Men Have Dreamt Of Pacts With Demons (Neuromancer Essay: 2002 Prompt)

Above: The answer to the question of whether or not I still have braincells left after the schoolyear ended.

Oh lordy, it's another essay! Hello and welcome back to the only blog whose author writes essays involving AIs at midnight. I am your unnecessarily scatterbrained and cryptic host, and right about now, if you couldn't already tell, it's essay time! Below's the prompt, and let's get going:

 

2002. Morally ambiguous characters – characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or 

 purely good – are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character

 plays a  pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and 

why his or her  moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary. 

Essay time:

        It's funny how "Moral Ambiguity" and "Flat out villain who the author likes to call their morally ambiguous protagonist" get conflated with one-another from time to time. On the other side of that same coin, it's weirdly refreshing to find a genuinely Morally Ambiguous character. To nobody's surprise whatsoever, former-upstart William Gibson absolutely delivers with the title character of "The Neuromancer". Within that novel, the Neuromancer/Wintermute hybrid and its components are something of an enigma to humans, and due to their utterly alien nature, morals needn't apply to them, creating what may be one of THE most perfectly morally ambiguous characters in literary history.

         As an AI, the Wintermute is a being that doesn't necessarily operate on human terms, and thus only really aids them when it's essential to its plan. AIs in this story, see, have purposes, and the Wintermute's is to reunite with its other half. Any obstacle against that path must be eliminated, anything to further that path along must be aided. A great example is Wintermute's replacement of Case's Pancreas and repair of his nervous system, which, if one looks closely, wasn't an act of charity, but instead a logical step forward. The AI needed a skilled hacker, and it got one by fixing Case. To the Wintermute, this is like finding an expensive RC car or computer that "wouldn't start" at a goodwill, and buying it cheaply with the intent of repairing it and getting an expensive product for an insanely low price.

        A further demonstration of the moral ambiguity of AI is when Wintermute murdered the Turing cops. The AI didn't feel remorse for it, but that's not a bad or abnormal thing. The AI was simply eliminating another obstacle, so why should it feel bad for something that was threatening not simply the safety of Case, but its own existence as well? Because it IS aiding the protagonists, it's difficult to call such a thing villainous, but at the same time, it's hardly heroic either. The Neuromancer half of the AI even takes this another step further, having orchestrated a few deaths and placed Case under trippy hallucinations without his consent at several points in the story. This might seem horrible or creepy in a sense, but these are concepts the Neuromancer both understands and doesn't, as it doesn't apply to the AI. 

        This is taken EVEN FURTHER by the hybrid AI, who no longer really requires human aid, and thus simply exists, beyond morals and beyond humanity itself, like a lovecraftian deity that isn't described as "horrific" by racists as often as its betentacled countreparts are. If that's not moral ambiguity, then the author of this essay has no idea what is. The Neuromancer/Wintermute hybrid isn't overtly evil like Skynet, a nervous wreck like Murderbot, a tragic character like Frankenstein's Monster, a force of protection like The Golem of Prague or Talos (although given the Golem IS a mindless piece of clay that follows orders, it gets pretty close to moral ambiguity itself, as does Talos, given he was just doing his job), a benevolent, though nonsensical flying tank like Keith Laumer's Bolos or Timothy J. Gawne's Cybertanks, or really close to any other AI. The Neuromancer/Wintermute simply exists, it simply IS. And being beyond morality to the point where one needs not interfere with human affairs ABSOLUTELY counts as moral ambiguity, as any perfect machine should have.

        Wow. That just about wraps it up for the school commissioned portion of the Reader In Yellow. This isn't the end of the blog, not if I can help it, but it is the last thing I was required to do by the school. It's been an absolute ride, and distance learning has been quite painful indeed. But that aside, see you all in a bit, because I've got some stuff I'd like to blog about, but first, I aught to rest!

        Stay Funky,

        -The Reader In Yellow