Hotel staff practice self-defence skills after a training session given by team member of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 7, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A 16-foot- ( almost 5 meters ) tall hand sculpture named Quasi stands perched on its fingertips atop the roof of an art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, October 30, 2024. (Photo by Charlotte Graham-McLay/AP Photo)

This photo taken on March 29, 2017 shows a young woman offering shots of liquer at a dance bar in Walking Street in Pattaya. Two hours east of Bangkok, Pattaya' s bawdy reputation hails from the Vietnam War era when US GIs partied in their downtime. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP Photo)

Cast member, American actress Sydney Sweeney attends the premiere of Neon's “Immaculate” during Beyond Fest at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on March 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

William Gibson is not one of the authors that spits out novels like a machine – in his long and fruitful career he has only published 11 novels andof short stories and articles in the tens each. Still his impact on modern literature was huge – the “noir prophet” of the cyberpunk subgenre (that he was one of the pioneers of) has predicted the rise of reality television, virtual reality, video games and the internet. He is a Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction writer, with a special eye for what the future might bring.

Trees grow through the windshield of a 1937 Chrysler Imperial as it sits at Old Car City, the world's largest known classic car junkyard Thursday, July 16, 2015, in White, Ga. Over 4,000 classic cars decorate 32 acres of forest which have been turned into a junkyard museum by owner Walter Dean Lewis. The two grew up playing in the cars on the lot which started as a general store selling auto parts in 1931 by Lewis' parents. Lewis stopped selling parts about six years ago when he realized he could sustain the business more as a museum, charging $15 for visitors just looking, and $25 for photographers. Many of the cars have never moved in over 30 years and in some cases, trees now grow through them, even lifting some off the ground. (Photo by David Goldman/AP Photo)

Ary Borges feeds his tiger named Dan at his home in Maringa, Brazil, Thursday, September 26, 2013. Borges is in a legal battle with federal wildlife officials to keep his endangered animals from undergoing vasectomies and being taken away from him. He defends his right to breed the animals and says he gives them a better home than they might find elsewhere in Brazil. (Photo by Renata Brito/AP Photo)