Week of 11/11/19
This week's topic was on the sub-genres Cyberpunk and Steampunk. In order to explore these topics, I read the short story Fragments of a Hologram Rose by William Gibson. This story takes place in the future where people can relive other individuals’ experiences through a device called the delta-inducer. As readers we get to experience the device first hand through Parker, our main character. Parker is dealing with insomnia, heartbreak, and loneliness due to a resent breakup. In order to cope he delves into the sense-recordings of his ex-girlfriend in order to sleep through the night.
As we experience the recordings, we see tiny snippets of his
past and how the nature of sense-recordings has shaped his adult life. What was
once a promising future for Parker with the opportunities of working at
an American subsidiary of a Japanese
plastics combine. We soon learn that due to
the invention of the delta-inducer Parker left all these great opportunities
behind. With this being said, it is quite obvious how the machine's effects on people are quite severe. I believe this
to be true due to the way it seems as if Parker cannot live without this
machine by his side. The machine has become the new street drug in this
scenario of the future. People who use this device do not seem to get out
and socialize instead they have created a companion like relationship with
other individuals’ memories and experiences. I find this future to be quite troubling and hope that this setting of events does not happen to us in the future. If we all where to stay inside by ourselves and not deal with our problems who knows what the consequences to our world would be.
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