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"I received a nice letter the other day from the Dalai Lama. He had read 'The Nine Billion Names of God'. It is about a computer at a Tibetan monastery."
- Arthur C. Clarke
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| Virtual Meeting | ||
| A meeting space that exists only in a computer; the descendant of today's web conferences. |
William Gibson, the godfather of cyberpunk, dishes out some good work in Idoru. The descriptions of cyberspace are not just artful; they advance the plot by providing oblique details about characters and, invariably, exude a subtle ennui that is characteristic of Gibson's work.
| They met in a jungle clearing. Kelsey had done the vegetation; big bright Rousseau leaves, cartoon orchids flecked with her idea of tropical colors (which reminded Chia of that mall chain that sold "organic" cosmetic products in shades utterly unknown to nature. Zona, the only one telepresent who'd ever seen anything like a real jungle, had done the audio, providing birdcalls, invisible but realistically dopplering bugs, and the odd vegetational rustle artfully suggesting not snakes but some shy furry thing, soft-pawed and curious. The light, such as there was, filtered down through high, green canopies, entirely too Disneyesque for Chia - though there was not real need for light in a place that consisted of nothing else. |
| Technovelgy from Idoru,
by William Gibson. Published by Putnam in 1996 Additional resources -
|
You read a long way into this paragraph before you get any hint of unreality, which further heightens the effect.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Idoru
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and Technology by William Gibson
Tech news articles related to Idoru
Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson
Virtual Meeting-related
news articles:
- Virtual Reality and Your Spider Sense
| Did Frank Herbert Predict Bistable Displays Like E-Ink? |
| I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display |
| Outdoor Video Screens Can Be Arbitrarily Large |
| iPhone Air Fulfils Jobs' Promise From 2007 - A Giant Screen! |
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Science Fiction
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'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
