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 55 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
6.6
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future
Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan
7.2
Waste Tide
Chen Qiufan
8.6 Essential
Parable of the Sower
Octavia E. Butler
7.6
Rainbows End
Vernor Vinge
8.1
Severance
Ling Ma
6.9
Little Brother
Cory Doctorow
8.7 Essential
Neuromancer
William Gibson
New · The Agent Index
The agents are here. We're tracking all 106 of them.
28 general78 vertical50 act on their own23 incidents loggedOpen the index →
The P(n) BoardEvery claim, with evidence
| Contagion 2011 | 100% | 100% | — | 7.8 | |
| Little Brother 2008 | 99% | 100% | 2030 | 6.9 | |
| Humans 2015 | 98% | 100% | 2027 | 6.6 | |
| Neuromancer 1984 | 96% | 100% | 2030 | 8.7 | |
| The Capture 2019 | 96% | 100% | 2029 | 7.6 | |
| Upgrade 2018 | 96% | 100% | 2030 | 6.4 | |
| DART, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test 2022 | 95% | 100% | 2028 | 8.3 | |
| Snow Crash 1992 | 94% | 100% | 2031 | 7.6 |
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