11 years ago I took a photography course at high school. I had to learn how to load spools of film, manual exposure, developing of film, transfer to photgraphic paper, etc.

Now you can take a picture with your mobile phone and instantly SMS it to anybody in the world. Boring.

Having been a computer nerd back in the 80's, I can't help sometimes being amazed by modern computer technology. My mobile packs more punch than a geek wet dream back then...

On the other hand I feel a bit letdown by the space programme, I really thought there would have been more progress made in term of human exploration and steps towards orbital colonies (a la Neuromancer).

I've no idea what Neuromancer is [/highcourtjudge] but you raise an issue right there. The 1950s saw a rise in the popularity and ubiquity of science fiction, meaning we've had a steady supply of wild speculation about the future since then. The reality can only disappoint.

I often think cultural change seems to have slowed, though, over the last 25 years or so. Students today are barely distinguishable from students when I was a student, for example, apart from that we wore more makeup*. Whereas students a quarter century before that wore tweeds, smoked pipes and wanted to become like their Dads, up to and including marrying, as soon as they could, a girl just like Mum. From what I can gather, like.

(*Newromancers, we were.)

Seriously? You've never heard of Neuromancer? It's probably the single most famous sci-fi novel of the last 40 years.

I don't know about that. I'd say it's the single most famous sci-fi novel that has not been adapted for film. It's also extremely influential in film, anime and comics (and other novels, of course).

What else comes close, outside of manga/graphic novels?

Edit: oh, hang on, I got my calculations wrong. I meant 30 years.

Ginger Yellow wrote:

QUOTE:
Seriously? You've never heard of Neuromancer? It's probably the single most famous sci-fi novel of the last 40 years.

Title rings a bell.

I don't like sci-fi.

I don't like restoration drama but I've heard of Marriage a la Mode.

QUOTE:
What else comes close, outside of manga/graphic novels?

Edit: oh, hang on, I got my calculations wrong. I meant 30 years.

In that case, you're probably right. And I was wrong anyway.

I thought Dune was written in the late 1970s. I am wrong, it was 1965. And Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was 1968. I thought it was later.

However, two possible contenders would be Battlefield Earth of 1982 (it may be nonsense, but it is well known) and A Scanner Darkly was in 1979.

Neither of them are particularly famous as books, though, outside of sci-fi circles.

I'd feel more thrilled by the changes GY talks about if I didn't feel so thoroughly politically pessimistic, which in turn tempers optimism about the uses to which scientific advances will (or will not) be put.

And then climate change/ecological catastrophe is of course the big elephant in The Future's room.

I didn't say I'd never heard of it.

The orbital colonies in Neuromancer are on par with the mood of the book, not a particularly bright take on mankind. They are set as a tax haven, a kind of Monaco in space where young rich things go to party and shady deals take place. There is also a rastfari colony up there, tugging along space vehicles from low orbit to the space stations, the pilots having a constant stream of dub played in their ears and smoking massive spliffs as you breathe air.

What about Ender's Game?

Excellent book too, I still got Purple Cow's copy in fact...<red face>