News

Features

Community

Company

Search Quotes

Search in this book only

Source: Mona Lisa Overdrive, Page: 152

her hands seemed to know what to do, friendly animals that wouldn?t hurt her. One of them touched PLAY and she slid into the Angie-world, pure as any drug, slow saxophone and limo-glide through some European city, how the streets revolved around her, around the driverless car, broad avenues, dawn-clean and almost empty, with the touch of fur against her shoulders, and rolling on, down a straight road through flat fields, edged with perfect, identical trees.

Our Thoughts on this Quote

This quote from Mona Lisa Overdrive, whilst not perhaps quite its intended meaning in the book it derives from, does serve stand alone, as a marker to the other side of the VR experience for individuals - the addiction side.

Put simply, a virtual life which is 'better than life' is perhaps the best narcotic on the planet. Her fingers moved almost of their own accord to activate play on a SimStim tape, almost of their own accord, in the same way a smoker's hands will reach for a cigarette almost of their own accord. It just appears in the smoker's mouth, lit, without any recollection of how it got there.

It is worth noting that in context, the quote is regarding SimStim, a still- theoretical passive form of VR, as opposed to the interactive form. However, an interactive VR at the level of SimStim (direct sensory feedback from another person's nervous system) would, if anything, be more habit forming than the passive, pre-recorded version, as it allows free will, it allows the life dreamed of.

It is astonishingly easy to see the mind become hopelessly addicted to such. One moment you are on a dreary airplane (as in this case), or a crowded favela in a 3rd world city with your relatives screaming at you; the next you are on a sunny beach, the waves lapping at the shore, a little crab prickling your toes as it scurries over, every little sensation traversing up your nervous system.

That people will be come addicted to such is inevitable - many become addicted now, with just two senses partially subsumed. When it is all seven main senses (and maybe more), there will simply be that much more reason to stay.

Instead of "how do we cure this addiction?" The question then becomes "how do we continue to live a productive, happy life, thus addicted?"

Related Articles

No resources have yet been matched to this quote.

 

Search Quotes

By William Gibson Produced By Spectra Mona Lisa Overdrive, penned in 1988, is the third and final book of William Gibson?s Sprawl trilogy, and also, his third book. Following on the heels of Neuromancer and Count Zero, Overdrive is by far the most lightweight of the trio, basing more in reflected glory from the other books, than attempting to stand on its own. Set in the same world as the other two, some twenty years after Count Zero, it has lost the feeling of fast-paced change, as both technologically and culturally it feels almost stagnant, unchanging. Borrowing heavilly on past character ... Click here for full review of Mona Lisa Overdrive

Other Books by this Author     Similar Quotes