New Worlds

Don’t let the absence of a flying car in your garage distract you: we are definitely now living in a version of the future out of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson.

Every day I notice a news story that startles or alarms me, that feels like pure cyberpunk, nestled between reports about council bin collections and cabinet reshuffles.

“The first ever IV Drip clinic to appear in the centre of a shopping mall, our Westfield clinic is a must-stop shop when doing a bit of retail therapy. From Vitamin Drips to Instant Vitamin D Testing, Get A Drip Westfield has it all. Book your appointment today!”

Publicity for Get A Drip Limited

This made me think of Michael Moorcock’s habit of opening stories or chapters with startling newspaper clippings that revealed the future apocalypse already underway in the present, or Ballard’s typographic collages. So I began snipping.

“A video has been shared on social media with claims it shows a robotic dog patrolling the grounds of a ‘migrant hotel’. But this is false – while the footage does appear to show a robotic dog, it was filmed in the grounds of a building housing a religious group in Crewe.”

Full Fact, 4 November 2025

It’s not quite Blade Runner but it might be Robot Jox or Bubblegum Crisis.

“Soul ‘musician’ Sienna Rose has made headlines this week as suspicions mount that her music is a product of artificial intelligence… On Spotify, her sound is described as a blend of the ‘elegance of classic soul with vulnerability of modern R&B’, while she is simply referred to as ‘an anonymous neo-soul singer’. Many fans have taken note of the reference to her anonymity, which makes her 2.6million monthly listeners all the more staggering.”

NME, 17 January 2026

In the middle of a video about stationery and everyday tech on YouTube the other day there was a passing shot of two robots kickboxing in a cage; another robot was taking coffee orders at a kiosk. This was (blandly) “cool to see”.

“British police have helped seize a record nine-tonne haul of cocaine from a ‘narco sub’ in the Atlantic Ocean… The mammoth seizure weighed nearly as much as a school bus and the sub was 230 nautical miles from the Azores when it was intercepted… The semi-submersible eventually sank before authorities could take all its cargo, sending 35 of the 300 packages to the bottom of the Atlantic.”

Sky News, 27 January 2026

What the visionaries got wrong, it turns out, was what would go digital. Did anybody bet on cigarettes? Or scooters? Or that neon would be replaced by LEDs?

“A humanoid robot named Edward Warchocki chased away a herd of wild boars in Warsaw, shouting ‘Go away!’ in Polish as the animals fled into the forest, in video footage released on Sunday…”

Reuters, 14 April 2026

My personal moment of future shock came when a delivery robot trundled past me on Gloucester Road in Bristol, weaving between Saturday afternoon drunks and stoners, some of whom chased it and blocked its way.

“Four child-sized humanoid robots take the stage at an arena in eastern Seoul, and as the opening beats of a song by K-pop star G-Dragon begin, they start to dance… Arms swinging, legs stepping in sync, heads bobbing, wigs and baggy clothes swishing, until – mid-performance – one of them seemingly malfunctions and has to be removed from the stage… Welcome to Galaxy Robot Park, a new 16,500 square metre facility in Gangdong district that its creators claim is the world’s first robot theme park.”

The Guardian, 25 May 2026

More often, the shock is that there is no shock. My mum uses the voice-activated computer in her house to remind herself to take the sprouts off the boil.

“[Shania] Collins had enjoyed modest success as a sprinter, with contracts from Puma and Adidas. But by 2024, with her career stalled and earnings shrunk, she retired at 29 to begin a long screening process to follow her parents into working for the [Drug Enforcement Agency]… Then organizers of the Enhanced Games, a controversial sports startup, got in touch last fall with an offer. The organizers were planning a one-day competition of sprinting, swimming and weightlifting in Las Vegas that would not only allow but encourage doping. And it paid the kind of money that might take some athletes years to make — six-figure salaries, on top of prize money of up to $250,000 for event winners and $1 million for a world record.”

NBC News, 26 May 2026

All of this technological advancement, apparently utterly mundane and running in the backgrounds of our lives, is accompanied by a sense of apocalyptic weirdness both in the climate and the culture.

“Meta has quietly embedded face-recognition technology for its smart glasses into an app downloaded to millions of phones… Code discreetly added to Meta’s AI app over multiple updates this year shows that the feature, internally called ‘NameTag’, identifies people captured by the glasses’ camera and, when activated, alerts the wearer when it recognizes someone.”

Wired, 4 June 2026

Blade Runner had its acid rain. We have wildfires taking out suburban housing estates in the English Midlands and heat buckling railway tracks.

“Two arrests have been made during a police operation using drone technology to target anti-social driving… Dorset Police said its operation on 29 May was in direct response to concerns raised by people living in Sandbanks, Poole… A police drone was deployed over the area to give a higher vantage point to spot any offences of poor driving, allowing officers to then intercept motorists on the ground, said Dorset Police.”

