Memories of Miss Memory

“My whole life has been, ‘okay, change for the machines.’ Every time they bring in a new machine, more change.” …”God, the truth is running in the gutters today. Karma so thick you can cut it with a knife.” He fed the coins Gabe had given him into the coffee-machine slot. “Gets that way every time there’s change for the machines”…”And the more change, the more you don’t know what the fuck is going on. Right?” (p.97)

I am currently reading a book by Pat Cadigan called Synners. Although its the third book i have read of hers, Synners was Cadigans second novel and I have come to realise that this seminal piece of writing has obviously had a huge influence on newer cyberpunk literature, most noticeably, Neal Stephensons Snow Crash.

Synners is short for “synthesisers” and from what I understand from the book so far, Synners are people who create music videos by jacking their brain into some software that records their visions and sound in a virtual reality space. To be a synner is an entire body experience.

I have often thought about how the world would be, to be able to access directly the things you imagine, and hear in your mind. What kind of sociological consequences would this have? Cadigan paints a pretty dismal picture of the world in which this kind of tech exists. Will it always be the situation that, the more we become at one with technology, the more we open ourselves up to the possibility of crushing ourselves?

It also makes me wonder if humans will ever get to a point where we will not be condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past?

When I think about this on a personal level, I realise to a certain degree it has always been inevitable that we make the mistakes our parents try to shelter us from by warning us, because we need to experience them first hand in order to understand the consequences. But perhaps in a future where technology allows us to share memories and experiences directly, we will come to a point where there will be no need to make mistakes because we can literally experience them without them actually taking place.

Knowledge through simulation.