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A step closer to the Sandbenders computer from William Gibson's "Idoru": ...he used to tear up her hardware, the designer's, and put the real parts into cases
by jcl 10y ago
A step closer to the Sandbenders computer from William Gibson's "Idoru":
...he used to tear up her hardware, the designer's, and put the real parts into cases he'd make in his shop. Say he'd make a solid bronze case for a minidisk unit, ebony inlays, carve the control surfaces out of fossil ivory, turquoise, rock crystal. It weighed more, sure, but it turned out a lot of people liked that, like they had their music or their memory, whatever, in something that felt like it was there... And people liked touching all that stuff: metal, a smooth stone... And once you had the case, when the manufacturer brought out a new model, well, if the electronics were any better, you just pulled the old ones out and put the new ones in your case. So you still had the same object, just with better functions.
- josh-wrale 10y agoThis reminds of something... As a kid, I played the game "Neuromancer" (1989, Interplay) which is based on the book of the same name by William Gibson. The images of "decks" (portable computers) always struck me as odd and quite visually disconnected from the combination appearance of my Amiga 500 and its Commodore monitor. And yet, looking at a MacBook Pro from the front or side, it looks a great deal like those renderings of decks in that game (minus some of the features that make the images in the game more than just rounded rectangles). I know laptops existed earlier than that time, but to think they got a futuristic drawing so right it astounds me (not that we're quite to "deck" level with tech just yet). Screenshot from the game: http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/popup_screen_index.php?id=778&screenname=neuromancer_16.png&kuk=16 http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/popup_screen_index.php?id=77... The front-closed profile of a MacBook Pro for comparison: http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/_migrated/pics/shape-frontclosed20081014_02.jpg http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/_migrated/pics/shape-... Edit: I guess it's not a big jump though, considering these were some contemporary laptops of 1989: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/200808292255.jpg http://www.roughlydrafted.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/200...
- lkcl 10y agohooray! you know what, i am so pleased that someone finally noticed. congratulations :) the hilarious thing is, i read that book too - i confused it initially with the computer that Hiro opens up at the beginning of Snowcrash. even more hilariously i had clearly totally forgotten about both books when developing this laptop concept, but just as clearly there must have been something in my subconscious that was still working on it... because i've implemented the damn thing :) so, thank you from the bottom of my heart for noticing :)