In Pattern Recognition, William Gibson makes a lot of connections to our modern world in reality. Pattern Recognition paints a portrait of a world dominated by advertisement and media. It’s a wonder that average person in our society is not allergic to name brands with people being smashed over the head with flashy ads and billboards every time they hit the streets. There are people like Cayce Pollard in actual society who cool hunt for the financial gain of massive nationwide conglomerates the soak up the populace’s money like enormous sponges simple by telling people what’s “in” and whats “out”. The Frontline documentary “Merchants of Cool” chronicles the jobs of cool hunters as they infiltrate target markets and plants seeds of envy and trendiness in order to harvest massive amounts of “cool” and the profits that it yields. In essence the conglomerates create what cool is and make the consumer feel as though they themselves created it, making it more attractive, when in reality they have been manipulated into becoming permanent cash cows to corporate America’s money making machine. Corporate America has created a never-ending cycle of buying and spending based on taking creative subcultures and sucking them dry by making them into pop culture kitsch. Then they take this kiths and beat the masses of the heads with it in the form of sex, fantastical grandeur and of course the proverbial flashing lights, because as Gibson points out pattern recognition is both man’s strength and his weakness. The world Cayce Pollard lives in is an accurate depiction of our future, though many can argue that its an accurate depiction of our present, either way these connections show William Gibson profound incite in to the world of mass culture and where it can take us in the not so distant future. What are your thoughts on the connection of the Pattern Recognition to present society?
-Lowell Bunion
December 4, 2007 at 5:46 pm |
It is not a surprise that our society is being control or even manipulated by Corporate America, they are the ones who set the trends and paths to the public. If we look at this issue from a different perspective, we could ask ourselves why Corporate America is so successful in selling these “kitsch” to the public. One thing came to my mind is economics and wealth and we don’t normally see these kinds of connection in third world country. In our present society, people could afford buying into whatever Corporate America sells. People who live in third world countries such as Indonesia, India would rather focus on staying alive and providing foods to their families. There is no doubt that Gibson’s idea of pattern recognition does indicate that our society is moving toward a path of advertisement and media, but to a certain extend.
~Swee Guan Ang
December 5, 2007 at 1:52 pm |
I think that there are significant parallels between Pattern Recognition and the present world. We are already being bombarded by constant advertisements, commercials, and the like without a doubt affecting every single person. You would have to live under a rock to not be struck by advertising in some way these days. It is everywhere. Not to mention, like you said, we already have cool-hunters, and corporate america is already dictating the trends of the present and future. Very little is left to the individual these days, but more-so is dictated by, if you will, “the man”. I think that the world of pattern recognition has already planted seeds in our present society, and is likely only to grow further.
December 5, 2007 at 1:53 pm |
I think that there are significant parallels between Pattern Recognition and the present world. We are already being bombarded by constant advertisements, commercials, and the like without a doubt affecting every single person. You would have to live under a rock to not be struck by advertising in some way these days. It is everywhere. Not to mention, like you said, we already have cool-hunters, and corporate america is already dictating the trends of the present and future. Very little is left to the individual these days, but more-so is dictated by, if you will, “the man”. I think that the world of pattern recognition has already planted seeds in our present society, and is likely only to grow further.
-Maria Grabis
December 6, 2007 at 10:13 am |
There are definite similarities between the book and our world. I would say that the book depicts the present more so than the future because while reading it I feel that Gibson is describing now, at least in the “cool-hunter” sense. What is interesting about the video posted is that it shows exactly what a “cool hunter” does and that they do really exist; also it really brings out the pattern that is present in fashion and popular culture. The book’s title “Pattern Recognition” works into play with the pattern that makes fashion. And what does Cayce do… she recognizes it and brings it to corporations so they can suck the “cool” out of it. Then she goes and looks for something else to be “cool”. So the pattern is this: underground > found > popular > dead. And then again to underground.
December 6, 2007 at 10:46 am |
I believe patterns in consumer spending can be detected now more than ever and it will only continue to get easier for corporations to recognize what is popular and what isn’t. I think the actual “cool hunters” on our society have an easier time doing their job than Gibson’s Cayce. With the internet being such a large part of our day to day lives, companies can now track what sites we visit, what products we search for, what tastes we like. They can also spot trends in what are the most desired products lately. Also, every time something is purchased, tons of information is being recorded about that purchase that also helps company “cool hunt.” I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing since companies are using this tool to give consumers what they actually want.
