zero history

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zero history is the final novel in William Gibson’s trilogy that started with Pattern Recognition. Hollis Henry is back from book two, Spook Country. I wouldn’t presume to review the work of Mr. Gibson. Here are a few of his words that got some highlighter:

“It was like being on the bottom of a Coney Island grab-it game, one in which the eclectically ungrabbed had been accumulating for decades. He looked up, imagining a giant three-pronged claw, agent of stark removal.” – pg 9

“His attempted smile felt like something froced from a flexible squeeze-toy.” – pg 10

“An overly wealthy, dangerously curious fiddler with the world’s hidden architectures.” – pg 18

“We do brand vision transmission, trend forecasting, vendor management, youth market recon, strategic planning in general.” – pg 21

“Addictions (start) out like magical pets, pocket monsters.” – pg 53

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On the nightstand

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The Grand Design – Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow. From Amazon: “The three central questions of philosophy and science: Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist? Why this particular set of laws and not some other? No one can make a discussion of such matters as compulsively readable as the celebrated University of Cambridge cosmologist Hawking (A Brief History of Time).”

How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace . From Amazon: “Written by the world’s leading experts on finding people and helping people avoid being found, How to Disappear covers everything from tools for disappearing to discovering and eliminating the nearly invisible tracks and clues we tend to leave wherever we go. Learn the three keys to disappearing, all about your electronic footprints, the dangers and opportunities of social networking sites, and how to disappear from a stalker.”

I Live in the Future and Here’s How It Works – Nick Bilton. From Amazon: “I Live in the Future & Here’s How It Works captures the zeitgeist of an emerging age, providing the understanding of how a radically changed media world is influencing human behavior.”

    Interview with William Gibson

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    My favorite author, far and away. Just finished his new novel, Zero History. Here are a few bits that caught my attention in the interview:

    • I find Twitter to be the most powerful aggregator of sheer novelty that humanity has yet possessed.
    • “I think the concept of “mainstream” is probably becoming archaic in some sense.”
    • “The mainstream is more digestible by osmosis”
    • “I wonder if we’ll ever have consensus (again)?”
    • “Generally, we don’t know what we were doing with something until we quit doing it.”
    • “When I see Glenn Beck –to the very small extent I do, if I can help it– it’s like Devo’s vision made flesh”
    • “I now write with the assumption that someone will google every unfamiliar word and term as they go through the book.”
    • “The footnote now lives in cyberspace, a click away”

    The end of wallets

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    I’m not a wallet guy. I rarely have it with me and keep no more than the bare minimum in when I do. Health plan card from work; auto insurance car; voter registration card, etc. No money.

    Today I scanned a couple of cards and dropped them into GoodReader on the iPhone. Probably wouldn’t satisfy a trooper or the lady at the doctor’s office (even though all she does is photocopy the health plan card), but better than nothing and the info is there.

    I think the days of carrying around little pieces of plastic are just about over. Already over in more technically sophisticated countries.