Gibson is of two minds about this. He's said he's bemused when people come up to him at a book signing thanking him for inspiring them to get into computing as

Gibson is of two minds about this. He's said he's bemused when people come up to him at a book signing thanking him for inspiring them to get into computing as a career (seemingly ignoring the problems of Neuromancer's future), but on the other hand he's said that people who say Neuromancer was dystopian forget that most SF writers in the 1980s doubted that there would be a 21st century society rather than a radioactive wasteland, so from that perspective Neuromancer was optimistic.