Katie Kamps
December 6, 2007 at 8:37 pm |
I totally have to agree with the fact that patterns are getting easier to recognize as time goes on. What Cayce is doing in ‘Pattern Recognition’ is something that right now, I would not be surprised at all if someone was really being hired to do something like this. I mean, come on, CNN hired journalists to follow ‘Second Life’, why wouldn’t a clothing company or one of the conglomerates that owns clothing companies hire someone to look out for more profit to them. Also, trends are not just staying within an age range anymore. The way people dress and specific styles may have started in the late high school age, like 17, 18, a mere 2 to 3 years ago, but now, these styles and statements are starting younger and younger, at 13, 14 years old. The internet is a big part of this with being able to track statistics on comsumer shopping, what websites are visited most often, and what people are actually saying on forums and message boards. It’s almost as if today, ‘Pattern Recognition’ has come to life, only multiplied by hundreds of more variables that may make it seem more filled with opinions, styles and fads, but then again, easier for companies to track these things at the same time.
-Theo Jones
December 6, 2007 at 11:51 pm |
Gibson is brilliant. His ability to predict the future is almost creepy. Through Cayce pollard, Gibson shows us that pattern recognition is both a man’s weakness, and his strength. Pattern recognitions was a very accurate picture of our present world. Our world today is ruled by logos, and brand names. The company Abercrombie and Fitch is a prime example. No matter what this company does, its loyal followers will continue to buy their products. Two years ago their jeans were slightly worn, last year they were completely destroyed, and this year they’re somewhere in between. What’s amazing is that if you observe teenagers outside of the store, you will always find the current styles. Why, if consumers loved destroyed jeans so much last year, are they no longer cool today? It’s not that the destroyed jeans themselves have changed, it’s the fact that Abercrombie has decided that that look was “so last year.” The public is no longer deciding what to wear. Instead, as predicted by Gibson, large corporations are deciding for the public
December 7, 2007 at 1:25 am |
In today’s world there are thousands of cool hunters just like Cayce running around the world, looking for the next big trend. They do surveys, to look for patterns. Companies now track what we are watching, what we are buying, and what we are thinking. So it much easier now to detect every pattern and trend that is happening. But in today’s society things change so fast. For example, back in the 80’2 every body wore converse sneakers and ripped up jeans, and now it 2007 and this is now back in style. Gibson would say that corporations have a big say in what is “cool” and not. I believe he’s right in certain aspect, but I believe is almost impossible to track patterns. Everything changes so fast and new things are becoming popular everyday.
Chris Eckert
December 7, 2007 at 4:17 am |
I agree that everything changes extremely fast. New Trends are coming and going every day. It can be said that Technology continues advancing in a straight line, but if you look at fashion, it seems to go in circles. I remember the middle school years when Bell Bottom jeans came back in style for a what seemed like a month or so. Nowadays musicians are dressing grungy again with the long hair and torn clothing. Back in the 90′s, musicians dressed like that too. Just take a look at kurt cobain. If you look back at Bruce Springsteen back in the late 70′s and early 80′s he also dressed that way. It seems the fashion industry recycles itself. Just a thought
Dan Rodriguez
December 7, 2007 at 9:37 am |
The cool hunting idea doesn’t bother me that much. What does bother me is the new technique of advertising that has agents in the streets using casual conversation to create cool, envy, and a desire. The idea that a conversation with a person could be an ad is very disconcerting. What’s next, a house with irremovable ads on the walls and celling. If you start to think about it, the future looks bleaker than what is presented by Gibson.
December 7, 2007 at 9:46 am |
To me, what Cayce, as well as this entire occupation of “cool hunting” represents is the death of human creativity. Cayce’s job is basically to walk around, finding human beings who have thought of something original for a change to do with their body or their clothing, and to strangle that drop of originality out of the world. The moment something new is discovered and presented to humanity, it is no longer cool. The person who first started wearing his hat backwards suddenly looked around one day and realized that EVERYONE was doing it–and I imagine that this is the day he stopped. Perhaps the people who invent such trends are forced to continually move forward, inventing new ways to stand out and fighting to stay ahead of the rest of humanity. It seems to be their curse that their ingenuity will continue to be ripped from them and manipulated without giving credit to the creator. Cayce…and cool hunting…reminds me of vultures, picking at the remains of a creativel stagnant society…and quite frankly, the entire idea is repulsive to me.
-Bianca Marinkovic
October 12, 2010 at 3:15 am |
Hi,nice blog if I can say so.
I see that you are interested in Pattern recognition so I will give you link where you can find several books about it.
The present books are intended to collect representative researches around the globe focusing on low-level vision, filter design, features and image descriptors, data mining and analysis, and biologically inspired algorithms.
Books are free to download.
This is link: http://www.intechopen.com/search/?q=Books:%20Pattern%20recognition
Greetings!