“The future has arrived — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.”
William Gibson. Author of Neuromancer.
Neuromancer was the seminal work of cyberpunk which has influenced decades of dystopian science fiction including The Matrix, Repo Man and Mute.
In 1990 a documentary called Cyberpunk was released that featured extensive interview footage with William Gibson. He expressed the two themes.
(1) The uneven distribution of technological advancements
(2) The presence of the ‘future’ within the present
The documentary is in five parts that can be viewed on YouTube. See also https://youtu.be/UdvxPlhTjDU
Here is an excerpt of some of Gibson’s remarks:
“I think in some very real sense part of the world’s population is already posthuman. Consider the health options available to a millionaire in Beverly Hills as opposed to a man starving in the streets in Bangladesh.
The man in Beverly Hills can, in effect, buy himself a new set of organs. I mean, when you look at that sort of gap, the man in Bangladesh is still human. He’s a human being from an agricultural planet. The man in Beverly Hills is something else. He may still be human, but he, in some way, I think he is also posthuman. The future has already happened.”
I feel what Gibson has hit upon here using a visceral and vivid image, is a metaphor for global inequality. The uneven distribution of everything; from basic needs for shelter, food, water, electricity to access to education, training and employment and of course health care.
The future is here. Smart loos, smart houses. For some. Meanwhile in parts of Madagascar people it’s reported people subsist on leaves and insects against a backdrop of drought and famine.
I can’t help thinking that while I see prototypes for flying cars bouncing into my Google news — the emblem, or trope if you like, of the cyberpunk or dystopian near future genre, rising above dark neon lit streets — I can’t help reflecting on the absurdity and obscenity of the rising the wealth of the powerful, of sea levels and temperatures; with record breaking levels recorded in the USA, the Arctic, across Europe in Siberia and Australia last year.
The great thing about this genre is it warns what can come if people don’t act against those in power. In near future dystopian fiction there is almost always a resistance.
The good news is movements across the world for equality, justice and a just transition out of this mess we’ve made, more accurately the pursuit of profit and growth have made, are rising too and have gone global.
For Gibsons entire hugely influential back catalogue see here https://williamgibsonbooks.com/
A blog post by Anne Enith Cooper
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