Science fiction as a lens into the internet economy
Shockwave Rider, Brunner, John, Ballantine Books
Long before William Gibson launched the genre of “cyber-punk”, Brunner was writing about the impact of information technology and accelerating change on society. This is Brunner’s effort to understand what Toffler’s Future Shock might feel like in human terms. To me, it’s one of the more effective examples of why someone once described science-fiction writers as the “advance planning department for the human race.” And it’s a hell of a good story, besides.
I remember reading this is high school and thinking it was unlike most of the SF pulp I had read up to that time: I liked it. Coincidentally, I have read almost no SF since those days. I may need to see if the library has this . . . .