Science fiction novelist William Gibson has been exploring the relationship between technology and society ever since he burst on to the literary scene with his cyberpunk classic Neuromancer in 1984. He invented the word ‘cyberspace’ and his influential works predicted many of the changes technology has brought about. silicon.com’s Steve Ranger caught up with him in the run up to the launch of his latest novel, Spook Country.
silicon.com: You’ve written much about the way people react to technology. What’s your own attitude towards technology?
Gibson: I’m not an early adopter at all. I’m always quite behind the curve but I think that’s actually necessary – by not taking that role as a consumer I can be a little more dispassionate about it.
Most societal change now is technologically driven, so there’s no way to look at where the human universe is going without looking at the effect of emergent technology. There’s not really anything else driving change in the world, I believe.