Home William Gibson aleph

SPRAWL SERIES

BRIDGE TRILOGY

OTHER WORKS

MOVIES / FILM

ADAPTATIONS

RELATED / EXTRAS

Neuromancer

Count Zero

Mona Lisa Overdrive

Burning Chrome

Summaries

Characters

Glossary


Sprawl glossary

*NOTE: This glossary contains terms from the novels 'Neuromancer', 'Count Zero' and 'Mona Lisa Overdrive, and the stories 'Johnny Mnemonic', 'New Rose Hotel' and 'Burning Chrome'. ¶

A

AI
Artificial intelligence. Monitored by the Turing Registry to prevent them getting too smart. ¶

Aleph
First letter of the Hebrew alphabet; huge biochip with immensely big storage capacity. Inspired by the short story 'The Aleph' (1945) by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. In the story, the Aleph is described to be 'one of the points in space that contains all other points'. ¶

Arcology
Huge, self-contained cities enclosed in a single building with a built environment, imagined by Paolo Soleri; neologism from ecologie & architecture. ¶

B

BAMA
Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis, also called 'the Sprawl'. ¶

Biochips
Developed by Christopher Mitchell for Maas Biolabs who hold the patents. Mitchell worked with human cancer cells and DNA synthesis to produce immortal hybrid cells. These cells create custom molecules that become units of circuitry. ¶

Biochip personality
Little AI constructed by Maas-Neotek; can only be seen and heard by a specified person and are therefore also called 'ghosts'; used as guides. ¶

Biosoft
Similar to microsoft, but uses new biochip technology. ¶

Blue Nine
Psychoactive agent, also known as Grievous Angel. Produces acute paranoia and homicidal psychosis. ¶

Bosozoku
Japanese for 'running tribes'. In the real world, motorcycle gangs producing noise and trouble around Japanese cities, as described in Karl Greenfelds 'Speed Tribes'. ¶

C

Chatsubo
Expatriate bar in Night City. ¶

Chiba City
High tech district in the proximity of Tokyo, famous for its 'black clinics' which do all kinds of neurosurgery, also a magnet for the techno-criminal subculture. ¶

Coffin
Cheap miniaturised hotel rooms in Japan. ¶

Cornell, Joseph (1902-1973)
American sculptor best known for his assemblages of found objects in boxes, sometimes called 'Cornell boxes', one of which is pivotal to the plot in the novel 'Count Zero'. ¶

Count zero interrupt
The event when a program has looped enough time and the counter reaches zero, which causes a program to stop doing one thing, and start or check another. ¶

Cyberspace
Virtual reality simulation interface for the Matrix data grid. ¶

D

Derm/dermadisk
Drugs which are taken subcutaneously by applying the disk to the skin ¶

Dermatrodes
Skin interfaces for cyberspace consoles. ¶

Dex
Dexedrine, a form of amphetamine. ¶

E

EMP
Eletromagnetic pulse weapons that send a strong electromagnetic burst which destroys the circuits in electronical equipment and renders it useless. ¶

F

Fletcher
Flechette pistol, arrow spitting pistol with paralysing or poisoning function ¶

Freeside
Orbital city, built by Tessier-Ashpool SA who reside in the Villa Straylight at the top of the spindle; later on, Lady 3Jane has to sell most of Freeside which is renamed Mustique II, has the Villa sawn off and tucked to another orbit. ¶

G

Gentlemen Loser
Famous bar for console cowboys. ¶

Geodesics
Dome structure developed by Buckminster Fuller, a philosopher, mathematician, engineer, historian and poet, in the 1940ies and 50ies which is recognized to be the most energy-efficient building system. ¶

H

Holoprojector
Smooth black rectangle, powered by solar cells, manufactured by Braun, uses holofiche cartridges, projects a hologram. ¶

House of the Blue Lights
Whorehouse where the girls are put into an approximation of REM sleep. ¶

I

ICE
Intrusion countermeasure electronics; corporate firewalls to protect their data and keep out intruders; usually the product of an AI to allow quick alterations and updates of the ice. ¶

Ice, black
Illegal form of ice that kills with a neural feedback. ¶

Icebreaker
Programs to crack corporate firewalls. ¶

K

Ketamine
Drug. ¶

Kuang Grade Mark Eleven
Chinese icebreaker, a slow virus that takes about six hours to penetrate military systems or artificial intelligences. ¶

