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written by RM Reiss , October 31, 2007

re: World's Fairs -- maybe they don't happen any more because the pace of change is too fast to bother organizing one. Which would also explain what has happened to the future; it has collapsed in on us. Jules Verne could project a century ahead, and over decades readers could gradually see various mechanical predictions come true (or not). William Gibson had about a twenty year lead. Now it seems we're pressed against the windshield, and several logical recent predictions are almost non-narrative in form (the singularity? grey goo? radical climate change and the collapse of civilization?). Maybe we've almost had enough future already, and now we'd just like to settle down a bit, ideally in a healthier environment. In Verne's day, many -- or most -- people were eager to consume more technology. I'm not so sure that's true to the same extent, in the West.

It changes how one thinks about the future, if the World's Fair ads for futuristic gizmos aren't beckoning in the same way.