Maneki Neko

Bruce Sterling's Short Story Maneki Neko is one of his collection "A Good Old-
Fashioned Future." Maneki Neko describes the gift economy of Japan's future and how
networked communications make it. Individuals agree and conform to the instructions given
anonymously through their hand-held gadgets to execute random activities of kindness. One of
the greatest concept presented in the Maneki Neko short story is technology. As one of the
characters say, "I believe that computers help human beings to relate in a much more human
way" (Bruce, 2011).
Typically, I believe that people trust machines more than their fellow human beings.
Since the rise of technological advancements, people have shifted to machine-driven operations.
Technology has made it essay for the people to communicate, move, improve their living
standards and to make the world a global community. After reading the Maneko Neki storyline, I
believe that machines have replaced the human capital in the production field. Computers do not
implement most of the operations done by human beings. In Tsuyoshi's office, there is a desktop
fractal detail generator, the image stabilizer and the interlace algorithms (Bruce, 2011). The
machines are making useful and quality work. That why Tsuyoshi's new digital copies were
cleaner, better composed and sharper when compared to the original primitive videotape. Now,
with the help of technological development, Tsuyoshi could pass his images to the net into big
network databases comprising of armies of search engines, catalogs and indexes.
Tsuyoshi is sending the messages about helping people. Because he is conversant with
technology and knows how technology can help people to connect extensively in the world, he is
proclaiming the message of redemption to the people that can be achieved through networking

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across the globe. Therefore, technology is becoming an essential tool in the current world
(Bruce, 2011).

References

Bruce, S. (2011). Maneki Neko. Spotlight.