Exactly. This is exactly why Neuromancer was brilliant- not that it captured the technology (which was far in advance of our own and therefore not necessarily needed to be consistent with what we conceive as cyberspace- if you tried to explain the Internet to Benjamin Franklin he'd think you were nutbar too); but because it captured the personalities that now, a decade and a half later, still inhabit what WE know as cyberspace. Like a lot of science fiction after the early "competent man" stuff it's more about the people than the tech.
It will be hard to turn Gibson's vision into a movie, though. It's sort of funny though- the only people I can see doing that are Kubrick (as mentioned earlier) and oddly enough exactly the type of director that Chris Cunningham is- a music video director who has pretty much nailed visuals. Characterisation will be key, but the visuals IMO will be what hold the movie together, and anybody who has seen Dark City or The Crow knows that visuals can help make a film without making it stupid.
And yes, he knew nothing about the tech. He got the idea from watching kids playing pac-man at a local arcade. He noticed how completely they melded with the game mentally, tuning out everything around them. The fact that from such a basic source he created something that WAS so close to what the net is and may well be (inaccurate aspects of his fiction notwithstanding) is astonishing.
Close- Gibson is Canadian, not British, and I think the typical British or Canadian attention span is just as short as the American. We're just more polite about it.:D
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Exactly. This is exactly why Neuromancer was brilliant- not that it captured the technology (which was far in advance of our own and therefore not necessarily needed to be consistent with what we conceive as cyberspace- if you tried to explain the Internet to Benjamin Franklin he'd think you were nutbar too); but because it captured the personalities that now, a decade and a half later, still inhabit what WE know as cyberspace. Like a lot of science fiction after the early "competent man" stuff it's more about the people than the tech.
It will be hard to turn Gibson's vision into a movie, though. It's sort of funny though- the only people I can see doing that are Kubrick (as mentioned earlier) and oddly enough exactly the type of director that Chris Cunningham is- a music video director who has pretty much nailed visuals. Characterisation will be key, but the visuals IMO will be what hold the movie together, and anybody who has seen Dark City or The Crow knows that visuals can help make a film without making it stupid.
And yes, he knew nothing about the tech. He got the idea from watching kids playing pac-man at a local arcade. He noticed how completely they melded with the game mentally, tuning out everything around them. The fact that from such a basic source he created something that WAS so close to what the net is and may well be (inaccurate aspects of his fiction notwithstanding) is astonishing.
Close- Gibson is Canadian, not British, and I think the typical British or Canadian attention span is just as short as the American. We're just more polite about it. :D