William Gibson signs EmpowerThyself's "New Glory" Banner

Today William Gibson met his thought child for the first time. Bill signed the EmpowerThyself "new glory" banner that has been Iwo Jimad at every Barcamp and Empowerment office from LA to SF to DC. It only took me six years to figure out what to say to him.

When I first met Bill I was reading his books and beginning to write and develop the ideas that became Empowerment. I used to see him at the Vancouver Bread Garden on 16th and Granville where I lived. I was in awe of the man. I introduced myself once but at the time I didn't know where to begin to explain the ideas growing into Empowerment from the seeds he had planted in my mind.

The Empowerment is directly inspired by Neuromancer and the whole cyberpunk movement. 'Cybernetic' means steering yourself and 'punk' means steering against the flow so to me cyberpunk is about shaping yourself and shaping the future.

That is what Gibson inspired us all to do, and that is what we are now doing. Cyberpunk science fiction has become cyberpunk non-fiction.

By the next time I see him (hopefully at Rant's 10th Anniversary in Vancouver if he has time to accept my invitation) I will have a more concrete finished system to show him and the Wog cyberpunk community as a whole.

If Empowerment is Bill's memetic baby, this was more of a sonogram than a meeting, and it is time for the team to give birth. Remember:

"Great artists ship!"