J.G. Ballard November 15, 1930 - April 19, 2009

"Electronic aids, particularly domestic computers, will help the inner migration, the opting out of reality. Reality is no longer going to be the stuff out there, but the stuff inside your head. It's going to be commercial and nasty at the same time."

"Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century."

"I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that's my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul."

"What our children have to fear is not the cars on the highways of tomorrow but our own pleasure in calculating the most elegant parameters of their deaths."

Thankfully, whatever the future will be, it's sure as hell not shaping up to be boring. Rest in peace, you demented old seer. 

Meredith Yayanos also ginned up the perfect Ballardian soundtrack last night. Have a listen.