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I'm Jesse Thorne, live on tape from My House in Los Angeles. It's the Sound of Young America

from MaximumFun.org and PRI, public radio, international.

It's the Sound of Young America, I'm Jesse Thorne. This week on this show, we're looking at

different versions of the future, the past, and the present. My guest, the writer William Gibson,

has long been heralded for his ability to imagine the future. He created the idea of cyberspace

among other things. Lately, though, his science fiction hasn't been taking place

in the world of tomorrow. It's been taking place in the world of today. It's still

classic science fiction in a lot of ways, but rather than creating a new kind of laser beam

or some other technological marvel, he looks at the way technology is shaping our lives and then

abstracts it ever so slightly into the world of ideas. His newest book is about intellectual

property, fashion, style, and the idea of authenticity and how it's all connected together by our

new social communications means. If that sounds a bit confusing, well, we'll get into it in just a

...