“The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed.”

— William Gibson

He is reported to have first said this in an interview on Fresh Air, NPR (31 August 1993) { unverified http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1107153}, he repeated it, prefacing it with "As I've said many times…" in "The Science in Science Fiction" on Talk of the Nation, NPR (30 November 1999, Timecode 11:55) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1067220. See also The future has arrived... - Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/01/24/future-has-arrived/.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Aug. 13, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed." by William Gibson?

William Gibson photo

William Gibson 117

American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder … 1948

Related quotes

“But where knowledge of trickery is evenly distributed, honesty not infrequently prevails.”

Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961) American writer

"Nightmare Town" (Argosy All-Story Weekly, December 27, 1924)
Short Stories

“The kindness lavished on dogs, if evenly distributed, would establish peace on earth.”

William Feather (1889–1981) Publisher, Author

Featherisms (2008)

“If values are fairly evenly distributed around an average, then roughly two-thirds of all outcomes will be one standard deviation other side of the average.”

Steve Keen (1953) Australian economist

Source: Debunking Economics - The Naked Emperor Of The Social Sciences (2001), Chapter 10, The Price Is Not Right, p. 235

“A distribution is just if it arises from another just distribution by legitimate means.”

Robert Nozick (1938–2002) American political philosopher

Source: (1974), Ch. 7 : Distributive Justice, Section I, The Entitlement Theory, p. 151

“Critics disagree about almost every quality of a writer’s work; and when some agree about a quality, they disagree about whether it is to be praised or blamed, nurtured or rooted out. After enough criticism the writer is covered with lipstick and bruises, and the two are surprisingly evenly distributed.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

“Poets, Critics, and Readers”, p. 99
No Other Book: Selected Essays (1999)

“The future for me is already a thing of the past.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Love and Theft (2001), Bye and Bye
Source: Bob Dylan - Love and Theft: Piano/Vocal/Guitar

“If exclusive privileges were not granted, and if the financial system would not tend to concentrate wealth, there would be few great fortunes and no quick wealth. When the means of growing rich is divided between a greater number of citizens, wealth will also be more evenly distributed; extreme poverty and extreme wealth would be also rare.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

Article on Wealth
L'Encyclopédie (1751-1766)

“If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that.”

Michelle Obama (1964) lawyer, writer, wife of Barack Obama and former First Lady of the United States

Campaign rally, Madison, Wisconsin (18 February 2008) http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/764fosie.asp
2000s

“I have a very bad relationship with the future. We don't get on. We just ignore each other.”

Pete Doherty (1979) English musician, writer, actor, poet and artist

Definitions and objects

“Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around us who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future, and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment

Related topics