Normally I wouldn’t comment on such things, but this strikes me as the perfect opportunity to bring up several things that are on my mind on a regular.

These are two images depicting extreme technological mediation that I’m hoping to include in the final book on this topic.

After reading a story about a Nevada couple who blamed their computer for their negligence of their children, I felt like this theme had finally reached critical mass in my mind.

I am a slow summertime reader. I also subscribe to the New Yorker (which requires a huge weekly reading investment) and prefer to spend my summer nights riding my bike along the banks of the Delaware River rather than sitting at home reading. I do also travel a fair bit though, and quite often, my travels are lengthened by summertime storms, airline delays, etc. It was under these circumstances that I endured an overnight flight from Philadelphia to Paris, France. I missed my connection to Bristol, England and got stuck …

William Gibson is justifiably renowned as one of the key founders of the now vast realm of cyberpunk. His 1984 novel Neuromancer was a foundation stone for a new style of futuristic fiction; high tech but gritty. The opening line of the novel said it all: “The sky above the port was the colour of television tuned to a dead channel.”