“The future is
already here —
it’s just not
evenly distributed.”
William Gibson

William Ford Gibson is a 77-year-old speculative fiction writer from South Carolina. His writings suggest that while technological and societal advancements exist in some places today, they have yet to be widely adopted. When people today speak about the future already being here, it seems that they are referring to the fact that many of the things that will constitute the normal, everyday lives of those who live in the future already exist for some of us today. I’ve witnessed this with my own eyes.

In recent walks through San Francisco, I couldn’t help but notice the increasing number of driverless cars cruising up and down the streets of The City. The photo above was taken on Monday, July14th on Columbus Avenue in the North Beach section of San Francisco. Driverless cars! How is this possible?

It’s pretty amazing to reflect on all the everyday realities in life today that people didn’t have when I graduated from high school in 1972: digital clocks; solar calculators; personal computers; the Internet; electric cars; microwave ovens; cell phones; digital photography; unleaded gasoline; social media, robotic vacuums, laser eye surgery; Powerpoint presentations; global positioning systems; facial recognition devices; and, of course, driverless cars. This list merely scratches the surface of the technology available to us in 2025.

It’s interesting that in 1995, the English theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, predicted that 2025 would be a tipping-point for technological advancements, particularly in space exploration, robotics, and artificial intelligence. It’s this last innovation which scares me most. Apparently, it scared Hawking, as well. He predicted that the advent of artificial intelligence would be “the worst event in the history of our civilization.” 

Hawkings, however, found a way to remain positive, reminding us that regardless of the challenges that confront society, there is always hope. We just need to continue to be curious and determined. It helps, also, to consider hope to be an acronym: Have Only Positive Expectations.

American science fiction writer Ursula LeGuin offers this pearl of wisdom to help us cope with what is to come in the future. She said, “The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.” This may sound ominous, but it’s true.

For now, watch out for those Waymo driverless cars in The City!