When we quote William Gibson's Neuromancer by saying the future is already here but not yet widely distributed, we're somehow always right. What this infers, though, is that the future might already be there "as is." Already fully formed in its performance, but just accessible to a few.
It's never the case.
The future might be there for only a few just as a form factor, its will to achieve something for us as a distorted image of things to be. Thirty-five years before the Apple Watch, the future was already there, only not widely distributed and just a glimpse of what might be.
At the heart of the distortion is always a type of Moore's law blurring our vision and giving us the impression that "we get it" while we are so far from imagining where we are heading.
That's one of the reasons industries need to dip their strategic toes in deeptech and some far-fetched ideas. Not to make sure they pick a winner years ahead of everyone but to get accustomed to the idea of a future building up around them.
