grave to this day.

The bright purple athletics track at the Paris Olympics has fast become one of the Games’ most recognizable features (besides Muffin Man, that is) – but there’s far more to it than a pleasing appearance. Not only is it thought to be the fastest Olympic track ever, but it’s also got a surprise ingredient: shells.It’s all part of the Paris Olympics’ plan to put sustainability at the forefront of the Games. When it comes to making the track, designers have been able to solve two problems at once.Athletics tracks often use calcium carbonate to increase their resilience, but there’s a problem – the more traditional way of obtaining this mineral is through mining, which isn’t exactly the most environmentally friendly.There is, however, another big source of calcium carbonate that’s currently going to waste. Every year, it’s estimated that over 10 million tons of mollusk shells – that’s things like oysters, clams, and mussels – are produced, often ending up in landfills.Sports flooring manufacturer Mondo and fishing cooperative Nieddittas found a way to create a more sustainable solution to both issues; the latter produced and cleaned up the shells, which were then crushed up ready for Mondo to incorporate into the track.According to a statement from Nieddittas, the new process is the “equivalent to offsetting the emissions of a Euro 4 diesel vehicle driving 60,000 km” (37,282 miles) and also stops “dozens of tons” of shells that would otherwise go to waste from building up in landfill sites.It might’ve taken three years to perfect the pipeline, but that seems to have been worth it for a sustainable track that’s also been touted as the fastest ever seen at an Olympic Games – Mondo told the BBC that it’s 2 percent faster than that in 2020’s Tokyo Olympics.How can one track be faster than another? Just looking at the tracks, there doesn’t seem to be much difference besides the obvious – one’s the usual terracotta color and the other is vivid purple. But as we’ve learned from the inclusion of crushed-up shells, there’s a lot more going on under the surface when it comes to athletics tracks.Imagine running on a pavement compared to a track – it just feels different. That’s because tracks are specially designed to optimize performance, features such as honeycomb cells made out of rubber that absorb the energy of a foot slamming into them and push it back out.Mathematical modeling that’s been going on since the last Olympics has resulted in the track’s honeycombs being swapped for elliptical shapes to speed things up – although there’s far more to succeeding in the 100-meter sprint than a decent track alone.