William Gibson's trilogy is SF

Every Wiscon of late, on some panel someone mentions William Gibson and says his latest books aren't science fiction.  (I've read this elsewhere. It's not just a Wiscon thing.  There's just something ironic about people at this con drawing the hard science line against him; a good bit of the discussion is about inclusive reading.

Reading this brain book, which dwelled a lot on the reasons why various social networks online have risen and dwindled, made me think about Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History, which I just finished.  People who say they're not SF tend to focus on how the setting is not 'the future.'  They miss how the story is hinged on science and technology, and about it.

Because it's 1) 'soft' science... sort of.  And 2) new science, in a category less recognized as science because non-traditional companies are employing it.  Advertising, fashion, the music industry... they're not science.  But they are employing, or deploying, both computer science and neuroscience quite effectively.  As the brain guy argued pretty strongly.  No coincidence one of the topics he covered was pattern recognition. 

More on this later.