Heimburger - Yamamoto: Prologue - Story 1 (9-54)

Based on the introduction of the characters and setting in the book, Yamamoto seems to be trying to integrate Davis' ideas of technomysticism and godlike images of machines into his robotically-ruled world. Yamamoto creates a world where a stark disconnect exists between the world of machines and the world of humans, an idea that extends upon the endless speculation over the impact that technology has on humans in Techgnosis. Instead, this book sets up a scenario where artificial intelligence grants machines their own consciousness, in turn giving them their own analytical abilities. Right before the fight scene, Ibis very calmly addresses the main character, whom she calls "Storyteller." This scene traces back to Davis' main theme of how storytelling has been an essential part of human history and has had a huge impact on the development of interactions between man and machine. In fact, the Storyteller describes how he would regularly narrate stories to colonies of people and emphasizes the value placed upon the now-rare skill of literacy, a scenario that is very reminiscent of McLuhan's many statements of how technology fragments human thought from its original state of tribal storytelling. Yamamoto also grounds his story in the real world, referring to actual events of the twentieth and twenty-first century through a retrospective lens. According to the fictionalized events of the near future, literacy approached a rate of nearly 100 percent, which could potentially refer to Teilhard's philosophy of an expanding global consciousness that would extend past the boundaries of human civilization. Perhaps the fictionalized machines in the story represent the aforementioned consciousness. The capture of the Storyteller as well as the subsequent explanation of the novel's society and stories narrated by Ibis seem to elaborate upon many themes in Davis' work.

The first few scenes reminded me of the film Blade Runner. The world in the book illustrates machines as conscious beings with physical appearances extremely akin to humans. Robots in this world also seem fascinated with human consciousness. In Blade Runner, the main character administers Voight-Kampff tests to discriminate between androids and humans. False memories implanted in the mind and a lack of empathy for animals often signify androids as separate from humans when little else can. However, the overall theme revolves around the desire of androids to develop a soul and become beings of their own. Although Ibis doesn't attempt to deceive the Storyteller, it seems thus far that machines are extremely fascinated with humanity and storytelling just as the androids are fascinated with achieving a fully conscious existence in Blade Runner.

The science fiction story within the first actual story reminded me of Guardians of the Galaxy due to its mix of light comedy, real-world drama and the science fiction adventure setting. The themes of escapism and creative problem-solving are interesting in many ways, namely because they demonstrate how stories can help people to better understand reality rather than to try and abandon it altogether. Much of the conflict in this story seems to revolve around the difficulty in facing the real world and finding ways to both cope with it and confront it through relationships and stories. Such themes demonstrate why studying digital cultures deserves the same recognition as studying any other culture, as they all pertain to the purpose of studying human behavior by guiding us through beliefs and ideas.

Ibis' appearance is very similar to the hyper-sexualization of female android characters in video games and comic books. It seems indicative of how people want to design androids and what their desires are. It seems particularly sad when considering that artificial intelligence in this world has led to robotic identities, which may be stuck in hypersexual vessels.