William Gibson’s
“Burning Chrome” details the story of two professional hackers who break in and
steal money from a high profile criminal known as Chrome. The story presents
some dystopian elements of future crime and ambition, but most importantly,
blurs the distinction between the natural and virtual world. At the onset,
Automatic Jack notes that he “knew every chip in Bobby’s simulator by heart”
(179). This is the first instance of a dichotomy that runs throughout the
course of the story, namely the tension between what is human and what is
manufactured. The heart, one of the lasting symbols of love and passion, is
used as a metaphor to describe a mechanic simulator. In fact, an overarching
theme in this story focuses on the idea of love and loss. Both hackers allowed
for emotion to enter their heist in the form of Rikki Wildside. Rikki motivates
them to complete their goal, but after the mission is accomplished, she leaves
and goes to Hollywood. For someone as mechanical as the character Bobby, his love
and loss of Rikki proves to be genuinely painful for him, which further
highlights the hazy division of humanity and technology.
Another
universal theme in this work involves the consuming nature of technology.
Besides the matrix, which serves as a virtual representation of the digital
world, a practice known as “simstim” appears as a popular activity in this
society. Rikki “spends hours jacked into unit” as she prefers to live the
experiences of another person’s life before her own (195). Unlike the empathy
box used to practice Mercerism in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” which
shows that humans need to embrace technology, this practice appears somewhat as
an alarm that as technology advances, we must resist the desire to let it
overtake the aspects of our lives that make us human. All in all, what do you
think Gibson is trying to say about the growth of technology? Do we lose some
aspects of ourselves on account of “cyberspace?” Is technology necessarily bad
for humanity?
I definitely agree with your comments about the interesting dichotomy presented in the story between man and machine, and to answer your question, I think that Gibson tries to warn us that we can lose our humanity via the over-integration of technology into our lives—the way that Bobby Quine uses Rikki is telling of this. Unlike a normal, healthy relationship, Bobby Quine uses Rikki in a way similar to that of a tool (a device used to carry out a function). Bobby spends a lot of his time at Gentleman Loser, a bar for hackers, when he feels he has lost meaning in his life, as evidenced by the description “when it started to look like he was losing his touch that summer, he started to spend more time in the Gentleman Loser” (182). When Rikki walks in, he subconsciously says to himself that she can fill this void, and immediately attaches himself to her. Rikki becomes his motivation, and according to Jack, this is not uncommon for Bobby, as he comments that “he turned [women] into emblems, sigils on the map of his hustler’s life, navigation beacons he could follow through a sea of bars and neon” (187). One can see Bobby’s unsound view of women and relationships as the result of the environment that he lives in. There does not appear to be much appreciation of the real world in the setting of Burning Chrome as it is (illustrated by the popularity of simstim, which you mentioned), but to add to this, Bobby’s involvement as a shady programmer who spends much of his time in the inhuman “matrix” inhibits his development of emotions and values which allow people to create meaningful relationships. In a way, although he is surrounded by Jack and Rikki, Bobby is emotionally isolated and stunted.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the idea that Gibson is trying to warn us about how we can lose aspects of our humanity through over integration with technology. The most telling example of this in my opinion is the way in which simstim destroys a person's sense of identity. While you do mention simstim Brandon, I feel that you gloss over the most important part about it. That is how Rikki goes "window-shopping for eyes" (pg. 195) The simstim industry encourages their models to become carbon copies of each other through practices like plastic surgery and eye transplants. There is no respect for these people as individuals. We even see Tiger acquire a defective pair of Sendai eyes so that he can be attractive enough to work in Hollywood, but at the cost of his eyesight.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, we see how people are able to turn themselves off from the real world. This is seen in the simstim industry like Brandon mentions, but it is also apparent in another, more harmful way. When Rikki works a night at the Gentlemen Loser, she is able to detach herself from the experience via a technology that is able to approximate REM sleep. An action like selling your own body is not something to be taken lightly, and the fact that there exists a technology that almost trivializes the experience is absolutely abhorrent.
I feel that Burning Chrome serves more as a warning for what we as humans can do with technology, rather than as a sign that technology is bad for humanity. There are plenty examples of what can be perceived as the advancement of technology being a downfall to humanity, such as Bobby and Jack's use of technology to commit crimes, and the lost of individuality with the drastic plastic surgeries available to the people. However, I do not blame this downfall of humanity on the advancement of technology itself, but rather on the misuse of the technology by humanity itself. This is evident in the fact that many of the technological advancements we see in the story are used in a negative way, and yet they have the potential to serve a more helpful role to humanity if used correctly. For example, although Tiger received an inefficient pair of eyes, the fact that the technology of the time allows them to replace eyes to such an extent shows that they have the ability to provide sight to those afflicted by blindness. That is why I see this story as more of a warning of humanity using the advancement of technology for selfish reasons than a warning against the advancements of technology.
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