Neuromancer (the novel) at 25 - PC World Author Looks at What It Got Right and Not

Neuromancer at 25: What It Got Right, What It Got Wrong by Mark Sullivan on PC World

I remeber spending time with Timothy Leary back in 1985 shortly after Neuromancer had been published in paperback. Tim pulled it off his shelf and handed it to me.

"Bruce, this is what the future is all about,"Tim smugly proclaimed..

I took the book home and read as much of it as I could. It was hard for me to get into it, because the future while full of new technology, still depicted human behavior as pretty much the same. My cherished notion at the time was that we would become better (less violent and more ethical).

I suupose that is because while change in technology has accelerated an almost exponential rate, we are pretty much the same human animal as we were 10,000 years ago, before history began. 

Still the novel is prophetic of a world in which I participate in more than most, the world of plugging into the web on a daily basis for long hours.

Now that 25 years have gone by, its probably time for me to go back and take another try at Neuromancer.