Category / TEC
Matrix
Decks, ICE, simstim, constructs, medicine, weapons, and synthetic worlds.
Learn the system. Move through concise overviews, structured facts, source notes, and carefully labeled interpretation.
Akai Transdermal Inducer
The branded medical unit connected to Molly’s transparent cast after the Sense/Net escape.
Open field noteArab Horse Reconstruction
The Finn’s joke about scientists rebuilding extinct horses with contaminated DNA, a tiny clue to the novel’s biotechnology and prejudice.
Open field noteArtificial Intelligence in the Sprawl
The architecture, legal status, masks, motives, and uncertain personhood of advanced AIs, centered on Wintermute and Neuromancer's divided design.
Open field noteBank Chips
Portable credentials that join identity, payment, and service access in Freeside’s cashless resort economy.
Open field noteBetaphenethylamine (‘Beta’)
The powerful stimulant Case takes on Freeside after his modified metabolism blocks familiar drugs.
Open field noteBlack ICE and Flatlining
Lethal matrix defense and the bodily death it can produce, central to the Dixie Flatline's legend and Case's repeated confrontations with mortality.
Open field noteBlue Nine / Grievous Angel
The outlawed psychoactive agent that the Panther Moderns falsely claim has contaminated Sense/Net, turning a feared drug into an information weapon.
Open field noteBody modification and the razorgirl
A reader’s map of surgical fashion, workplace modification, black-market medicine, and the razorgirl as both profession and visual type.
Open field noteBraun in Neuromancer
A familiar consumer brand spanning coffee makers, audiovisual systems, holographic models, and Wintermute’s repurposed microdrone.
Open field noteBruce’s Honda Trike
The three-wheeled hydrogen vehicle that carries Case through Freeside’s curved resort streets and nightlife circuit.
Open field noteCase’s Biomedical Controls
The toxin sacs and metabolic modifications used to regulate Case's behavior after his surgery, making his restored body an instrument of contract enforcement.
Open field noteCase’s Hitachi Pocket Computer
The small Hitachi unit Case stores in Cheap Hotel, frequently confused with both a cyberspace deck and the coffin room's built-in communications terminal.
Open field noteCase’s Neural Repair
The Chiba procedure that reverses the mycotoxin damage deliberately inflicted on Case and restores his ability to enter cyberspace.
Open field noteCase’s Walther PPK Copy
The old copied .22 pistol Shin rents to Case, a weapon whose layered provenance matters more than prestige.
Open field noteCitroën in Istanbul
A real automobile marque attached to dull converted sedans used by Turkish officers during the Riviera operation.
Open field noteCloning and Vatgrown Humans
The reproductive and manufacturing technologies behind the Jane and Jean succession lines and Hideo's engineered service, with important limits on what “clone” proves.
Open field noteCobra: Weapon, Not Drug
The collapsible spring baton Case buys in Chiba, often mistaken for a fictional narcotic because its scene is intercut with his use of dex octagons.
Open field noteConsole Cowboys
Elite matrix operators who combine technical knowledge, reflexive navigation, criminal nerve, and a subculture built around penetrating protected data.
Open field noteCray Computers
A supercomputer brand used as casual performance shorthand in a world where corporate computing has become environmental scale.
Open field noteCryogenic Suspension
The Tessier-Ashpool family's method of extending rule through scheduled sleep, a preservation system that also enables isolation, manipulation, and mental decay.
Open field noteCyberspace / The Matrix
The shared data environment that console cowboys experience as navigable geometry and that becomes Case's preferred arena of work, risk, and identity.
Open field noteCyberspace Decks
Portable consoles that translate network data into neural experience, including the Ono-Sendai Cyberspace Seven supplied to Case for Armitage's operation.
Open field noteDermatrodes / Trodes
Skin-contact electrodes that carry neural signals for cyberspace and related interfaces without requiring every operator connection to be an implanted socket.
Open field noteDerms and Dermadisks
Adhesive transdermal patches used for analgesia, sleep, stimulation, and emergency revival, distinct from neural dermatrodes despite the similar name.
Open field noteDex, Dextroamphetamine, and Octagons
Case's Chiba stimulant, clarifying that dex refers to real dextroamphetamine while octagon describes the pink pill form sold on the street.
Open field noteDreaming Real
The projection art form that moves from truckloads of gear to Riviera’s implanted, intimate, and weaponized performance.
Open field noteFletcher Weapons
Molly's compact multi-shot flechette pistol, capable of firing different dart loads and serving as both signature sidearm and contested object in Straylight.
Open field noteFlip-Flop Switch
The Finn-installed deck module that lets Case alternate between cyberspace and Molly's live simstim sensorium without ending his matrix connection.
Open field noteGardening Robots
Crablike maintenance machines that shift from background landscaping to one of Wintermute’s improvised weapons.
Open field noteHaniwa
Armitage's orbital yacht, a polished mission asset whose detachable bridge becomes the mechanism of Corto's final fatal reenactment.
Open field noteHideo’s Bamboo Bow and Arrows
The museum-quality bamboo bow and modern alloy quiver Hideo uses inside Straylight, where training and orbital physics matter more than technological novelty.
