uturistic writer Bruce Sterling has just completed his 14th novel, entitled Tomorrow, Now, which is due out from Random House in the next few months. Recently, at a high-tech conference in Austin, Texas, Sterling took some time out to share his futuristic views and what we can expect in the coming century.
In his eyes it'll be nothing short of a "meat market," where "the relationship between human flesh and time will come together." In addition, he says genetics--or rather the manipulation of genetics--as well as intensified product design and new world disorder will be the ongoing themes in the 21st century. So will the continued development of highly personalized computer gadgets such as the Frog and the Palm. As an example, Sterling points to a small, slender, finger-shaped tape recorder as he talks, explaining it as the new digital tape recorder, which is "tiny, tactile and finger-friendly," a more '90s tech design, compared to the tape recorders of the past, which are "square, black and businesslike" and designed in the '70s.
The future that you see in your book, if you could describe it in a paragraph, like somebody describing the movie Blade Runner--just how would you explain it?
Sterling: (laughs) How the hell do you do that?! ... "It's this futuristic marvel about
this guy who kills androids." That doesn't say anything about Blade Runner. Blade Runner is all about what happened to the parking meters (laughs). Well, okay, if you have to summarize Tomorrow, Now in one word, it's all about what it feels like to live the 21st century, what it feels like to physically live the 21st century. It's very meat-centered. It's all about how things are touched and felt. It's very visceral. It's all about human flesh, instead of cyber-centric. It's a different way to think about the future, really. It's a long meditation on physically living through the coming years. But it starts with infants and ends with death.
And the three themes that you mention--genetics, product design and new world disorder--which one of those will have the most impact?
Sterling: Well, that depends on where you are. If you're in Chechnya, it's
all about New World Disorder. If you're in a hospital ward, it's all about genetics. You know, they'll all have some effect on you; it just depends on how close your feet are to the fire.
Let's look at genetics.
Sterling: Well, there's a question whether anybody makes any money there but lawyers. I
really see genetics as interesting, because well, it's not like a nice place to be. Genetics is going to be a really combative place to be. It's shaping up a lot like the abortion struggle. Like the Supreme Court says, women can control their bodies, and then there's 30 years of street warfare. And I think that's what's going to happen. You're going to see things like the Supreme Court saying, "All right, well, genetically altered corn is safe." And then you're going to see 40 years of just massive grass-roots-level embittered social struggle over people putting genetically altered food in
the mouths of their children. I mean, Monsanto went broke over that.
This is a new frontier. If you make something that is genetic and it doesn't work, we're talking medical lawsuits of product liability of thalidomide scenarios. You need to think of this: Genetics=Thalidomide, because
genetics is a "baby." It's like "commercializing DNA" reads politically as "commercializing my baby." Engineering DNA reads politically as "engineering my baby." ... Every one of these things has a political trap door built into it that's huge. But people won't be able to stay away from it just 'cause the levels of power there and the potential for industrial productivity is just huge. We can't anymore stay away from that than guys in the '40s could stay away from nuclear fission.
What about product design?
Sterling: I'm spending a lot of time with product design people now. I consider industrial design people to be sort of the "uncrowned kings" at the moment. These are the people who are actually stepping into the power vacuum that's been left by the collapse of politics and the military. They're important in the way that soldiers were important in the 1940s. People aren't looking at them, but actually the industrial designers are closer to pop stardom than they have been in a long time. It used to be back in the '30s, you could be somebody like Norman Bel Gettys and you really were kind of a rock star figure.
Who is an industrial design person that you see as having broken through to the other side?
Sterling: Tucker Viemeister, who works for Razorfish. He's named after the Tucker of
the automobile, of all things. That Frog design guy, Helmut--whatever his name is--he's pretty hot and sexy. The people who designed the Handspring Visor, you know, that married couple who sort of did the operating system for the Palm. They're basically the gizmo king and gizmo queen. They've, like,
slipped into more peoples' pockets than dog tags. It's just amazing.
Out of curiosity, did you get your degree in history?
