Which sci-fi author did the best job of predicting what the 21st century would look like from the comfort of the 20th?
It wasn't Arthur C. Clarke. I still don't have my zero gravity toilet. It wasn't Isaac Asimov. Honda's Asimo is no Robbie. Allen Steele? No beamjacks in my world. Ray Bradbury? Larry Niven? Steven Barnes? Jerry Pournelle?
Wrong, wrong, and (sorry Jerry) wrong again. (But there are many centuries to go before your visions come up, so keep writing.)
It's William Gibson (right).
We live today in Gibson's Neuromancer. Cyberspace is everywhere, but so too are viruses. IBM notes they're appearing everywhere -- in our phones, in our cars -- and the people behind them are increasingly of very evil intent.
How did we get here? It wasn't inevitable.
A lot of our current problems have to do with the desire for absolutes. Our governments -- all our governments -- demand a degree of absolute control that the popular will naturally rebels against.
This makes most of us allies, in some way, of the forces of darkness. The absolutism of copyright makes us allies of true copyright piracy. The absolutism of despots makes us allies of spies. Just as the absolutism of our drug laws makes us all allies of drug dealers.
Governments are not entirely to blame here. The hypocrisy lies in ourselves. We desire what we know we shouldn't have. So we stand against it in public while craving it, and paying for it, in private.
For government to be transparent, people must be. It's the opacity of the human heart that Gibson reveals in his work.
He may be the greatest genius of our time, and I understand he's working on stories about bio-engineering now.
I can't wait.
But I'm scared, too, y'know?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Dave H. on February 14, 2005 11:13 AM writes...
If you'd really like to get frightened by the future, read Robert A. Heinlein's novel "Friday" ... I can certainly see that future on the horizon, and it's ain't a very pretty one, either.
Be well,
Permalink to CommentDave H.
2. Jesse Kopelman on February 14, 2005 04:43 PM writes...
While you are not wrong about Gibson (who is also a better writter than the others you mentioned, although maybe not as good a storyteller), you shouldn't overlook Masamune Shirow. His world of Ghost in the Shell is rapidly coming to fruition. Also, Dave H is right about Heinlein. Not only does Friday still look plausible, but so does Starship Troopers (although maybe more so the film interpretation). For that matter, don't forget Ed Neumeier who wrote both Robocop and the film version of Starship Troopers.
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