Who is Josef Virek from Count Zero and what is their importance? Count_Zero English & Literature Josef Virek | Count Zero

Josef Virek is an immensely wealthy individual, one of the few individual centers of wealth in a world run by corporations. Virek's body lives in a vast amalgam of vats near Stockholm, kept alive by machines while it dies of cancer. Virek's mind, however, lives in a virtual representation of Barcelona in cyberspace. He is horrified by his body's circumstances and he longs to be free to live in cyberspace and in real bodies. When Virek learns of the artificial intelligences in cyberspace, he believes that he can use them to transform himself into an AI and inhabit other bodies from cyberspace, as the voodoo gods are channeled by horses like Jackie. Virek hires Marly to find the AI, which he knows is the artist who created the boxes. Though Marly leads Virek to the AI's location, Bobby kills Virek before his plan can be implemented.