About William Gibson

William Gibson, born 1948, Conway, South Carolina) is a key figure in sci-fi, seen as the father of cyberpunk. His work reshaped the world of guesswork tales by blending high-tech tomorrows with rough, grim worlds. "Burning Chrome," a short tale from 1982, is crucial as it brought forth many of the thoughts and ideas that would later grow in Gibson's landmark book Neuromancer.

"Burning Chrome" analyzes and portrays the mixing of craft, wealth might, and folk's lives, shaping the feel of cyberpunk’s look at the darker sides of our wired digital future.

Also see: January 2nd, 2025.

How William Gibsons ‘Burning Chrome’ Influenced the Matrix

While re-reading William Gibson's 'Burning Chrome', first published in 1982, after many years, researching for my Copenhagen Chronotopes series, I noticed an interesting part:

"Then Cyrillic alphanumerics started reeling down the monitor, twisting themselves into English halfway down. There were a lot of gaps, where the lexicon ran up against specialized military acronyms in the readout I’d bought from my man in Colorado, but it did give me some idea of what I’d bought from the Finn."

Which presumably is the inspiration for the iconic green flickering characters in the movie 'The Matrix' from 1999, though Japanese characters of different types versus Cyrillic characters in Gibson's short story.

The term 'matrix' is mentioned twelve times in the short story, some examples:

"Out in the malls and plazas, moths were batting themselves to death against the neon, but in Bobby's loft the only light came from a monitor screen and the green and red LEDs on the face of the matrix simulator."

"A silver tide of phosphenes boiled across my field of vision as the matrix began to unfold in my head, a 3D chessboard, infinite and perfectly transparent."

"The Russian program seemed to lurch as we entered the grid. If anyone else had been jacked into that part of the matrix, he might have seen a surf of flickering shadow roll out of the little yellow pyramid that represented our computer."

"That meant we were clearing fiberoptic lines with the cybernetic equivalent of a fire siren, but in the simulation matrix we seemed to rush straight for Chrome's data base. I couldn't see it yet, but I already knew those walls were waiting."

"The matrix is an abstract representation of the relationships between data systems. Legitimate programmers jack into their employers' sector of the matrix and find themselves surrounded by bright geometrics representing the corporate data.

"Beyond them, the matrix's illusion of infinite space. It's like watching a tape of a prefab building going up; only the tape's reversed and run at high speed, and these walls are torn wings."

Quoted from the Harper Collins / Voyager edition of the anthology 'Burning Chrome' published in 1986.

Part of my Flora Excursoria Hafniensies series of photos, drawings and paintings.