Sprawl Trilogy - Glossary

Glossary

Cobra

A club-like weapon made of steel with a bronze pyramid at the end. Cobras are made with three telescoping segments of coilspring that can be collapsed into the handle. These coilsprings amplify the user's blows, making the Cobra behave as a very short whip. See also Telescopic batons.

Cyberspace

A virtual reality where complex data is represented as multi-colored three-dimensional geometric symbols.

Cyberspace Deck

Also called a "deck" for short, it is used to access the virtual representation of the matrix. The deck is connected to a tiara-like device that operates by using electrodes to stimulate the user's brain while drowning out other external stimulation. As Case describes them, decks are basically simplified simstim units.

Derm

An adhesive patch applied to the skin in order to transmit a drug transdermally. Case uses recreational derms several times throughout Neuromancer. At another point, derms are used to administer an anaesthetic substance.

Fletcher

An advanced, pneumatically-powered, hand-held ballistic weapon which fires bursts of needle-like flechettes as ammunition which can be explosive, toxic or one of several other forms. It is Molly's primary ranged weapon. One of its advantages over conventional firearms is silence which translates to stealth.

Freeside

A cigar or spindle shaped space-habitat situated in the L5 "archipelago," or as Gibson says, "up the gravity well." The Tessier-Ashpool fortress Villa Straylight is at one end of the spindle.

Hosaka

A microchip manufacturer whose products are in wide use in Gibson's world. Hosaka chips and machines occur in all of the Sprawl novels. Hosaka is also a computer brand name "...next year's most expensive Hosaka computer...." The brand name is frequently used interchangeably to indicate the company and the device, much the way a modern brand such as Dell or Nintendo might be used as a "a Dell" or "a Nintendo" to indicate a particular object manufactured by one of those companies.

ICE

Acronym for "intrusion countermeasures electronics." In today's terminology it is roughly analogous to a firewall or Intrusion Detection System. Black ICE, an infamous hazard for hackers in the novel, can be lethal to any hacker lacking the proper expertise (and software) to defeat it. The term is ubiquitously shortened to "ice," with accompanying wordplay e.g. "cracking the ice," "bypassing ICE," "icebreaker," or "dense ice," a sophisticated ICE.

Microsofts

Not to be confused with the present-day software company, in Neuromancer a "microsoft" is a chip used in conjunction with a cybernetic wetware implant located behind the ear. Microsofts grant the user new abilities as long as the microsoft is plugged in. For example, a French language microsoft might be used to temporarily allow the user to speak French. The term refers to a small, portable piece of embedded software, hence "micro" and "soft."

Octagon

A type of Brazilian dexedrine (an amphetamine, specifically dextroamphetamine) in the form of an octagonal pill.

Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7

The best deck available.

Simstim

A portmanteau of simulated stimuli, simstim is a technology whereby a person's brain and nervous system is stimulated to simulate the full sensory experience of another person. Simstim is usually used as a form of entertainment, whereby recordings of simstim stars in soap operas are transmitted in effect replacing television. However, simstim also has other uses; Case is connected to Molly via simstim during the Panther Modern's attack on Sense/Net. In this way, simstim was used as a sophisticated method of communication although the signal was one-way.