Ricardo KleinMar 11
BoredomFestival
Re-reading "Neuromancer" and I'm struck how the protagonist wanting to get out of debt by selling 3MB of RAM went from being laughably dated to seeming actually plausible within recent months
Mar 11 at 3:27amWeb
Show threadI Voted for McGovernMar 11
@BoredomFestival
Wow, a flash forward from the past. Must reread this. Thanks! William Gibson was prescient on so many levels
Show threadRoadskater, Ph.D.Mar 11
@goatrodeo @BoredomFestival "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" So confusing in 2026. What, it's completely black? Or in 2030, it's showing non-stop ads?
Show threadSpace HoboMar 11
@roadskater @goatrodeo @BoredomFestival 1990s, it's blue?
Show threadYpsilenna GloomvaleMar 11
@roadskater @goatrodeo @BoredomFestival I imagined it would be gray with static 😆
Show threadWestern InfidelsMar 11
@roadskater @goatrodeo @BoredomFestival I read a critic's take on one of Gibson's later books, in which the critic asserted that cyberpunk, like newspapers, is writing for the now, with no consideration for how it might age at all. I don't like the idea but I haven't been able to fault it, either.
Show threadDavid GerardMar 12
@WesternInfidels @roadskater @goatrodeo @BoredomFestival that's all science fiction, it's always about the present
Show threadJoeMar 15
@WesternInfidels @roadskater @goatrodeo @BoredomFestival I think Gibson would agree with that. He famously said that the future is here, it is just unevenly distributed. He was really writing about the edges of what was currently happening.
Show threadMaestro Mushi6d ago
@goatrodeo @roadskater @WesternInfidels @BoredomFestival I mean, that's a take from someone that a) hasn't participated in the dialogue that science fiction has been in since the 50s (see herbert, bradbury, etc. ) and b) didn't actually listen to Gibson when he said that he was doing that exact thing for the bigend trilogy: cyberpunk is now the present he said
Show threadSimon Zerafa (Status:   😊)Mar 11

@goatrodeo @BoredomFestival

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

😌

#Neuromancer #OpenToInterpretation

Show threadFandaSinMar 11

@simonzerafa

I've read it like 10-15 years ago.
I still remember this line.

Great book and great writer.😍

@goatrodeo @BoredomFestival

Show threadSimon Zerafa (Status:   😊)Mar 11

@FandaSin @goatrodeo @BoredomFestival

Depends how you read that line as it's meaning have managed over time. Also the sky is blue!! 🫨

Show threadFandaSinMar 11

@simonzerafa

I'm old enough to know how "dead channel" looked like.😆
(I suppose) as it was meant by author back then.

@goatrodeo @BoredomFestival

Show threadI Voted for McGovernMar 12
@FandaSin @simonzerafa @BoredomFestival
This is the correct answer
Show threaddiffie :3 (bindiff)Mar 11
@simonzerafa @goatrodeo @BoredomFestival Not blue enough.
Show threadPaul BarnfatherMar 11
@BoredomFestival
In the early nineties I sold 8MB of 100ns DRAM chips to pay off a credit card debt.
So, yeah. Feels like we're back where we started.
Show threadMarcoMar 11
@BoredomFestival lately I’ve been constantly thinking about Neuromancer. Almost seems like it’s been used as a guide book by some, but not in the good way. Anyway, I just wish @GreatDismal was more into mastodon than twitter
Show thread<smitty />Mar 11
@flun1tr4z3p4m @BoredomFestival @GreatDismal He’s been fairly active on Bluesky. Not Masto, I realize, but at least better than Twitter.
Show threadSuricatMar 11
@BoredomFestival funny and sad 😉
Show threadAlexander OnduMar 11

@BoredomFestival

I just looked up that passage.
It says 3 MB of "hot" RAM from "the Hitachi".

Isn't "Hitachi" synonymous with a certain kind of toy for grown-ups these days?

Those surely have 3 MB of RAM nowadays. And it would be "hot" RAM for sure.

Show threadChloé RaccoonMar 11
@alexanderondu @BoredomFestival @patterfloof Hitachi hadn't put their name on the magic wand for ages, and sold the design to another company a few years ago...
Show threadWe don't need AI. AI needs us.Mar 11

@alexanderondu
@BoredomFestival
Hitachi at some point in the '90s was making computers (MSX, laptop RISC, PCs) along with other Japanese tech company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX
https://www.computer-specifications.com/specifications/Hitachi-C90D-Specs.html
https://www.openpa.net/pa-risc_processor_other.html#pa50

So maybe Gibson was using one of these as reference.

MSX - Wikipedia

Show threadRobert Petersen Mar 11
@BoredomFestival @benroyce next generation of consoles will be a re-cased Dreamcast.
Show threadhush404Mar 11
@BoredomFestival Longtime fan of CP (Cyberpunk).... starting to hate how real shit is getting (also, its always the terrible stuff and none of the cool stuff from the genre).
Show threadByMatthewPorterMar 11

@hush404 @BoredomFestival

It’s profoundly unfair that in the 80s we didn’t get 1940s space opera coming true, but in the 2020s we get 1980s cyberpunk dystopia.

Show threadBiggles 20X6!Mar 12
@hush404 @BoredomFestival abbreviating Cyberpunk to 'CP' is... Not a move I'd use.
Show threadhush404Mar 12
@Taco_lad @BoredomFestival lmao. Is lost on the use of CP outside of this context. What have I done?
Show threadBiggles 20X6!Mar 12
@hush404 @BoredomFestival CP is the standard abbreviation for 'Child Porn' - the previous abbreviation prior to people using 'CSAM'.
It was very common to see on forums and boards in the edgy 90s.
'User was banned for CP'
Show threadhush404Mar 12
@Taco_lad @BoredomFestival oh. Welp. Not that. Haha.
Show thread0xC0DEC0DE07EAMar 12
@hush404 @BoredomFestival as the man says, “The future is already here; it’s just not evenly distributed.”
Show threadTofu GolemMar 11
@BoredomFestival
Later in the series, he describes AI-generated art that is nothing like the soulless drivel we actually got.
Show threadgellgeMar 11
@BoredomFestival time certainly is a flat circle.