Neuromancer Part 2: The Shopping Expedition

Dean Taciuch
George Mason University

Ch 3

off to BAMA (Boston-Atlanta Metro Axis). Note the map of data exchange)

The catch to Armitage's fix on Case: he has sacs of mycotoxin attached to the blood vessels. They will eventually dissolve, crippling him as he was before. If he finishes the job for Armitage, he will get an injection which will dissolve the attachments without opening them and he will he given a blood change. Blackmail.

Case wants to know what he Armitage has on Molly. "Professional pride," she says. She likes what she does. We find out the truth later.

The Finn: friend of Molly's. She convinced Armitage to hire the Finn as their tech. Like all of the characters Armitage assembled, he's a freelancer. He specializes in software, but has a side business in privacy.

Molly has seen the "shopping list": Dixie Flatline's construct and Peter Riviera, and "toys" for Case

The Dixie Flatline is McCoy Paulie, a famous "cowboy" who trained Case. Case and Molly will have to steal his "construct," a data recording of his personality.

This is the "brain in a box" image which occurs in much sci fi (and cybernetics)

black box theory: inputs and outputs are all that can be measured.

We also get a brief precis on cyberspace, from a children's show Case is watching. An obvious ploy to backfill some technical details which wouldn't ned to be explained in the world of the novel (51)

"The matrix=cyberspace. A consensual hallucination"

 

Ch 4

"cowboys" aren't into simstim.. It is, to them, a multiplication of meat space.

Case can experience what Molly does; he can move back and forth between simstim and cyberspace with his modified deck

Microsofts are used extensively by the Panther Moderns, a techno-anarchist terrorist group. They're not working for any specific change, since they've realized that media only ever picks up on the spectacle of terrorism, never its causes or intended messages. So the PMs are creating chaos for its own sake. "nihilistic technofetishists" (59)

Also related to mid-20th century movements like Situationism and early 20th century Futurism. Today, the PMs would be part of 4chan, or Anonymous

Molly hires the PMs to help her and Case break into Sense/Net and steal the Dixie Flatline construct. (61)

First, the PMs call the authorities and inform them that a extremist Christian terrorist group has unleashed a chemical agent into the Sense/Net building. The chemical, Blue Nine, causes homicidal rage.
Then they broadcast a message inside the Sense/Net building. Seizure-inducing light pulses, terrifying images of poison in the water, noises, etc, to induce panic. As the terrified Sense/Net employees try to escape, the riot police are outside, convinced that they are containing a murderous horde

Molly is injured, but Case is able to crack the Sense/Net ice and lead her to Dixie Flatline's construct

Lupus gives case a message: "Wintermute"

Ch 5

Molly hired the PMs to find out who was behind Armitage. There was no one by that name in Screaming Fist.

Wintermute is an AI owned by Tessier-Ashpool SA (73)

The bizarre, but later important, story of the Finn's encounter with the jewel-encrusted mechanical head.

The tangled genealogy of TA: not only clones, but also kept in suspended animation for long periods of time. (76)

Villa Straylight: the tip of the spindle-shaped Freeside orbital colony. Owned by TA

78: Case interfaces with Dixie's construct. The construct is a ROM, so it has no new memories unless case connects it to his deck

Ch 6

with Dixie's help, case uncovers the story of Armitage.

Reversing schizophrenia via computer interface. Like Case, Molly. Dixie, Finn, etc, Armitage has been hired.

Ch 7

Peter Riviera uses subliminals. Implants which allow him to project what he imagines onto other's retinas.

Riviera's sexual kink is betraying people. He supplied Terzi (a secret police torturer) with torture victims, even convincing girls he desired to become political so he could betray them later

Turing police: Alan Turing, early computer researcher. Invented the "Turing test"

Turing test is a classic black box experiment: only inputs and outputs matter, since we can't know what goes on in someone else's head. In Turing's test, if a user cannot tell the difference between a computer personality and a human in a conversation (time limit varies), the computer must be considered intelligent. That was over 50 years ago. No computer has yet passed a Turing-style test.

96: Wintermute contacts Case directly via payphone (and then causes the bank of phones to ring, one at a time, as case walks by them). What does this indicate about W/M?

 

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Background
Part 1: Chiba City Blues
Part 2: The Shopping Expedition
Part 3: Midnight in the Rue Jules Verne
Part 4: The Straylight Run & Coda
Closing and Discussion

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