“The Peripheral” is a new series from Amazon which will be released on October 21st. It is an adaptation of the 2014 novel of the same name by William Gibson, which as always in the author's style, anticipates the future. The inventor of the term "cyberspace" has moved the threshold forward, describing a tomorrow that today seems impossible, decades in advance, between augmented reality, metaverse and advanced technology. Science fiction, sure. But it's not just that: The Peripheral will show a wide audience a cross-section of many technologies that we will see gradually become mainstream in the coming years.
In his 1984 book Neuromancer, W coined the term “cyberspace”. In this way, he gave readers a vision of a future where humans interface with computers in a fully immersive virtual reality landscape. A landscape that has since become known as “the matrix”. Does it tell you something? To Neo it says a lot. Today, almost 40 years later, we still live in Gibson's world. We may not yet have reached the level of technological sophistication envisioned in the Neuromancer, but we are on the right (?) Way.
What is The Peripheral about? Don't worry, there are no spoilers
Chloë Grace Moretz as protagonist, the authors of Westworld as a group. If that's not enough for you already, I have to tell you a little about the plot :) Set 70 years in our future, The Peripheral tells the story of Flynne Fisher, a young woman living in a small town in rural America. Her life in her city is difficult to say the least: jobs are scarce and those available don't pay enough to make ends meet. Flynne makes a living by doing odd jobs and collecting what she can from abandoned houses. She is content to live her life in the dark until she is recruited by her brother to participate in some sort of test of a new virtual reality technology.
Flynne agrees to participate, and finds herself in a world she never knew existed: a world of advanced technology and immense wealth. She quickly realizes that she is a pawn in a much bigger game, one that could have devastating consequences for her and her family. As she races to uncover the truth behind the experiment, Flynne must use all her wits and ingenuity to survive in a world that is both familiar and foreign to her.
Literary fantasy, technological reality
Some of the technologies featured in The Peripheral, as mentioned, include the virtual reality, augmented reality, the metaverse and other advanced technologies such as i autonomous vehicles, the integrated road systems, the robot assistants. These technologies are already making their way into today's reality: the use of virtual reality viewers is increasingly widespread, and many people use augmented reality applications and devices even for trivial things (such as filters on social media). The metaverse is also taking its first confusing steps. What is real? What is fake? How will it end?
William Gibson's works cannot simply be read. They were written to be RE-read, and interpreted in the light of the present, sometimes as if it were a merciless user manual. Gibson is an even more talented heir of Orwell, because he transcends the ideological aspects of his analysis of him, and also focuses on the technical, practical, social implications of the changes he foresees.
I cannot anticipate anything, only advise you to read the original novel (which in Italian is called “Inverso” and you will understand why) within the next 4 days. And then immerse yourself in the vision of this new, very lucid dream (or nightmare).
