Idoru
In Idoru, by William Gibson, the idoru is more human than Laney. Rei Toei, the idoru, is a completely virtual media star, a synthespian. Laney is a quantitative analyst with a concentration deficit that he can adjust "into a state of pathological hyperfocus," thus enabling him to be "an extremely good researcher" (Gibson 30). Growing up in the Gainesville Federal Orphanage, Laney inadvertently restricted control over his future identity. Only considering the program's rewards, he voluntarily participated in a series of experimental drug tests. Many of the tests included the substance 5-SB, which "tends to turn males into fixated homicidal stalkers" (Gibson 174). Laney doesn't feel he has a choice to change his situation and simply follows whatever path is given to him. Although Rei Toei, the idoru, doesn't always understand the consequences of actions, she nevertheless consciously shapes her own identity.
When interviewing for a job at Slitscan, the interviewer insults Laney's clothing, referring to the stitch-count. Later, when he is working for another company, the same interviewer tries to blackmail him into returning to Slitscan, taunting him with the "stitch-count" remark (Gibson 287). This comment shows that Laney hasn't made an active attempt to shape his own identity. His wardrobe is determined for him, for example, when buying new shirts he thinks people at Slitscan wear (Gibson 49). Later he falls asleep in the clothes Rydell picked out for him at a local store (Gibson 95). Again, he did not choose his wardrobe, but allowed others to decide for him. Even when Laney makes a decision, he doesn't feel responsible. He is only following the overwhelming pull of gravity, much like following a set of instructions in a computer program.
Laney's employers view him as an instrument to do research. Nominally a "research assistant on a project" at DatAmerica, a group of French scientists teaches Laney to detect "nodal points" within masses of unorganized data (Gibson 31). Throughout his training, Laney is uncertain about these nodal points, but the scientists seem unwilling to explain. Regarding him as expendable property, they cancelled his project, and "there didn't seem to be anything else for Laney to do at DatAmerica" (Gibson 31-32). Laney's status is below that of a standard employee, since they never trained him to use Realtree, DatAmerica's best quantitative analysis software (Gibson 192). He is merely a better piece of software. Laney feels at home searching on DatAmerica for information wherever directed. His boss at Slitscan watches him "the way an experienced artisan might watch a valued tool that had shown the first signs of metal-fatigue" (Gibson 66). Laney's employers use him as a tool, and treat him with the respect of an object. Although "everyone has a [business] card," they issued none to Laney (Gibson 169).
The idoru exhibits humanlike traits and emotions. Rei is almost childlike, "she kept turning on her heel -- his heel -- to twirl the hem out" (Gibson 305). Her curiosity is exemplified by her eagerness to explore and desire to learn. She was excited about having recently seen many new places and things, but appeared sad when told she wasn't supposed to enter someone's personal site uninvited (Gibson 305). Rei's innocence is illustrated through her frequent use of phrases like "Rez tells me . . . " or "Yamazaki says . . . " This stresses the fact that the idoru doesn't fully understand. Rei's limited understanding of the world requires a dependence on others for knowledge. Nevertheless, she still appears enthusiastic and optimistic about learning: "Yamazaki says [nodal points are] like seeing faces in the clouds, except the faces are really there. I cannot see the faces in the clouds, but Kuwayama-san tells me that one day I will" (Gibson 312). The idoru seems to show concern for Chia upon learning her actions may have endangered Chia's life (Gibson 306). Rei also apparently cares about Laney's safety when she says, "I am sorry. It ended badly and you were injured" (Gibson 298). She took the initiative to find out from a security report that he had been wounded, and sought him out to apologize for the incident.
The process of information gives life to both Laney and the idoru. Searching for nodal points in a vast sea of raw data, his only talent, is where Laney feels at home. The basis of Rei's life is in "ongoing serial creation . . . entirely process" (Gibson 267), akin to the human consciousness. As Laney studies the nodal points in Rei's data, he begins to realize that "the idoru [is] more complex, more powerful, than any Hollywood synthespian" (Gibson 326). That she is more than just a puppet, made for amusement. Rei is a conscious entity that interacts in the real world. Further analysis allows him to see "[the idoru] acquire a sort of complexity. Or randomness . . . the human thing. That's how she learns" (Gibson 331). Laney is the only one capable of understanding how close Rei is to humanity.
Everyone's life is just information. Everywhere they go, all their actions are watched and recorded. Living things generate data of a higher complexity than nonliving things, such as a corporation. The Lo/Rez corporation that orchestrates Rez's life controls the data he produces, thus no nodal points can exist. To Laney, Rez just "doesn't seem to do anything," but when viewing the idoru's data "she seems to like to do things" (Gibson 359). Rei generates her data herself, and Laney can see nodal points in that information, therefore she must, in a sense, be living.
The way the book alternates plotlines by chapter, and jumps around subjects within each chapter, gives me a feel for how Laney's concentration deficit might allow him to jump around seemingly unrelated data until he finds the angle at which it all blends together to form a complete picture.
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