Korsakov's
A clinical disorder of amnesia and dementia, impairing recent and remote memory, while preserving immediate recall; mostly caused by alcohol abuse. In Gibson's book, chemopenal treatment inducing Korsakov's is used to punish criminals instead of sending them to jail - their neurons are manipulated so that they can only remember a span of five minutes at a time. ¶

L

Lado-Acheson
Artificial lighting system on Freeside. ¶

Loa
Matrix voodoo gods; also called 'Divine Horsemen'; probably sentient parts of loose AIs in the matrix set free after the unification of Wintermute and Neuromancer. ¶

M

Maas Biolabs
German corporation which holds the basic patents for biochips. ¶

Macroform node
Very large data-construct. ¶

Matrix
Information dataspace, abstract representation of the relationship between data systems that facilitates the handling and exchange of massive quantities of data. ¶

Metro Holografix
The Finn's shop in the Sprawl. ¶

Microsoft
Asmall chip which can be inserted into a socket behind the ear and allows certain skills, for example flying a plane, fluency in languages etc. ¶

Mimetic polycarbon suits
Suit which adapts to the background and allows near invisibility. ¶

Mole IX
First prototype of an icebreaker, used in the Screaming Fist mission. ¶

Mycotoxin
Nerve toxin. ¶

N

New Yen
Oldish paper currency, which in a time of electronic currencies is mostly used for illegal transactions. ¶

Neurosurgery
Implants, nerve-splicing, microbionics etc. ¶

Night City
Old area between Port and City of Tokyo. Outlaw city, playground of criminals, merchants, pirates and whores. ¶

Ninsei
Heart of Night City, Tokyo. ¶

O

Ono-Sendai
Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7, a Hosaka cyberdeck. ¶

P

Panthers Modern
Youth culture, nihilistic technofetishist mercenaries who use mimetic polycarbon suits. ¶

People of Importance
Long-running simstim soap opera. ¶

Personality ROM construct
Recorded person saved digitally. ¶

Projects
Barrytown skyscraper arcologies, designed to be self-sufficent. ¶

S

SAS
Space adaptation syndrome. The heartbeat speeds up in zero-g, and the inner ear kicks in the flight reflex, with a lot of adrenaline. ¶

Screaming Fist
Covert mission in Russia, assault on the Kirensk computer nexus. The basic module was a Nightwing microlight, a pilot, a matrix deck, a jockey. The first prototype of an icebreaker called 'Mole IX' was used. Even though the military knew about the emp defenses of the Russians, the soldiers were sent in regardless. All except one unit were shot down and killed. ¶

Sense/Net
Corporate data library which files constructs of all important personalities. ¶

Simstim deck
Player/Recordes of the whole sensorium of a person. Similiar to technology in Huxley's 'Brave New World' and Philip K. Dick's novels. In the Sprawl series future it is as popular as television is today, there is all kinds of different programs, people get addicted from simstim. It can also be broadcasted live through a broadcast rig. ¶

SIN
Single Identification Number. ¶

Sprawl
Cities growing into other cities, where no center is recognizible. ¶

Suit
Slang for a corporate salaryman. ¶

T

Temperfoam
Soft synthetic filling material. ¶

Tessier-Ashpool SA
Swiss clan which built Freeside. ¶

Turing Registry
International police which monitors the intelligence levels of AIs. Named after Alan Turing, a pioneer theoretician of machine intelligence, who said that a computer being able to conversate with a human for a certain time would be intelligent. ¶

V

Villa Straylight
Located at the top of Freeside, owned by Tessier-Ashpool. ¶

W

When It Changed
Term used to describe the change and its results in the Matrix when Wintermute combined with Neuromancer. ¶

Wiz/whiz
Drug, crystal form. ¶

Y

Yakuza
Japanese mafia, the 'Sons of the Neon Chrysanthemum'. ¶

Yiheyuan filters
Chinese cigarettes. ¶

Z

Zaibatsu
Original term for Japan's family-corporations before WWII, which are now known as 'keiretsu'. In the Sprawl world the term describes multinational corporations. ¶

Zeiss Ikon
German eye-implants for recording Sim-Stim movies. Very expensive but immensely popular among the stars, not the least for the tiny ZEISS IKON inscriptions on the iris. ¶

Zion cluster
30-year old Rastafarian colony in the remains of Freeside data cores, founded by five workers who refused to return. ¶

Last update:

© Copyright 1999-2009 by  William Gibson alephHomeSite MapAbout...Email
an anton rauben weiss production