Sterling: No, I am a journalist. I'm a novelist. I am an artist whose theme is the
impact of technology on society. I'm a big fan of the digital revolution. I actually think its been extremely benign, compared to things like nuclear power, even air travel, mass electrification and railroads; I mean, this is one of the big ones. It's way up there, but compared to the other ones, it's really "sweet-tempered" and nice. These are basically civilized people out here. I mean, nobody's jumping up there and saying, "I've got a computer; its time for the final solution!" This is a completely different and much kindlier society. It's really better. They are more civilized. It's progress.
In addition to your book, what else have you been working on?
Sterling: Well, the most recent thing I did was the Jan. 2001, 2026 issue of Time
Digital. I edited that. I write for magazines a lot, but I never edited one. Hanging out with the graphics guys was good. It was fun to be sort of on the other side of that divide for a while. My version of 2026 is really sleazy.
People always talk about the future in a very chrome-dome minimalist way. They never think of it as a place that has sex scandals. My 2026 has this rockin' political sex scandal going on which is driving people up the wall. It's, like, Monicagate to factor of 10. I actually think that sex scandals, especially political sex scandals, are a sign of tremendous social health. If you're spending all your time worrying about people [having sex], you must be a really happy bunch of people.
Under normal political circumstance, like Jews being thrown into death camps, nobody talked about, you know, the Eva Braun sex scandal. You really have to have a lot of free time on your hands. So, I was trying to do this--it's very cheerful, it's very upbeat. The atmosphere of the year 2026 as I'm projecting it in this particular scenario is, uh, manic. People are really thrilled at what's going on. There's a lot of vitality. It's very pop, very '60s. It's very Mylar. Everything is brightly colored; it's not punk or grim or chrome and matte black. ... It's colorful and glamorous. It's very bangles, baubles and beadsy.
How did you become aware of that view, you know, colorful, with bangles and baubles?
Sterling: Well, I think it's actually very plausible. If you look at the large social
trends of the past 15 or 25 years, you can see that, in point of fact, this is a remarkably physically self-indulgent little era. The devices that surround us. You can just compare these two things. You've got, like, this working journalist tape recorder in your hand there [compares mine with
his]. Check this baby. This is a new digital tape recorder. But see that yours is square, black and businesslike, and mine is, like, tiny, tactile and finger-friendly? Well this is '70s-tech design here. And this is '90s-tech design. What do these say about the changes over the past 20 years? [Motions to his device.]
Like, this thing is turning into a sort of a sweet little blob. It's all about gratifying my fingertips. See how my fingertip goes around to the microphone here to the record button? You can't do that [taps my device again]. This thing doesn't know anything about your fingers. This thing is all about itself.
You can spot trends like this, and I actually think this is a likelier scenario, I mean, it's just the way that the 21st century is coming out different from the 20th. In the 20th [century] design icon are things like, you know, a Nazi assault tank, those are really sexy. If you look at the
History Channel, it's mostly the "Hitler channel," because Hitler had the best set design, like the Nuremberg rallies, these sort of giant rays, like these cathedrals of light, the SS uniforms are considered really sexy. They're part of sexual fetishism and so forth. It was an ethic that was
dominated by military confrontation. That was what people were devoting their engineering energies to. And nowadays we're devoting engineering energy to Handspring Visors and "blackberries." Things that you carry in your hands, things that you apply to your ears, things that you stick to your mouth.
And what do you see in the next two to three years?
Sterling: Well, it depends on whether the economy hangs out or not. It depends on
whether we get kind of a retrenching-style business-like Republican administration or whether we've got this digital Hooverville. We've never seen the new economy with a really serious crash. There are a lot of people who think the whole thing could become a cropper.
And what do you think?
Sterling: There's no tellin'. I'd say it's about, you know, the way the economy usually
is, you know. I think the scenario is 70% muddle along, 15% do really great, 15% hit the skids big time. And those are all very lively scenarios, they could happen at any moment. There's no predicting it. It's like having a guy hitting on you at a bar. He's probably okay; he might be an axe butcher or
maybe he's a prince, you know, and there's no tellin' from the look in his eyes.
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