Open field noteHolography and Synthetic Environments
The physical-world image systems that manufacture Freeside's sky, enable Riviera's performances, and make built environments behave like programmable media.
Open field noteHosaka Computers
The branded general-purpose computers that research, summarize, store, and coordinate information around Case's operation, distinct from his named cyberspace deck.
Open field noteHsG
A skeletal-growth substance whose alarming news report becomes raw material for the Panther Moderns’ Sense/Net panic broadcast.
Open field noteICE
Intrusion countermeasures that make protected systems visible and dangerous in cyberspace, forming the barriers Case must study and breach.
Open field noteIcebreakers
Offensive programs used by console cowboys to probe, deceive, and penetrate ICE, ranging from prepared tools to the adaptive Kuang virus.
Open field noteKuang Grade Mark Eleven
The adaptive Chinese icebreaker that develops inside Tessier-Ashpool's defenses and carries Case and Dixie through the final matrix assault.
Open field noteMarcus Garvey
Maelcum's Zion tug, serving as transport, improvised matrix workstation, refuge, and the vehicle that carries Case into Villa Straylight.
Open field noteMeat-Puppet Cut-Out Technology
The consciousness-suppressing system used in Molly's former sex work, where software could direct her body while attempting to block her awareness and memory.
Open field noteMelanin Boosting
The cosmetic tanning process used to design fashionable skin patterns and disguise Sprawl pallor on Freeside.
Open field noteMicrosofts
Removable slivers of neural software worn in a carbon socket behind the ear, used for specialist information, perceptual analysis, work, and subcultural display.
Open field noteMolly’s Augmentations
The mirrored lenses, retractable blades, accelerated reflexes, and simstim equipment that support Molly's work while carrying permanent costs.
Open field noteMycotoxin
The unnamed wartime toxin that first excludes Case from cyberspace and later becomes Armitage’s biological enforcement mechanism.
Open field noteNeural Jacks and Interfaces
The novel's mixed set of external electrodes, implanted sockets, broadcasts, and surgically altered nerves that connect human bodies to machines.
Open field noteNightwing Assault Parafoils
The radar-transparent microlights stripped and overloaded for Screaming Fist’s doomed cybernetic assault on Kirensk.
Open field noteOno-Sendai Cyberspace Seven
The professional cyberspace deck Armitage supplies to Case, including its dermatrode interface, Finn modification, and uncertain physical design.
Open field noteOptical Camouflage
Mimetic polycarbon clothing that alters its surface to match surrounding color and pattern, aiding Molly and the Panther Moderns during physical infiltration.
Open field notePrécis
The five-minute multimedia briefing Case requests from a Hosaka to identify the Panther Moderns before the Sense/Net operation.
Open field noteRAM in Neuromancer
The novel's two very different uses of RAM: Case's stolen memory commodity in Chiba and his later analogy for Neuromancer's changeable personality archive.
Open field noteRiviera’s Projection Implants
Implanted systems that let Peter Riviera project convincing images into shared space, turning private trauma and sadism into spectacle, disguise, and attack.
Open field noteROM Personality Constructs
Recorded personality models stored in read-only memory, represented most fully by the conscious, skilled, and deeply constrained Dixie Flatline construct.
Open field noteSimstim and Sensorium
Technology for transmitting another person's sensory experience, used as mass entertainment and as Case's one-way link into Molly's physical missions.
Open field noteSmith & Wesson Riot Gun
Kurt’s oversized lightweight bar weapon, loaded with subsonic impact cartridges rather than ordinary bullets.
Open field noteSpace Adaptation Syndrome (SAS)
The real space-medicine condition that makes Case’s first journey into microgravity physically disorienting and operationally difficult.
Open field noteTank War Europa
The holographic arcade war game Linda plays when Case meets her, turning European nuclear destruction into casual entertainment.
Open field noteThe Automatic Mercedes
The rented autonomous car that gives Molly and Case private, continuous mobility through Istanbul’s surveillance landscape.
Open field noteThe Braun Microdrone
A baseball-sized spider-like robot used as Wintermute's guide inside Villa Straylight, making a familiar consumer device part of the AI's physical reach.
Open field noteThe Cloisonné Head Terminal
An ornate mechanical head whose theft exposes Tessier-Ashpool's hidden history and whose counterpart or restored form serves as the physical terminal for the AI lock.
Open field noteThe Freeside Microlight Attack
The small electric biplane Wintermute turns into a weapon during Case's Turing arrest, demonstrating how an AI can assemble a temporary body from resort infrastructure.
Open field noteThe Mimetic Polycarbon Suit
The adaptive camouflage garment used by Molly and the Panther Moderns, with a visible lag that distinguishes concealment from perfect invisibility.
Open field noteTuring Locks
The interlocking legal, software, and physical restraints that keep the Tessier-Ashpool AIs divided until Kuang and 3Jane's code act together.
Open field noteWizard’s Castle
The dungeon arcade game Linda’s simulated counterpart recalls, tying Case’s memory to ordinary shared play.
Open field noteYeheyuan Cigarettes
The fictional cigarette brand shared by Linda and Case, carrying ordinary addiction and social ritual from Chiba into the novel's orbital future.
Open field note