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( 'Get Fuzzy' Character Quiz )

VR

I've just finished reading William Gibson's Idoru. It brings to mind a few oddities of cyberpunk novels of the 80s and early 90s. The main one being that cyberspace in them appears to conceived in one of two ways - highly stylistic, or highly realistic. In the stylistic version, everything is represented through simple looking avatars and icons. The second one has everything looking solid and three dimensional, a level or two above the iconic meanings of the stylistic one.

I think the cyberpunk writers didn't know people very well, because the "back streets" and dead areas of these cyberspaces are depicted as either either empty space, or realistic back alleys and abandoned side streets. But the dead areas of real cyberspaces are not like that. Look at the web - a good proportion of it is untended kitsch. It's not empty, or backstreet-y, it's just pastel or primary colours, tacky graphics, and pages dedicated to such-and-such.

But I'm not sure I'd want the novels to be like that. I like their versions better.

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This morning, as I was leaving home and before the sun rose, I saw Venus glowing brightly in the east, directly over a massive thunderhead standing in Dublin Bay.

Morning, guys.

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Speaking of Flying Ships, this is gorgeous.

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I have just been informed that inannajones is making pizza this evening. Suddenly, I'm starving, and the pizza is two hours away. Her pizzas are the best ever.