Neuromancer
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Neuromancer is a novel by William Gibson, originally published in 1984. The book outlines a grim future, scarred by overpopulation and drug addiction, in which people and corporations are connected by computers in an intertwining web known as 'cyberspace'. The story itself concerns a down-and-out hacker named Case, his mirror-eyed, razor-nailed companion Molly, and an Artificial Intelligence unit bent on becoming more than its creators intended. Aside from being an excellent story in and of itself, it accomplished two important things:
1) It ensured that inferior science-fiction authors, movie producers, and hangers-on would be able to live off of recycled versions of Gibson's story;
-AND-
2) It created the prefix 'cyber-', which could be neatly applied by nearly all members of Earth's media to describe technology-related occurrences they knew little or nothing about.
