Broadcast on NPR’s Talk of the Nation on 30 November 1999, this phone-in programme brought together William Gibson, author of Neuromancer, and David Brin, an astronomer and novelist, to discuss how science informs science fiction and whether the genre anticipates the future. Anne Simon, a biologist who advised the television series The X-Files, is also takes part.

The discussion considered how far writers draw on real research, the uneven spread of new technology, and ideas about the future of humanity that one listener at the time described as transhumanist. Gibson said he spent much of his media time trying to disown his reputation for prescience.

The programme is widely cited as the recorded source of Gibson’s remark that “the future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed”, which he introduced as something he had said many times. The phrase has since been widely repeated in writing on technology, business and public policy.