Blog Set # 6

Burning Chrome By William Gibson

Bobby Quine and Automatic Jack are best friends and are also hackers. Bobby is a muscular guy who loves woman and is a software expert. Jack is more of a slimmer guy who is a hardware specialist. They have been trying to create things to make money but they haven’t been very successful. Bobby loved girls but Jack never really had any interest in them. Bobby met this girl who caught his eye at the bar named Rikki. When he brought her home, Jack didn’t mind her watching him work like the other girls Bobby brought him. Jack was actually attracted to her and liked her. Bobby wants to become wealthy to impress Rikki and Jack has this plan to take this Russian device that can break into security systems and take Rikki with him. He was debating if he should tell Bobby about it since he wanted Rikki. He ended up telling Bobby about it and they made a plan to break into Chrome’s system that handles money transfers. Chrome is a girl who handles criminal money transfers. They achieved the mission and emptied Chrome’s bank accounts. Jack had some guy named Miles look after Rikki and he found out that Rikki was working for Chrome. Rikki ends up buying eye implants for herself to go to Hollywood.  Jack calls the airlines and cancels her ticket. Bobby and Jack both were devastated and never saw Rikki, the girl they both loved so much ever again. 

Computer Friendly By Eileen Gunn

This story was actually pretty cool because of the fact that people can control things with their brains. It started off with a seven-year-old girl who went to school to take many different tests with other children. She ends up meeting new friends named Sheena and Oginga and having fun. Just like any other child at there age, they just want to play. I know when I was seven I wanted to play with my friends all the time. Every time they would play, they got in trouble and were told to be quiet and to settle down. Elizabeth got perfect scores on all her test but her friends didn’t do very well. Sheena also told Elizabeth and Oginga about the Asia Center which I guess they aren’t supposed to know about. Elizabeth did everything in her power to save her friends so she asked for help. She ended being taken to the Chicken heart, which is the original program. She ended up saving her friends and now is named Lizardbreath which was what Sheena called her when she first met her. She is going against her father’s rules and wants to be on the same level as her friends and her dogs so she made it all happen. If it wasn't a child's point of view, the story would be way to descriptive and you also wouldn't experience seeing how their life is from when it starts at seven years old. 

Update: After discussing this in class, our discussion made me realize how great of a writer William Gibson is. I know it was difficult for many of us, including me, to read. This story was meant to be read with a big imagination. For example, he describes something that has to do with a computer to a castle of ice. He describes flies and dust as a fur coat. His description to everything is hard to get into but once you understand it’s really amazing and beautiful. He can make something so disgusting seem so wonderful. Now for the story “Computer Friendly” I have also learned many things. Even if the story was awful I really didn’t pick up the dystopian part of it. I think its because it was told by a little girl who loves to be different and everything else didn’t distract me. Now I definitely see that they do live in a dystopian environment where every living thing’s brain is controlled by computers. Also, the Asia Center is where they kill innocent children that don’t fit their environment? I think that’s a horrible thing that they do. I don’t think its fair that kids can’t enjoy their childhoods because they have to prepare themselves for tests so they won’t be killed. Sheena and Oginga have a mindset that a child their age should have. They way they played around in the cafeteria when they were spitting and fooling around is how a kid should be. But to the monitors and everyone else in the society they are trash so they just kill them. Another thing that I thought was weird was the fact that the dad always forgets many things after work. He forgets how to even get home, but the love for his daughter is always there.