neuromancer william gibson

In Neuromancer, Wintermute states that “Minds aren’t read. See you’ve still got the paradigms print gave you, and you’re barely print-literate” (170). Similarly, Stephenson suggests that our brains run “computer” programs (that are based on the language[s] we speak), but we don’t really read or write computer programs the same way that we do books. All three novels suggest that books are pretty much a thing of the past (albeit for different reasons). In our present age of the Web where everything is [potentially] connected to everything else, what could Wintermute’s statement mean? Might being print-literate give us an advantage in a world that seems to be becoming less reliant on physical books? Make specific reference to at least two texts in your answer.