Gibson and Trends
Nice interview with William Gibson On Point. Self describes as a recognizer of trends, not a prescient visionary. Close observation of the interplay between society and technology (truly great sci fi uses technology and fantastic situations to explore the human experience) followed by some judicious extrapolation with rigorous testing of internal consistency. The best science fiction is trend analyzing at its very best… which bears much in common with grand strategy.
A paraphrase of Gibson’s final statement: Part of my function is to push people’s cognitive dissonance button.
Good exercise. On a related note, I enjoyed Cory Doctorow’s Overclocked collection of short stories over the weekend. Some excellent material in there that will probably crop up in a post soon.