BBC, 6 June 2026

My brother, a data scientist, told me yesterday that it is now possible to prompt a large language model (LLM) to produce a three-dimensional digital model which you can then realise with a 3D printer. It’s not quite “Tea, Earl Grey, hot,” but it’s alarmingly close.

“While spending money on video games is not uncommon, EVE Online stands out because players’ assets can be permanently destroyed; their real-world cash outlay gone in seconds… The game’s financial system is so complex that in 2025, a former economist from the Central Bank of Iceland was hired to oversee it… Playing EVE Online can take hundreds of hours. Some see it as a second job, dedicating up to 35 hours per week to their virtual duties on top of their real-world nine-to-fives.”

BBC, 6 June 2026

At work, people send AI bots to attend meetings for them and it’s no more than an annoyance – a question of etiquette. If you’d told me this was possible when I was reading Neuromancer as a teenager in a concrete council house I’d have been awestruck.

“Stranger Than Heaven is an action-adventure game that spans fifty years… On Friday evening… Snoop Dogg took to the stage of Summer Game Fest to confirm Tupac’s involvement in Stranger Than Heaven as Amaru, which was the late rapper’s middle name. ‘The Tupac estate and my son and myself, we work very closely together,’ Snoop explained. ‘So it just made sense to put him in this game, because his likeness and his spirit still lives on. I just felt like it was so connected to what we’re doing.’

NME, 8 June 2026

Another moment of future shock was when a former colleague posted on LinkedIn about his first ride in a self-driving taxi in San Francisco. It was a novelty, sure, but mostly just a fun story he could use to liven up his feed. Most people didn’t comment, they just gave it a weak “thumbs up”.

“During mealtimes, Vincent Zhang, a tech worker in Shanghai, has a habit of whipping out his phone to check on his ‘virtual parents’: a middle-aged couple online, armed with an endless stream of warm words for their imaginary child… In one of their most popular videos, the pair coos to the camera. ‘Are you tired from work and study lately? Don’t push yourself too hard. Mum and Dad know that you have endured a lot.’ … In the comments, many call the couple mum and dad, telling them about their lives and asking for birthday blessings.”

BBC, 13 June 2026

There are AI-generated posters in my local pub. My local supermarkets have signs warning shoppers that they’re using facial-recognition technology. It doesn’t feel like science fiction because everything surrounding it is so ordinary: facial recognition scanners; two for one on Doritos; images conjured from a prompt; pool, 50p a game, and roast potatoes on the bar on Sunday afternoon.

“AI-generated photos and videos featuring Russian soldiers have gained popularity on social media since mid-2025. They are most often posted by relatives of Russian servicemen fighting in Ukraine… The quality varies. In some videos, the AI generates figures without limbs or produces grotesquely distorted faces.”

BBC, 14 June 2026

How do you write science fiction in this context? Anything you come up with will seem farfetched, until it actually happens three weeks later and nobody bats an eyelid.

“US President Donald Trump celebrated his 80th and America’s 250th birthday with an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event on the White House lawn… Trump and thousands of other mixed martial arts fans watched on as American fighter Justin Gaethje beat Spanish-Georgian opponent Ilia Topuria to win the lightweight championship in the main event.”

BBC, 14 June 2026

When Moorcock and Ballard repurposed contemporary newspaper clippings they were saying, stop, look – can you believe this shit? But does stopping and looking actually help?

“The alt-pop US musician and internet personality Oliver Tree was among six people who died when the helicopter he was travelling in collided with another in Brazil… The 32-year-old had been on a world tour when the crash occurred over Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. One of the helicopters then fell onto the car park of a dealership, setting around 20 vehicles ablaze… With his distinctive bowl haircut, he was known for hits including Life Goes On, Miss You and Alien Boy.”

BBC, 15 June 2026

The human ability to resist stopping, to look away, to adjust to a new reality, absorb changes, and move on, is extremely useful.

“Banks say that criminals are engaging in more sophisticated fraud at greater volume with the use of artificial intelligence (AI)… Criminals have used AI to mimic the voices of celebrities, and even those of the victims’ family and friends, which has enabled them to carry out the crime at a greater scale.”

BBC, 15 June 2026

I’ve often wondered how long it would take me to adapt if I suddenly found myself fifty or a hundred years in the future. I suspect the answer is about 48 hours.

“The Trump administration on Tuesday announced a ban on new foreign-made humanoid robot imports to the US over ‘unacceptable risks’ to America’s national security… The move applies to advanced robots – including humanoid and four-legged machines. Many of them are made in China, which is competing with the US to develop robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).”

BBC, 29 July 2026

Because everyone around you would be totally unfussed by whatever unimaginable technological advances were occurring around them: “That? Huh. I suppose it is a bit odd, now you mention it. Do you want another HobNob?”