William Gibson says the future is right here, right now

Someone complained yesterday in #startups that they wanted to live in the future and that was exactly my response.<p>You could have said that if you were born at any point in time but I think anybody alive right now that happens to be lucky enough to live in the developed world is already living in a time that science fiction writers wouldn't have trouble accepting as 'the future'.<p>Gibson being one of the best in the field is a strong hint that others will likely agree with him.<p>So many things that were 'distant future dreams' when I was a child are everyday reality right now that I feel as though the future is 'happening' at a faster pace than my life is progressing, it is overtaking me at a clip that I worry if I'll be able to keep up with the rate with which new technology is coming out.

" Planet Express: Where tomorrow is today, and today is yesterday...<i>you heard me</i>."

Increasingly, I feel Gibson is the only futurist I can trust.<p>This kind of interview normally tends toward breathless, buzzword-laced bluster. There's none of that here; I can barely even envision Gibson uttering the word "crowdsourced" with a straight face.

He covered some of the same ground in his talk at the Watershed in Bristol last week.<p>A video of which is now available if folks want to watch <a href="http://www.dshed.net/william-gibson" rel="nofollow">http://www.dshed.net/william-gibson</a>

Damn - I missed it. I'm always not paying attention when the cool stuff happens like... the future.<p>Do you think the future might happen again someday? Perhaps we can put it up somewhere on the internet so we know when it's going to happen a bit before time.

If you'd like to read a more substantiated account about the pace of development of modern society I suggest that you rather read this: <a href="http://hanson.gmu.edu/bigthing.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://hanson.gmu.edu/bigthing.pdf</a>

From the article:<p>There was also another reason why setting a story in the present day is more attractive than looking into a future even half a century away. This was because, said Mr Gibson, using that setting would necessitate explaining away present-day problems such as global warming.<p>"If I write something set 60 years in the future I am going to have to explain how humanity got there and that's becoming quite a big job," he said.<p>Ouch.

"The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed." Gibson in 2003.<p>I reread Neuromancer and Count Zero this past summer. Still incredible 25 years later. I kept stumbling across tech cliches then realizing Gibson was the original.

What if it is not the things that are changing so fast, but our ability to reflect and think long-term that has nearly vanished?