Random Observation #356
The opening line to Neuromancer, William Gibson's seminal cyberpunk novel, is something like:
The sky was the color of a TV tuned to a dead channel.
I find this amusing. We now live in a digital age, where the old black and white static is a thing of the past. Now, a dead channel reveals a bright clear blue screen, completely reversing the meaning of the line.
Mr. Gibson wrote in the forward for some anniversary edition of the book that the one thing he got just plain wrong that bugs him is the scene where our hero walks past a bank of pay-phones, which ring individually as he walks past, demonstrating the powers of observation and communication possessed the AI. Coin-operated pay-phones are not as universal as they used to be. I wonder if the next significant year will see him mentioning and mourning the loss of static.
The sky was the color of a TV tuned to a dead channel.
I find this amusing. We now live in a digital age, where the old black and white static is a thing of the past. Now, a dead channel reveals a bright clear blue screen, completely reversing the meaning of the line.
Mr. Gibson wrote in the forward for some anniversary edition of the book that the one thing he got just plain wrong that bugs him is the scene where our hero walks past a bank of pay-phones, which ring individually as he walks past, demonstrating the powers of observation and communication possessed the AI. Coin-operated pay-phones are not as universal as they used to be. I wonder if the next significant year will see him mentioning and mourning the loss of static.