My earliest recollection of the concept of a single point where history and culture reached a significant point of change is an article I read that mentioned the Chicago World's fair as such a point. This I recalled when I read Gibson's mention of this phenomenon years ago. I don't think that a single event creates this effect, but different events that impact society collude to make this sort of perspective appear. My strongest recollection of such a realization comes from Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" when he belts out "Here we are now, entertain us...". I see this as the culmination of the effect of technology on the individual, the loss of the importance of the struggle for survival in the physical world for youth. It is my opinion that the Oklahoma City bombing had more effect than 9-11. As a society, I think many were waiting for a 9-11. These are only aftershocks. Male youth in particular in the developed nations are currently facing a major crisis that is greatly under reported. Many see capitalistic competition as a replacement for the struggle for survival, but this type of competition is not effective and fails as a substitute. The reality TV shows, in the way they play out in the “Survival” series makes me want to label the current generation as “The Survival Generation”, to describe the current form that social competition is creating in a social, political, economic world where real survival becomes ever more disconnected from reality. Success in physical and ideological achievement is being overshadowed by the illusion of achievement, all enforced ever more by the groups interpretation of how things have worked out as opposed to consideration of true physical accomplishment. It is now less important to physically accomplish something, due to the disconnect from a physical struggle for survival, than is it to deliver the illusion of accomplishment, and the system fails to properly reward those making the greatest accomplishments. The political struggle now becomes more important than the struggle for actual achievement. A historical reference would be the short lived period of the Golden Age of the Greeks, or Athens in particular. The life story of Tesla is a more modern, classic example, where the reward for great accomplishment is not given to those who deserve the reward. The question becomes, how do we get past this cycle again. The current clash of the Muslim world and the Western world seems to be the form in which this current type of crisis, from the rapid advancement of technology, is leading us, as perhaps WW I and WW II did almost a century earlier, and the environmental movement is yet another factor.

The key points of this article are remarkable, once organized slightly, and given that they purport to describe, as he contends his prior science fiction always did, the "now":

(1) RAPID CHANGE AND INSTABILITY/UNPREDICTABILITY. William Gibson "basically agree[s] [...] that our present has become so unutterably brief and ever-changing that we have no ground upon which we can stand and project a future [...]. The short form of that is, none of us know what the hell is going to happen next.

(2) THE "NOW" IS DESCRIBED AS "confusion and anxiety [...] ethereal, uncertain now."

(3) IN SUM, WE'RE KIND OF HELPLESSLY BUFFETED ABOUT, UNABLE TO EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT'S HITTING US, PARTICULARLY SINCE WE LIVE "five years in the past" except for moments like 9-11 and the like, but 9-11, as echoed by so much propaganda "changed everything." It seems Gibson largely would concur with that exaggerated sentiment. But the fact is that the only things that change, whether they be large or small, are those that human beings ACT to change. Not everybody is ignorant of the change or its implications, but the Salon audience is PRESUMED to be so ignorant.

(4) JUST IN CASE THIS LEARNED HELPLESSNESS DOESN'T DEBILITATE YOU TO ENGAGING IN DISCUSSION OR DEBATE ABOUT THE PROPRIETY OF CHANGE IN THE WAY YOU LIVE BY THOSE WHO DON'T CONSULT YOU, Gibson makes sure that even anti-democratic change is something we should embrace, even though "scary": "I've always felt a serious obligation to be absolutely agnostic about emergent technologies. I think a case can be made for technology being morally neutral. I think what scares people most about new technologies -- it's actually what scares me most -- is that they're never legislated into being.

(5) BOTTOM LINE MESSAGE: SO, EXPECT GREAT SURPRISE, DON'T EXPECT IT'S PROPER TO EVEN BE ABLE TO ASSESS IT OR PREDICT IT, MUCH LESS CHANGE OR SHAPE IT.

All of this would be suitably inspirational for those in positions of power who can play a role in change, technological or otherwise, but what of us plebians who fought and died by the thousands for the right to partipate via the vote? We know Gibson's moral commitment is not to those people, it's to accepting change without analysis, only observation.

But significantly, in his historical precedent cited for this disorienting perspective, Gibson simply misstates the facts, by suggesting in 1981 no one thought of a fatal sexual virus, or that climate change would threaten the world. Complete poppycock.

First, only in a brief period of human history have STDs NOT been widely fatal, the period after antibiotics and before AIDs. Second, I fancied myself an environmentalist for years prior to 1981, and climate change and destruction of the natural world most certainly WERE expected and talked about. So the new things to hit us from left field must REALLY be enormously harmful, but thanks to Gibson, we'll all accept it with the resignation suitable for true tragedies caused by the gods.

Notes for Follow-up interview: Are Gibson's gods techno-corporations? Does he think democracy has failed? Is the Constitution anachronistic? Why vote? Gibson is bringing us a dystopic future, do we have the right to know what that is?? Oops. He answered that question, not even a science fiction writer can tell us that. But if all rules, and complaining about it, seem to be passe or inapplicable, perhaps we can change the rules and ban Gibson from writing or speaking garbage like this?