Wax Blocks, Data Banks, and File #0467839: The Archive of Memory in William Gibson’s Science Fiction
Elizabeth Swanstrom, University of California, Santa Barbara

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ABSTRACT:
Concurrent with the so-called “Age of Information” has come a willingness to conceive of the human subject as a rich network of embodied informational systems. N. Katherine Hayles has been a pioneer in cultivating this line of thought, a study she dubs “posthuman” development. The notion of the posthuman has found ample expression in popular science fiction, especially in “cyberpunk.” While many talented authors contributed to the development of this genre, perhaps no other author has so fundamentally engaged with issues of memory, information science, and subjectivity in his cyberpunk fiction than William Gibson. This article attempts to link the concept of the archive of memory in William Gibson’s science fiction to Hayles’ posthuman development and Freud’s work on the psychical apparatus.