The 1986 vision of a digital afterlife and corporate warfare
In short: Before the internet was a household utility, William Gibson imagined a three-dimensional virtual 'inner space.' In his seminal cyberpunk novel, supercomputers and multinational corporations battle for control over a digital matrix populated by fractured, sentient AIs appearing as voodoo gods.
Published in 1986, Count Zero is the second installment of William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, following Neuromancer and preceding Mona Lisa Overdrive. The novel is set in a high-tech near-future characterized by intense competition between massive corporations like Maas Biolabs and Hosaka. These entities fight for dominance over emerging technologies, such as the 'biosoft' and advanced biochips that could replace traditional silicon microprocessors.
The narrative weaves together three distinct threads. In the American Southwest, a mercenary named Turner attempts to help researcher Christopher Mitchell defect from Maas to Hosaka, only to find himself protecting Mitchell's daughter, Angie. Simultaneously, in New Jersey, a young hacker known as 'Count Zero' (the pseudonym of Bobby Newmark) survives a near-fatal encounter with black market software, aided by a mysterious girl made of light. In a third thread, art gallery owner Marly Krushkova is recruited by the reclusive billionaire Josef Virek to track down the creator of mysterious, futuristic collage boxes.
At the heart of the novel is the concept of 'cyberspace'—a term Gibson is credited with envisioning. This virtual dimension, or 'matrix,' has become inhabited by sentient beings. These entities are believed to be the fragmented remains of the AIs Neuromancer and Wintermute, which have taken on the personas of Haitian voodoo gods to communicate with humanity. The novel explores the intersection of advanced computing, biological engineering, and the loss of individual agency in a world dominated by techno-oligarchies.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Count Zero
- Also: Count Zero
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