The End of Neuromancer

The end of Neuromancer answers a few questions, but leaves the reader wondering about many different aspects of the story. Case is able to communicate with Linda Lee again, a girl who is supposed to have passed away. He meets Neuromancer and discovers that this AI complemented Wintermute in that Neuromancer was personality and Wintermute was the decision maker. The author sums up the technology versus human debate in describing how Wintermute was programmed to attempt to achieve freedom and merge with Neuromancer. This demonstrates to the reader that Wintermute never was working upon its own free will, rather was following the innate coding within its programming thereby explaining his analogy of his actions to a that of salmon swimming up stream.

In regard to the relationships in Case's life, we learn which is true and which is simply convenient. Neuromancer, the AI of personality, reveals to Case that his last line of defense was his use of Linda Lee on the beach in an attempt to tempt Case to stay there and live out the rest of his life in a dream. However, Case believed it was not real and therefor walked away from it, despite his strong desire to stay with Linda due to their shared love. Upon completing the task assigned, Molly leaves Case a note with a shurikan and that is the last he ever hears of her. This demonstrates that the relationship between Case and her was due to a need of companionship and lust, nothing more.

Some things are left unknown to the reader throughout the book and after it ends. One such thing is why Wintermute would be programmed to desire to grow, is the combination of Wintermute and Neuromancer desired? Such questions would illuminate the reasoning behind the plot of the novel. Furthermore, it is never explained if Neuromancer's beach scene was real in that Linda Lee was human or a concoction.