In his 2003 novel Pattern Recognition, William Gibson reflects on the predictive nature of science fiction by commenting on our moment in history. He argues that speculations about the future are lost to us. Unlike our parents and grandparents, who had specific visions of what the future might bring, we in the 21st century have no future, due to the nature of our present: „For us things can change so abruptly, so violently, so profoundly, that futures […] have insufficient ‘now’ to stand on“ (p. 59).