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Book Quotes: SimStim Rom - A Medical Escapism
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Source: Count Zero, Page: 9
Our Thoughts on this Quote
This quote is laden with complexities, and things to make you think. Picking it apart piece by piece, we find a lot of things that are contestable, and a lot that really do make you sit and think.
The quote's context is that of a horribly wounded soldier put under for three months whilst the doctors, in particular 'the Dutchman' go to work on him, repairing and restoring his body.
In much the same way as SnowWorld and it's ilk in life, are used to treat burns patients without medicating them, or Detect is used to diagnose brain trauma without requiring a conscious patient, this construct from the quote would serve as a means of inducing a coma-like state without the benefit of drugs.
The problem with comas is the longer they are maintained, the less likely recovery is. To maintain a medically induced coma for three months carries a whole raft of problems. Not the least of which stems from a prolonged period of brain inactivity.
The idea of using a SimStim - Simulated Stimulation is clearly to keep the brain active. SimStim is still only a mostly theoretical concept, but is essentially passively receiving someone else's sensory stimuli, to the point you perceive yourself to be in their body.
Sometimes a coma can be merciful, even when there is no, or only minor brain damage. If the body is a mess, pain levels even morphine could not handle, and will take a long time, if ever, to fix, then divorcing the mind from the body; giving it something to do.
In this example, the SimStim is pre-recorded, and it is coming from a ROM ? a read only memory device, so the experience cannot be altered. This means that each day is essentially deja-vu. Repeating the same actions over and over. The same breakfast in the morning, the same walks, Talking to the same people about the same subjects, and receiving the same answers.
To most people, this would be hell. The question is, and this is one deserving of serious thought; would the brain of an essentially comatose patient be compus mentus enough to notice this was happening? The author of the above quote seems to believe the answer is a negative. If this was the case, then all the sequence of events would be doing, is keeping the brain working. Keeping it processing information, making the subconscious think everything was normal.
Thus, to end the coma, disengaging the SimStim, a fully alert brain, continuously used and ready to function should emerge.
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About the Book 'Count Zero'
By William Gibson
Produced By Ace Trade; Reprint edition
?He spent most of those three months in a ROM-generated simstim construct of an idealised New England boyhood of the previous century. The Dutchman?s visits were grey dawn dreams, nightmares that faded as the sky lightened beyond his second-floor bedroom window. You could smell the lilacs, late at night. He read Conan Doyle by the light of a sixty watt bulb behind a parchment shade printed with clipper ships. He masturbated in the smell of clean cotton sheets and thought about cheerleaders. The Dutchman opened a door in his back brain and came strolling in to ask questions...
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