What Year Is Neuromancer Set In?
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." That is the first line of the seminal sci-fi novel Neuromancer by William Gibson which came out in 1984. Sadly, the metaphor might be lost on younger folk, who have never seen the static-filled screen of old CRT televisions.
The book became almost prophetic in many ways, although its contributions to computer culture might make those self-fulfilling prophecies. Back in the late 1980s, the BBS culture (imagine the Internet, but local, slow and text-only) was lousy with references to the novel; one of the BBSes that me and my best friend would hang out in was the Villa Straylight, run by someone going by the name of Wintermute - a location and character from the book. There were two other novels and three short stories all set in the same universe.
But I digress. I'm not here to talk about its influence on culture and the Internet; I'm here to talk about when it was set.
To back up here, the novel is obviously set in some sort of near future; there are AIs, advanced cybernetics, orbital colonies, and so forth. However, there is no actual dates provided for anything within the novel itself; in fact, one of the major events in the universe, a Third World War, is difficult to pin down even in relation to the time of the story itself. But that is part of the fun right there - a challenge to figure it out, or at least narrow it down. Can it be done? I believe so... (Gibson himself has said that it is set in 2035; but authors and writers in general are notorious unreliable people)
Let's start with the general timeframe. It is definitely set in the 21st century; the depiction of one character's office is said to evoke the 'beginning of the last century', and is filled with mechanical typewriters and paper file cabinets. The third novel, Mona Lisa Overdrive, is even more explicit; a reference is made to World War II being in the 'last century'.
The reference to World War II also puts a lower bound on dating - a simulation of the Battle of Britain is said to have been made for the 100th anniversary, meaning that the book cannot have been set prior to 2040; since Neuromancer was set 15 years prior to the 3rd book, we have 2025 as the lower limit.
The final clue is one that appears to be a false lead on the surface; there's reference to the "Act of '53" in Neuromancer when discussing the citizenship rights of an AI that is in Switzerland. While this would seem to be a reference to 2053, in fact it's a reference to the Swiss citizenship law that went into effect in 1953; the reference states that it is the modern interpretation for the AI with respect to it. But looking at the reference more closely, it's curious that he uses the term " '53" instead of "1953"; in fact, this would only make sense it is set prior to 2053.
So, we have a decent range for the year that Neuromancer is set in - between 2025 and 2052. That isn't to say that there are other difficulties; one of the largest is that the rich industrialist John Ashpool states that he is "over 200 years old", including cryogenic freezing... but that would seem to be completely impossible with these dates as he would've reached the end of a natural lifespan before cyrogenic technology would've been invented to freeze him (there is nothing indicating that Neuromancer's world developed any differently up to the publication date).
The book became almost prophetic in many ways, although its contributions to computer culture might make those self-fulfilling prophecies. Back in the late 1980s, the BBS culture (imagine the Internet, but local, slow and text-only) was lousy with references to the novel; one of the BBSes that me and my best friend would hang out in was the Villa Straylight, run by someone going by the name of Wintermute - a location and character from the book. There were two other novels and three short stories all set in the same universe.
But I digress. I'm not here to talk about its influence on culture and the Internet; I'm here to talk about when it was set.
To back up here, the novel is obviously set in some sort of near future; there are AIs, advanced cybernetics, orbital colonies, and so forth. However, there is no actual dates provided for anything within the novel itself; in fact, one of the major events in the universe, a Third World War, is difficult to pin down even in relation to the time of the story itself. But that is part of the fun right there - a challenge to figure it out, or at least narrow it down. Can it be done? I believe so... (Gibson himself has said that it is set in 2035; but authors and writers in general are notorious unreliable people)
Let's start with the general timeframe. It is definitely set in the 21st century; the depiction of one character's office is said to evoke the 'beginning of the last century', and is filled with mechanical typewriters and paper file cabinets. The third novel, Mona Lisa Overdrive, is even more explicit; a reference is made to World War II being in the 'last century'.
The reference to World War II also puts a lower bound on dating - a simulation of the Battle of Britain is said to have been made for the 100th anniversary, meaning that the book cannot have been set prior to 2040; since Neuromancer was set 15 years prior to the 3rd book, we have 2025 as the lower limit.
The final clue is one that appears to be a false lead on the surface; there's reference to the "Act of '53" in Neuromancer when discussing the citizenship rights of an AI that is in Switzerland. While this would seem to be a reference to 2053, in fact it's a reference to the Swiss citizenship law that went into effect in 1953; the reference states that it is the modern interpretation for the AI with respect to it. But looking at the reference more closely, it's curious that he uses the term " '53" instead of "1953"; in fact, this would only make sense it is set prior to 2053.
So, we have a decent range for the year that Neuromancer is set in - between 2025 and 2052. That isn't to say that there are other difficulties; one of the largest is that the rich industrialist John Ashpool states that he is "over 200 years old", including cryogenic freezing... but that would seem to be completely impossible with these dates as he would've reached the end of a natural lifespan before cyrogenic technology would've been invented to freeze him (there is nothing indicating that Neuromancer's world developed any differently up to the publication date).
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