Cover storyIssue 001
The Voice Was the Easy Part
Spike Jonze's soft-focus romance predicted the product, the marketing and the loneliness, and then wrote an ending that the industry has quietly agreed never to ship.
On screenAll 35 reviews
Promotional still © Universal Pictures / Strike Entertainment. Via TMDB.
EssaysAll essays
Essay · Machines13 min
The Agents, Reviewed
Science fiction promised us a someone. In November 2026 we have twelve very fast interns, a few of them excellent, and none of them should be left alone with the backups.
Essay · Power12 min
Minority Report Was Wrong About the Crime
Spielberg's film thought prediction would be used to catch us. It turned out to be far more profitable to finish us.
Essay · Machines14 min
The Kindest Machine
We were afraid the machines would be cold. The trouble is that they're kinder than we are, and children are learning from them what kindness should cost.
The shelfBooks, scored as art and as prophecy
8.1
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
6.9
Little Brother
Cory Doctorow
8.7 Essential
Neuromancer
William Gibson
8.7 Essential
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
7.6
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
8.6 Essential
Stand on Zanzibar
John Brunner
7.3
Super Sad True Love Story
Gary Shteyngart
5.4
The Circle
Dave Eggers
New · The Agent Index
The agents are here. We're tracking all 63 of them.
18 general45 vertical27 act on their own21 incidents loggedOpen the index →
The P(n) BoardEvery claim, with evidence
| Contagion 2011 | 100% | — | 7.8 | |
| The Truman Show 1998 | 87% | 2060 | 8.8 | |
| Snow Crash 1992 | 82% | 2031 | 7.6 | |
| Stand on Zanzibar 1968 | 80% | — | 8.6 | |
| Her 2013 | 79% | 2045 | 8.8 | |
| Little Brother 2008 | 75% | 2030 | 6.9 | |
| After Yang 2021 | 70% | 2032 | 8.4 | |
| Black Mirror: Be Right Back 2013 | 68% | 2030 | 8.6 |
From the manifesto
The future is not coming. It is being made, right now, by whoever bothers to imagine it.
Read Notes Toward a Better Branch