If you intend on reading the book Neuromancer, read no further.



Its also worth noting that Wintermute was manipulating the world via assorted hired grunts and what-not. He was the antagonist of the novel, the Neuromancer, depicted as a little boy, was the Abel of the story. The good brother. The book was an issue of concerns about AI technology way back in the early 80's this launched Gibson into the spotlight and unintentionally created the demi-fictional "cyberpunk" culture.
Few people know .. Here is where William Gibson got his inspiration !

Wintermute was the name of a knight in one of the early Crusades. He was severely retarded, but came from a wealthy family who were underwriting that particular Crusade. His knighthood, of course, was hereditary. His family saw this as an opportunity to rid themselves of an embarassment while doing God's Work. They assigned him twenty squires and servants to make sure he presented himself correctly on the journey. During the long march, the other knights and associated personnel became aware that Wintermute was an idiot savant. He could glance at the stars and instantly state their latitude with a remarkable degree of accuracy. The others, awed, assumed he was touched by God -- a sign that proved the worthiness of their endeavor -- and they trusted him to lead the way without reservation.

Unfortunately, Wintermute was unable to assess longitude and so led the group far to the east,. They ultimately arrived at the shores of the Caspian Sea, which they mistook for the Sea of Galillee. Finding no holy sites at all, much less any infidels, the confused crusaders settled there and formed a small community. Every Sunday night, after Mass, they would ceremonially ask Wintermute to tell them their location, which he would do. The colony eventually died out and this tragic story was almost lost to history.

Apparently there are at least two churches of Wintermute. I spent some time looking on the matrix and discovered:
  • The First Church of Wintermute

  • A note found on www.adherents.com/lit/Na_59.html states:
    "He passed her a paper napkin with W I N T E R M U T E
    printed in red feltpen in his neat, laborious capitals."; 
    Pg. 73: "'Wintermute is the recognition code for an AI. 
    I've got the Turing Registry numbers. Artificial 
    intelligence.'" {This is the first appearance of the term 
    'Wintermute', after which the 'First Church of Wintermute' 
    is named.}
    
  • The Second Church of Wintermute

  • This page is at www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/y2k/700/, and says:
         "I'm not Wintermute anymore"
              "So what are you?"
              "I'm the matrix."
    "You running the world now? You God?"
    

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