Au revoir.

Well, the course has now ended and I am finishg up on my essay, titled "The Fabric of our World – A Symbiosis between Science Fiction and Reality". I have enjoyed the materials we have read during this course very much, as well as the discussions we have had during classes. It's nice to have such enjoyable courses that inspire creativity and thoughtfulness in midst of other, heavier and more technical courses. I want to thank the teachers for making every lecture a fun experience and for making me come to class with joy.

- Eve.

Wikitannica

For the purpose of this assignment I looked up the term "Snow Crash" in both Wikipedia and Encylopaedia Britannica, hoping that I would find some information about the book by Neil Stephenson which we had to read for this course. I searched for this keeping in mind that "Snow Crash" is a science fiction book that has influenced our culture in a significant way, spawning many other books and games that would not exist had it not been for this piece of literature. So all in all, it's a pretty important book. And while Wikipedia presented me with an extensive article that covered the plot, the characters, ideas behind the book, philosophy and even some of the technology used in it, Britannica only had to offer a small stump where "Snow Crash" is briefly mentioned in the final lines of the article.

It seems to me that Wikipedia is far more reflective upon our modern age than Encylopaedia Britannica in the sense that it puts its focus on more contemporary topics rather than covering the traditional themes. The entertainment industry makes up for a lot of articles in Wikipedia whereas in EB they are briefly mentioned, if at all, since they are not considered academic matters and are therefore irrelevant. The great difference between these two encylopaedias then is that EB seeks out the most academic topics whereas Wikipedia tries to encompass it all. It is also constantly growing every single day unlike EB, so Wikipedia seems to be the place to go for the most up-to-date information in any matter.

Wikipedia might not have the most accurate or academic information, but what it lacks in traditionalism, it makes up for in diversity and magnitude. These are two crucial key words in our modern times, where the world is coming together and everywhere you look you can almost see changes taking place in front of your eyes all the time, every day. Wikipedia is almost like a living organism, for its eyes, ears and hands are the people who build it and make it grow. It evolves together with us, taking in everything that happens and reflecting it back into our lives. Is it an encylopaedia? Yes. But it's far more than that. Essentially it is a mirror reflecting back at each and every one of us. It is a contemporary cultural phenomenon more than anything else, and therefore its value lies in more than just the information it contains - its importance comes from the way it is constructed and the people that shape it - us.

It's a splendid example of a product of the age of information and connectivity, or Web 2.0 as some might like to call it. This phenomenon of internet, of digital information and constant evolvment is our shadow - if we pick up the pace and start running faster, it will be right at our heels. But are we still the ones who determine the pace of our evolution? Have we ever been able to do it in the first place? These are interesting questions I think. If we're sitting in a car that's going down the information highway, are we sure that we're the ones at the wheel? Are we ready for whatever is out there, waiting for us? Only time will tell. And time, in today's society, is everything and simultaneously absolutely nothing.

- Eve.

Johnny Mnemonic

I found the story to be quite confusing and didn't understand that much of it. However, I could recognize William Gibson's style and I know that the story will make more sense once I read it a few more times. I recognized the female character Molly from his novel Neuromancer, since she also features there. I read Neuromancer a few years ago and should read it again because I found it very interesting and again, I'm sure it would make more sense if I read it once more. William Gibson's writing is very scientific, complex and cyberpunkish, with many lapses in time and non-linear jumps from one thing to another, which makes it difficult to understand the first time around - or even the first few times. The world he paints up in his novels and short stories is very high-tech and all the characters in it take many of these technological things for granted, which means that there are few explanations of what exactly is happening.

The main character Johnny basically seems to be a sort of cyborg who stores information in his head and other people pay for memory space in his brain. The gist of the story seems to be that one of Johnny's clients stored something in his brain and then did not seek him out to retrieve the information. When Johnny seeks out this client to find out why he hasn't collected his info, he gets into trouble and realizes that the information in his brain is dangerous and that someone has stolen it from the Yakuza and his client put it in Johnny's head and then, after realizing that the information is dangerous, sought out some people to kill off Johnny and get rid of the problem. Johnny manages to stay alive with the help of Molly who knows people, Johnny's client is killed by the maffia, and Johnny is dragged away by Molly to figure out what's inside his brain and how to make a deal with the Yakuza and manage to stay alive for a little bit longer.

All ends well, the maffia ends up leaving him alone and Johnny manages to hide away and change his appearance through extensive surgery and memory alterations. Not your traditional happy ending, but that's as good as it gets in a William Gibson story.

- Eve.