The novel Neuromancer (and the entire Sprawl trilogy1) by William Gibson has been an inspiration to a large number of people since its publication in 1984 until today.

“The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

– William Gibson2

The technology Gibson describes has a very specific appeal, then as now. But in contrast to 1984 it is nowadays easy to build a fully functional computer by yourself, just think of the Raspberry Pi single board computers. That’s the reason why you see more and more cyberdecks today, like Gibson described them or like you would imagine the cyberdecks in his novels. To be honest, very few of them look the way I imagine them to look. Even my own cyberdeck, the Hosaka Mark 1 “Sprawl Edition” doesn’t look like the portable computers the console cowboys use to enter the cyberspace. But, most importantly, all those cyberdecks could be part of the novels of William Gibson. The devices get their souls from the novels; extracted from Neuromancer, transmitted by their creators.

The Hosaka Mark 1 is a tribute to William Gibson and his work, which still fascinates many today.

When the strap of my cyberdeck lies casually on my shoulder and the deck dangles from my hips as I walk, it is my way of satisfying the longing for the future as Gibson describes it - even if it’s a dystopia. Now it’s up to me where I let myself drift, Night City, the Sprawl or maybe for an upgrade to Chiba City …

  1. The Sprawl trilogy is William Gibson’s first set of novels, composed of Neuromancer(1984), Count Zero(1986) and Mona Lisa Overdrive(1988). ↩︎

  2. This is the opening sentence in William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer, published in 1984. ↩︎