Cover storyIssue 001
The Voice Was the Easy Part
Spike Jonze's soft-focus romance predicted the product, the marketing and the loneliness, and then wrote an ending that the industry has quietly agreed never to ship.
On screenAll 29 reviews
Frame of the week · Black Mirror: Be Right Back, 2013
He never sleeps. That's how you know.
Read the review · 8.6Hayley Atwell in Be Right Back. Still © Zeppotron / Channel 4. Via TMDB.
EssaysAll essays
Essay · Power12 min
Minority Report Was Wrong About the Crime
Spielberg's film thought prediction would be used to catch us. It turned out to be far more profitable to finish us.
Essay · Machines14 min
The Kindest Machine
We were afraid the machines would be cold. The trouble is that they're kinder than we are, and children are learning from them what kindness should cost.
Essay · Screen4 min
Reality Marks Your Homework
Why every Nearfi review carries two verdicts, one for the art and one for the future, and why the second one keeps changing.
The shelfBooks, scored as art and as prophecy
8.1
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
6.9
Little Brother
Cory Doctorow
8.7 Essential
Neuromancer
William Gibson
8.7 Essential
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
7.6
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson
8.6 Essential
Stand on Zanzibar
John Brunner
7.3
Super Sad True Love Story
Gary Shteyngart
5.4
The Circle
Dave Eggers
The Nearness BoardEvery claim, with evidence
| Work | Prescience | Claims | Next arrival | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contagion 2011 | 100% | — | 7.8 | |
| Her 2013 | 75% | 2045 | 8.8 | |
| Stand on Zanzibar 1968 | 75% | — | 8.6 | |
| Station Eleven 2021 | 75% | 2100 | 8.1 | |
| Snow Crash 1992 | 75% | 2031 | 7.6 | |
| Strange Days 1995 | 75% | 2065 | 7.2 | |
| Black Mirror: Nosedive 2016 | 75% | — | 7.1 | |
| Little Brother 2008 | 75% | 2030 | 6.9 |
From the manifesto
The future is not coming. It is being made, right now, by whoever bothers to imagine it.
Read Notes Toward a Better Branch