“BACK TO THE FUTURE”: TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY IN GIBSON’S SPRAWL TRILOGY
“BACK TO THE FUTURE”: TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY IN GIBSON’S SPRAWL TRILOGY
Author(s): Mojca KrevelSubject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Editura Universităţii de Vest din Timişoara / Diacritic Timisoara
Keywords: cyberpunk; genetics; hyperreality; nanotechnology; robotics; singularity;
Summary/Abstract: Ray Kurzweil’s concept of singularity as presented in his 2005 “The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology” is based on complex calculations relying on the existing patterns of biological and technological evolution. His predictions about the course of future human development remarkably correspond to the worlds of the 1980s cyberpunk literature. The paper analyses William Gibson’s “Sprawl Trilogy” in the light of Kurzweil’s predictions for the future and explains its correspondence with the structural logic of postmodern reality.
Journal: B.A.S. British and American Studies
- Issue Year: 2014
- Issue No: 20
- Page Range: 27-35
- Page Count: 9
- Language: English
