speculative fiction that attempts to feel out how something that fits the exact use of the modern internet might work (I remember reading a Stanislaw Lem book that went on & on about the internet but made out of cassette tapes) because they were written half a century ago or books that get starried-eyed about what the internet might turn out to be used for (wHaT iF yOu HaVe To BuY aIr OnLiNe. Id even r what book this was) to be incredibly tedious.

It's gotten to the point that when looking for books to read, if a book is scifi & written before y2k I just straight up skip it. I have no tolerance anymore for people from the 60's speculating on what the internet might be. Anyone else get this?

  • alcoholicorn [comrade/them, doe/deer]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I dunno… I like old Sci Fi in the same way raygun gothic is kind of charming. It’s kinda like peeking into an impossible future that never was.

    Same, especially when you can see little bits of that future people were certain was going to happen, like an integral part of Snowcrash and others is an internet where the only way to access content is via a Second-Life style video game, and there's Second Life, webVR, and any of the like dozen other attempts to make the internet resemble a physical space full of people.