GoKawiilDon’t let the absence of a flying car in your garage distract you: we are definitely now living in a version of the future out of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson.
Every day I notice a news story that startles or alarms me, that feels like pure cyberpunk, nestled between reports about council bin collections and cabinet reshuffles.
“The first ever IV Drip clinic to appear in the centre of a shopping mall, our Westfield clinic is a must-stop shop when doing a bit of retail therapy. From Vitamin Drips to Instant Vitamin D Testing, Get A Drip Westfield has it all. Book your appointment today!” Publicity for Get A Drip Limited
This made me think of Michael Moorcock’s habit of opening stories or chapters with startling newspaper clippings that revealed the future apocalypse already underway in the present, or Ballard’s typographic collages. So I began snipping.
“A video has been shared on social media with claims it shows a robotic dog patrolling the grounds of a ‘migrant hotel’. But this is false – while the footage does appear to show a robotic dog, it was filmed in the grounds of a building housing a religious group in Crewe.” Full Fact, 4 November 2025
It’s not quite Blade Runner but it might be Robot Jox or Bubblegum Crisis.
“Soul ‘musician’ Sienna Rose has made headlines this week as suspicions mount that her music is a product of artificial intelligence… On Spotify, her sound is described as a blend of the ‘elegance of classic soul with vulnerability of modern R&B’, while she is simply referred to as ‘an anonymous neo-soul singer’. Many fans have taken note of the reference to her anonymity, which makes her 2.6million monthly listeners all the more staggering.”
NME, 17 January 2026
In the middle of a video about stationery and everyday tech on YouTube the other day there was a passing shot of two robots kickboxing in a cage; another robot was taking coffee orders at a kiosk. This was (blandly) “cool to see”.
“British police have helped seize a record nine-tonne haul of cocaine from a ‘narco sub’ in the Atlantic Ocean… The mammoth seizure weighed nearly as much as a school bus and the sub was 230 nautical miles from the Azores when it was intercepted… The semi-submersible eventually sank before authorities could take all its cargo, sending 35 of the 300 packages to the bottom of the Atlantic.” Sky News, 27 January 2026
... continue reading