Neuromancer:  Gibson's cybertopia or distopia?

Is Gibson's world a paradise or is it a trap we should avoid?  The world is
rapidly approaching Gibson's view point, especially with the rapid
overcrowding of Japan.  BAMA (Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis) like
constructs are being brought to view.  Already, nearly all of Japan is one
large city, housing half the population of the United states in a landmass
the size of California.  The New York megalopolis, as well as Chicago and
Boston areas have spread into cities thousands of miles square.  Only signs
delimit the borders of such cities.  The drive to live in the suburban areas
leave sprawling inner cities and a constantly evolving culture there.  Drug
use is more prevalent than it has been in the inner cities, despite the
overwhelming decrease in the total population of the United States.  I can
look out my window even now and see streets alive with activity, despite and
perhaps because of the advanced hour.  The cold doesn't bother anyone,
especially not the pimps on the corner or the dealers in the alley.  The thing
is, this neighborhood is safe though, protected by members of the community.
A gang some might call them, but I call them brothers and sisters, intent on
protecting their family, blood or not.

In Gibson's world, science has advanced to the cyberpunk.  Software can be
implanted in the head, cybernetic implants ranging from weapons to sensory
enhancements can be had, and all for the right price.  Too much money. 
Pharmecuticals help kill pain and eradicate disease, but those same drugs are
used to get high and can't help those with NAS (Nerve Attenuation Syndrome,
from Johnny Nmemonic, a Gibson short story).  If you could simply download
the ability to speak another language (Count Zero, Gibson), would you even
need to go to school?  Wouldn't a general education implant be cheaper, per
person, than 12 years of school and then a specialized chip for a college
education?  Then there's nothing but life experiences, which could be
duplicated, but with all the free time given by the mod chips, why not explore
the world and make your own views?  

The corporate syndicates of the world would be the new power, Zaibatsu's like
the Japanese already incorporate.  As it is today, did you know that the
Japanese Zaibatsu's already control life in America and even have been
responsible for destroying two of the biggest industries the good old US of
A has ever known?  All televisions used to be made in America, due to Philo
Farnsworth's happenstance to be born in the US.  In the 1960's though, Japan
placed heavy taxes on imported televisions, keeping their citizens from having
the latest and greatest technology.  The Japanese government prevailed upon
the US to license out the technology and allow them to build their own
televisions.  The US agreed, and licensed out the old Black and White
television specs for the Japanese to peruse.  We still felt guilty about
having to bomb Japan back in 1945, I suppose.  It was alright though, because
we had color television, and only we produced it.  So now Japan had B/W
televisions and we had color, and they were taxing the the color sets as
heavily as the black and white sets.  So they asked for the license to the
color television technology and we finally agreed.  Now, get up and go look
at your television.  What brand is it?  Is that an american name?  Unless its
a Zenith, or one of its few subsidaries, like Admiral, then you have a genuine
piece of Japan as the center piece of your living room.  Story two:  what
brand is your car?  I don't even need to give you the history of that to tell
you that it my well be Japanese cause they're smaller, cheaper to produce,
and more affordable.  Only the recent popularity of Sport Utility Vehicles
allows for the slowing down in the buying of foreign vehicles.  That still
puts us as the mercy of OPEC, if you don't believe me, look at what you pay
for gasoline if you drive a car.  Me, I don't even have a license.

But what's wrong with a strong corporation?  Nothing really.  It's just
another form of government, perhaps with a bit more loyalty.  Back to the
Zaibatsu's again, if one executive dies, another steps into take his place.
That's talked about as being the weakness of the french company
Tessier-Ashpool in Neuromancer, they didn't have the replacability of a
Zaibatsu.  They relied instead on cryogenic suspension and cloning to keep
their vast empire going.  Eventually it was bound to fail.  Strong
corporations would offer jobs, and enough job security would offer loyalty,
and before you know it, people would be loyal to the US because PharmaKom is
a US company, or some such nonsense.  Multinational corporations would be the
new Switzerland, loyal only to the company, not to any one country. 
Eventually corporations would be the new intermediarybetween nations.  And
why not, they have no more interests in one country than the other.  Surely
if they sided, then their property would be retaliated upon by the offended
nation.  

Sure, you'd be just a number in Gibson's world, but then again, your just a
number now.

6 responses total.

  As with most economic systems, the attractiveness of the one Gibson 
  depicts depends a great deal on whether you're going to be close to
  the top or close to the bottom..

  Gibson's future doesn't appeal to me much -- I consider it to be
  dystopian.

Speaking as an employee of a huge multinational corporation, I see a great
many things wrong with large corporations.  Especially as a form of
government.  

I like the idea of being able to download an education. It would solve all
manner of problems, bring the age of economic independence capability (if not
necessarily legal independence) back in line with age of ability to reproduce,
and make the issue of private school vouchers moot.

There'd be issues of what gets taught as a fact.  The body of facts 
would come to a person all at once, and all of it would be unquestioned 
and unquestionable by most people.  Isaac Asimov peripherally wrote 
about this in his excellent novella "Profession" which was written in 
the 1950's.

My collegiate education contained political indoctrination.  My high 
school science education was laughably faulty, but even now at age 40 I 
still sometimes find myself citing things I was taught which turn out 
not to be true.

Imagine kids in a school district which sticks to the "last year's 
edition" of the education program for a few too many years.  Imagine 
the ads on TV.  "Get the education program approved by David Duke and 
get the *truth* for your kids, not the pap they're taught in school."  
Imagine the U. S. Army's education for the troops.  Or Al Qaeda's.

Imagine the official US approved school curriculum, with all others 
banned by law.  (I think it'd be like Robocop 2, where the weird PC 
indoctrinated Robocop with counterproductive garbage and incapacitated 
him.)

Another take on this can be found in Michael Kube-MacDowell's novella, "The
Garden of the Cognoscenti", published in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact,
June, 1982.

Not only do I consider Gibson's future dystopian, I also found it (the 
future and the book, both) terminally boring.  All this jacked-in 
connection, what do you _do_ with it?

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