Thursday, August 03, 2023

The blood of a zaibatsu is information, not people. The structure is independent of the individual lives that comprise it. Corporation as life form.

 --- William Gibson, from New Rose Hotel (1984), collected in Burning Chrome (1986)

Excerpt

Imagine an alien, Fox once said, who’s come here to identify the planet’s dominant form of intelligence. The alien has a look, then chooses. What do you think he picks? I probably shrugged.

The zaibatsus, Fox said, the multinationals. The blood of a zaibatsu is information, not people. The structure is independent of the individual lives that comprise it. Corporation as life form.