Humans develop new technologies because we want to improve our lives. People develop thinking machines because we have too much to think. Thinking machines are at all different levels of thinking. Some machines just repeat a task infinitely while some machines do a task with different way each time. Many workers are replaced by those machines repeat a task like a production line, because those machines can be more efficiently than human workers. These workers will not get a better life if they do not upgrade themselves to be a manager of those low thinking level machines. High thinking level machines can learn from their outside world. Some robot vacuum cleaners can learn the spaces they are cleaning so that they do not hit the wall or furniture, also find the easiest path to get back to their docking station.

COVID-19 has pretty much changed everyone’s lifestyle. Just like we are now learning online instead of on campus. This year, Halloween is on the weekend, without COVID-19, that should be a lot of fun. But this year, not that many people went out for trick-or-treating. Our kids just played in front of our house with neighbor’s kids. Our neighbor has a big family, they were all here this year, making this Halloween not so deserted. The drawback was everyone must keep social distance. Even we were playing together, but the social distance makes us like strangers. But anyway, kids were still having fun.

Machines that think, can learn from their experiences, can make their own decisions. However, humans still responsible for what these machines had done. I have a car that can semi-autonomous, it can keep itself in lane, keeps preset distance from car in front, and some other functions. All these functions help me a lot while driving, but some people think they can drive better without these functions, so turn them off or using them incorrectly, these are human errors. Or some functions are not worked as designed, wrongly designed, these are also human errors, but on manufacturers. Humans who designed and master thinking machines should be responsible for what these machines have done.

Having a house is not that simple, I must keep it clean, at the same time I have work to do, I can only clean my house at the weekend. And this weekend, we have one more task to finish, the whole family is going to pumpkin patch. That was a busy weekend, I must finish my assignments, I need to clean my house, and finally, we went to pumpkin patch. Since we were not going to pumpkin before the house is clean, my kids were also helping this time. We got the house clean in half of the usual time. So, we went to pumpkin patch, there are lots of pumpkins, my kids also went to petting zone to pet the animals. They were so happy, I was happy, too. When my kids are happy, everything we done is paid off!

I may be very ordinary, but my life is already very good. I have a house to live, even it’s not huge, but at least I have a place to stay; I have car to drive, even it’s not a luxury one, but at least I can go places; I have money to spend, even it’s not a lot, but I am happy with it; And most important, I have my wife and my children living with me as a family.

We are unable to secure our immortality physically, but our digital identity is everywhere on the internet. No matter you like it or not, people will able to search you out from the internet, now and the future. Most people like to share their feeling of present moment on the internet, therefor, most of us are creating digital footprint on the internet, and all these will live forever. In the really world, there is only one version of us. However, we can have many versions of us on the internet. People might not able to, or we are afraid to do something personally, but on the internet, we use different version of us to do different things and become famous. People also share information and their knowledge over the internet. We search information about a place, when we have a trip to that place, we can plan a lot better. When we search our subject on the internet, we usually found something we don’t know at all. For example, lots people learn something new from YouTube. Kids are a lot smarter than us because of the internet. They even try to teach their parents and teachers.

Most people were blissfully unaware of the potential of networked computing. For 1984, Gibson’s book was ambitiously prophetic, leapfrogging beyond any notion of a text and image-based World Wide Web and directly into a computerized virtual reality into which hackers could jack themselves using body implants and cables, injecting their brains directly into “the Matrix.”

I am a software developer, but I would like to write lots of short stories if I am as a writer. Understanding of the plot will help me to develop more story idea to write. The more I write, the better writing skill I have, back to as a software developer, I will be able to write more understandable manual for my end users, they may be seem reading a story as they read my manual. Writers maybe like to have a pen in their hand, so they can write. But, as a software developer, I like to write with my keyboard. In the future, while technology is even more advantageous, I guess I can write with my mind, with a tiny device or an integrated device on my head. I can write everywhere, I can learn everywhere.

Science fiction somehow manages to place human character in a situation where science and morality are intertwined. Science fiction must have certain intellectual and human elements to succeed. The novel seems to be in stark contrast to proponents of technological progress, as it presents a colorful but frustrating and desolate future. “Molly was gone when he took the trodes off, and the loft was dark. He checked the time. He’d been in cyberspace for five hours.” (Gibson,2000). The loss of personality due to technological progress has become the main theme of Cyberpunk. No only does Neuromancer fall into this category, it may be the first Cyberpunk novel ever.

As I read the novel, I found that it seems dated. William Gibson mentioned that the stand pocket computer has three megabytes of hot RAM. When I got my first computer in 1998, there as 16 megabytes of RAM. William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer has most idea of the future, some already existed as today, some not going to happen soon or maybe never happen. But some seem dated as today. Neuromancer has amazing predictive power, but it’s dated ideas as today make me wonder which timeline is it on.