William Gibson

American-Canadian writer whose debut novel, Neuromancer (1984), helped define cyberpunk and popularized the word "cyberspace." His later novels, like Pattern Recognition, moved closer and closer to the present day.

• Ep 2 — Did science fiction invent our future? (02:16–04:13, 19:12–19:49): Rob's favorite example of sci-fi getting credit for the future: Gibson coins "cyberspace" in Neuromancer, yet his hero still makes calls from a payphone. Caitlin gives him props for the idea and notes that "cyberspace" has since outgrown its source book.