We’re living in a cyberpunk dystopia – as predicted by the greatest sci-fi novel of all

why has Silicon Valley defied its warnings?

For the same reason any industrial sector defies warnings - PROFIT. Plus, money has the uncanny side effect of protecting you from the worst consequences of the problems you’ve caused.

Because those ghouls want to build Tessier-Ashpool. They want their palace in the sky where the rules don’t apply to them.

Why? Because they want to be the filthy rich bad guys from cyberpunk stories.

You know what's wild is Gibson said he had only ever seen a computer once 'through a window' when he wrote Neuromancer!

Because it's just a generic sci-fi, an enjoyable yarn but far from prophetic. It's like saying hg wells saw the future of travel to the moon so why are we going back? Turns out science fiction is fiction.

All these subjects get talked about seriously in the academic setting they belong in, often entrainment and popular culture is discussed in relation to academic study so it's not being overlooked but there's an awful lot of stuff to consider and having read a poplar book that makes fantastic leaps of imagination to convey a contemporary political statement doesn't mean you know more than the actual experts, and if you do present it seriously not as 'I read this book and it's like totally true so like you're all dumb for not living by it!'