The opening chapter of John Brunner’s novel Stand on Zanzibar gives the date:

For toDAY third of MAY twenty-TEN manhatTEN….

Here we are, 2010 at last – no longer the distant, incomprehensible future, just the mundane & familiar present.

Computers got bigger & faster since Stand on Zanzibar was written, but they didn’t get any smarter. We’re as far from creating Shalmaneser in 2010 as we were in 1968.

It’s been a long time since I read Stand on Zanzibar. Perhaps a re-read is in order. (Should I wait until May 3rd, or start now? What to do, what to do….)