Note on this edition: this is an electronic version of the 1999 book ...

Technodemons of the Digital Self 241achievement of the Aquarian goal: the expansion of consciousness by whatevermeans necessary.” 169 The New Age took shape as the “religion of theInformation Age,” creating a new interpretation of gnosticism in the process.Davis quotes a popular New Age text, The Starseed Transmissions(1982), claiming to be a series of transmissions from an alien angel to a carpenternamed Ken Carey: “This new information is not additional data thatyou will act upon. It is, rather, the very reality of your new nature. You arenot to act upon my information in the future, you are to be my informationyourselves.” 170The New Age subtext is intermingled in Neuromancer’s texture in variousways. The disembodiment of mind (soul), and trips into “inner spaces”are its essential features. When Case confronts alien life forms – the ArtificialIntelligences, AIs – inhabiting this new realm created in the computermemory, he is not an agent manipulating a technical tool; his disembodiedconsciousness is “out there” in cyberspace. When the AI intercepts hiscommunications, Case’s connection with the computer is not disconnected:the brain activity in his body stops – he “flatlines.” 171 But the experiential realitycontinues, as Case is information. Neuromancer explores the idea thatpersonality is information, and that thinking, feeling and other (mental) activitiesare information processes that can be simulated and transferred tocomputers, when needed. 172 The eschatology inscribed in this line ofthought leads the human race into technological transcendence, rebirth as“angels of information,” and finally into a rendezvous with some Supermind.Neuromancer partly complies with such expectations, as the AI encountersother superhuman intelligences in outer space. 173 The final resolution, however,is not complete but the discordant quality remains.The confrontation with the AIs highlights the demonic aspects of Gibson’snarrative; they are alien entities, initially disturbing and frightening,later with tempting potentials that are in the “case of Case” linked with theattempts to heal a split in self, or to achieve transformation of identity. Thetext addresses directly the “diabolical” position of such dealings with theother.‘You [Case] are worse than a fool,’ Michèle said, getting to her feet, thepistol in her hand. ‘You have no care for your species. For thousands ofyears men dreamed of pacts with demons. Only now are such things pos-169 Ibid., 55.170 Ibid., 58.171The three flatlining sequences: N, 140-47, 202-8, 276-90.172 In his Mind Children (1988, 108-11) the robot scientist Hans Moravec describeshow the hypothetical “transmigration” of human mind into a machine could be achieved.The future computers are decisively mind children; the abjection of the body is conspicuous.173N, 316.