Offtopic clip from Monday 5-6-24 devstream #54 - Walter Jon Williams is a prophet

In which I read out another section from "Angel Station" 1989 novel by Walter Jon Williams, the best and basedest OG cyberpunk author (uhh, were _any_ of the others based at all?) who predicted clown world in his other cyberpunk hit "Hard Wired".

I finished re-reading it yesterday (first time was in the 90's) and it still holds up. I guess it's a major subconscious influence on my Synthnostate universe, actually. The characters _are_ what I call synthclones. Transhumanism has progressed to the point where people are so alien (but less alien than some of today's troons etc) that no one bats an eye when they finally discover spacefaring aliens and basically merge with them within a decade.