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A recently penned introduction to Neuromancer (by Gibson, I think, though it might be by Neil Gaiman) points this out, as well as Gibson's failure to predict ce
by kabdib 7y ago
A recently penned introduction to Neuromancer (by Gibson, I think, though it might be by Neil Gaiman) points this out, as well as Gibson's failure to predict cell phones (which he is chagrined by).
Just the other day I was reading some early Neal Stephenson, and it made reference to 32-bit personal computers as being on the cutting edge. I guess you could read it as a period piece. Similarly, a novel about a computer that was written in the 1950s describes a machine a city block on a side, cooled by Niagra falls, with 1000 bits of storage, that somehow still forms the pillar of a surveillance society.
Novel writers are not the best predictors of technology, it would appear. That's okay.
- mrob 7y ago>with 1000 bits of storage Did anybody really write that? The first electronic stored-program computer, the Manchester Baby (1948), had 1024 bits of storage. Even assuming no miniaturization, just scaling up contemporary computers would have gotten you more than 1000 bits.
- kabdib 7y agoI forget the name of the book, but yes, they really did write that. It wasn't a mainstream author, if that matters. (It might have been a megabit, but it sure wasn't much compared to what you need in order to run a computerized dystopia...).
- mkodiak 7y ago> A recently penned introduction to Neuromancer (by Gibson, I think, though it might be by Neil Gaiman) points this out It was Gaiman in his series introduction to the Penguin Galaxy [1] reprint in hardcover of Neuromancer, Dune, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Once and Future King, The Left Hand of Darkness, and Stranger in a Strange Land. [1] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/PGX/penguin-galaxy/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/PGX/penguin-galaxy...