In 1984, the novel Neuromancer by William Gibson popularized the concept of cyberspace, first coined by the same author two years earlier in his short-story Burning Chrome. Since then, it has become the achetypal cyberpunk work from which most of its elements are taken. The plot develops itself around Henry Dorsett Case, a talented yet out of work computer hacker - one that has surely seen better days. Dependant on his direct brain-computer interfaces to connect into the cyberspace, Case struggles to make ends meet since his previous employers damaged his central nervous system as a retaliation for his attempt at stealing from them. Desperate, he seeks reversal to his condition in Chiba City - a place renown for its black-market clinics dealing illegal biomedic engineering and cybernetic implants. However, he fails to get himself cured, runs out of resources, and ends up trapped in marginality amidst the underworld of Japan. Frustrated and hopeless, Case hits the bottom risking his life as a criminal addict. Recruited by Molly, a street-samurai mercenary, Case accepts a job offer in exchange for having his full functionality back. His new boss, Armitagge, provides one of the aforementioned clinics with the necessary high-end technology required for the procedure - which occurs as promised. Now, armed with his new console and repaired BCI, Case embarks on a mission unknown both to himself and to his companion body-guard Molly. Culturally, the importance of Neuromancer is well represented by the common usage of the term cyberpunk as a synonym for
world wide web in the 90's. To the present day, its influence on our society and evolution is so profound that, accordingly to Gibson's fellow writer Jack Comack, the advent itself of cyberspace as depicted by its creator may have inspired the way the
internet came into being.
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