Neuromancer: the novel and its far reaching sci-fi influence

About this episode

The episode discusses William Gibson's novel Neuromancer and its influence on the cyberpunk genre.

This week our usual crew of Joe, Matt, and Eric was joined by Liz to discuss William Gibson's novel  Neuromancer . This 1984 novel was foundational to the cyberpunk genre in many ways, from establishing the grittiness of the setting all the way down to shaping the way this genre looks and feels across different types of media. The crew discuss themes through  Neuromancer  which are also inherent through a lot of cyberpunk media now, like the idea of what makes a person, and whether an AI could ever have personhood. They also discuss how older tech can affect our modern reading of futuristic media -- if you've never seen a payphone, you probably have no idea how eerie a bank of them ringing all at once would be, but then Gibson would have no way of knowing where payphone tech ended up today. It's a great conversation on a foundational work of sci-fi, and if you haven't picked it up, Joe has some suggestions as to where to get it online while still benefitting your local book store. If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon , where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Hosts: Joe, Matt, Eric

Guest: Liz

Topics covered

• Neuromancer
• cyberpunk
• sci-fi
• AI
• personhood

Keywords

• William Gibson
• 1984
• themes
• media
• payphone

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Neuromancer

Books & works: Neuromancer

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