Idoru

William Gibson’s Idoru displays a world of the future, which I feel may have an actual possibility of coming true. Gibson’s cyberpunk world does not have an essence of optimism. The vibe I got was mostly dark, grungy, and the urban sprawl has been stretched to its limits.

            Gibson has an intriguing way of writing. I related his style to that of the way Tarantino films his movies. There are many characters, and many different parts, some of which I had to re-read in order to understand where I was exactly. However, regardless of the amounts of side stories, they all seemed to meet up by the end, creating an awe-inspiring ending.

            It is incredible to think that Gibson conceptualized the Internet before it’s existence. Not only its sort of wireframe, but its uses, like the fan club Chia was a member of, and it’s different global chapters. It’s all one virtual message board! All of Gibson’s concepts of the environment seemed to be spot on; the only thing that remained underdeveloped was the airport security. In fact, all of his ideas provoke a thought of how much impact works of fiction can have on our world of reality.

            In Gibson’s earlier novel, Virtual Light he discusses several pieces of technology that we have today. For instance, Yamazaki was prone to taking out his light pen and notebook to write down entries into his journal. The virtual light glasses functioned as a tool showcasing augmented reality, which we see in many Smart Phone devices. In Idoru he develops the concept of virtual reality to a point that is similar to Massive Multiplayer Online Games, but his virtual world envelopes the users to a physically immersive environment. He also pushes the possibilities of holograms, towards cultural taboos that we would relate to a sex doll, not saying Rez’s relationship was purely that of fornication, but the thought of pursuing a relationship with a non-organic object is relative. The Idoru had a core of knowledge and was able to contribute when it came to conversation, establishing Gibson’s thoughts of development focused upon artificial intelligence, another subject being researched and practiced in our world, today. It just goes to show you how the fantasies of our future are well on their way, we just have to keep in mind that not all things of the future are that glamorous, we have to be careful and protect our environment for the good of mankind.