I’ve previously mentioned William Gibson’s latest novel, Pattern Recognition, as a book I look forward to reading. Which is still an event that will occur in the future. But I do want to bring your attention to the latest Excessive Candour column by John Clute in Sci-Fi Weekly, titled The Case of the World.
Clute, an accomplished writer about science fiction, doesn’t just review the novel–he does give it high marks as a worthy read–but stakes a claim that Gibson’s novel is “SF for the new century.” Fiction acknowledging that change is so deeply embedded in our world that a writer can no longer posit a future based on an evolution from the present, as was possible until the last ten or 20 years. My take on this is that we must really be getting close to The Singularity as described by another great SF writer, Vernor Vinge, if life is becoming so unpredictable that the future is so opaque. Great essay!
BillSaysThis 