I just finished William Gibson's novel, Pattern Recognition (Putnam, ISBN = 0399149864). It was fantastic and highly recommended. Gibson not only tells a great story but he also writes really well and he is extraordinarily creative. In fact I believe his creativity regarding visions of the near future provide the systems engineering of human computer interaction for the next generation of computer scientists.
Another novelist who falls in this category is Vernor Vinge, who is a computer scientist. If you have any spare time, try reading his short story "True Names," a classic.
So do you believe that novelists of this caliber can become our systems engineers for shaping the future of human computer interaction? Are there other novelists that fall in this category? ( I know of a few more but would like to hear from you first.)
A key to this discussion is understanding that what you do as professionals is shaping the future and there is fun and excitment to it. There also is a heavy dose of responsibility. Novelists such as Gibson make both clear in their works. Later!
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