Hackers and a data-driven world, from 41 years ago

First published in 1975, John Brunner’s The Shockwave Rider is an uncanny reflection of today’s world, although you will have to make a few allowances for how different the state of technology was then.

FOR many, science fiction is the literature of prophecy. I tend to disagree. I like to think of it as the literature of ideas, mostly about our future but not necessarily restricted to it. 

It’s always a mistake to attempt to validate the genre by pointing to the rare successes it has had in predicting trends and technologies, because that prevents it from being treated as actual literature.