How great is great? Do they have to be nice guys? If not, Hitler, Stalin and Mao are weird to be left off when much less significant world figures like Reagan are included on the right and Mandela on the left.
On the science fiction front; hmmm. Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein are all a bit obvious, and did their best work before 1960. What about J G Ballard?
Greatest general of the 20th century: Erich von Manstein (no contest).
Yes, indeed. Mr. Gibson seems to be going through an optimistic phase again. (He seems, in his two trilogies, to quite closely mirror what the U.S. economy is doing -- down in the early 80s, up in the late 80s, down in the early 90s, up in the late 90s . . .)
Why he should be up now is a bit of a mystery to me; maybe my Marxist logic is a bit vulgar here. . .
Knowledge is power. Meaning, those who have power control, or create, the knowledge. Increasingly, not only can everything be known, but also everything can be faked. And increasingly it can be done by "expert systems", meaning you don't need an entire Ministry of Truth to fake millions of CCTV records if you want to.
It's only beginning, of course, but it doesn't look good for the future of democracy or the rule of law.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2003 | 3 |
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