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Comment by philhd | Hacker News Reader

I feel like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer should be on there instead of The Matrix since it's actually a book.

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"Neuromancer" is at the top of my list of favorite science fiction books, closely followed by Charles Stross "Accelerando". I don't necessarily like everything William Gibson has written, but I will read it all. I am anxiously awaiting his latest, "Agency".

Yeah, the computer stuff in it is pretty hand-wavey but it does an awesome job of creating memorable visuals out of totally abstract AI and network stuff. And definitely notable as the seemingly uncredited inspiration for the Matrix.

William Gibson didn't actually know much about computers or networks when he wrote Neuromancer (on a manual typewriter IIRC)... ironic given that he coined the word "cyberspace."

And as far as inspiration goes, it's worth noting that Blade Runner came out as William Gibson was finishing Neuromancer, and he almost gave up on it because he was afraid that by the time the book came out people would think he was ripping off the movie.

I don't think the Matrix needs to "credit" Neuromancer as an inspiration, though. The Matrix draws from a lot of sources, but being cyberpunk, inspiration from Neuromancer is a given.

Ah, fair enough. I guess it's just that the Matrix became popular with a much wider crowd who had never heard of Neuromancer and so weren't aware of the genre's existence or origins and thought it was more out of the blue than it really was.

Interesting about the connection to Blade Runner, too.

"Genres are often defined by what they are not, so here are some honourable mentions:

[...]

Gibson’s Neuromancer sets the tone for a vast quantity of cyberpunk in its dealings with AI and simulation, though I don’t feel this alone qualifies it."

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