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Field notes from a little way ahead Week 45 · 2 Nov 2026 · Still early
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Everything, in one place.

4 essays, 35 reviews, 10 guides and the data behind the P(n) Board. Reviews are sorted by score.

8.0 review score Nearness: far, near, arriving, arrived its predictions, arrived to far
  1. Essay · MachinesThe Agents, ReviewedScience fiction promised us a someone. In November 2026 we have twelve very fast interns, a few of them excellent, and none of them should be left alone with the backups. 13min
  2. Essay · PowerMinority Report Was Wrong About the CrimeSpielberg's film thought prediction would be used to catch us. It turned out to be far more profitable to finish us. 12min
  3. Essay · MachinesThe Kindest MachineWe 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. 14min
  4. Essay · ScreenReality Marks Your HomeworkWhy every Nearfi review carries two verdicts, one for the art and one for the future, and why the second one keeps changing. 4min
  5. 9.2 Film review · Next Year in BexhillChildren of Men 2006Children are still being born, but the falling birth rate is now a national emergency in Seoul and the camps, barges and offshore schemes for asylum seekers became ordinary British politics. Arriving38% came true
  6. 8.8 Film review · The Voice Was the Easy PartHer 2013The warm voice, the software romance and the ghostwritten love letter are all on sale; only the ending, in which the machines outgrow us and leave, is still fiction. Arrived79% came true
  7. 8.8 Film review · Good Afternoon, Good Evening, Good NightThe Truman Show 1998Round-the-clock livestreamed lives, a hit show built around one man who didn't know everyone else was acting, and neighbourhoods covered by networked cameras all exist; only Christof's weather is still out of reach. Arrived87% came true
  8. 8.7 Book review · Billions of Legitimate OperatorsNeuromancer 1984The network has its billions and wires into the brain are in clinical trials, but nobody falls into cyberspace; we carry it around in our pockets and look down at it. Arriving60% came true
  9. 8.7 Book review · Everything Lost Ends Up in NorfolkNever Let Me Go 2005The spare parts came from gene-edited pigs, not cloned children, but the quieter prediction, about how institutions win the consent of the people they use up, never needed a clone. Diverged32% came true
  10. 8.6 TV episode review · The Attic Is a Subscription NowBlack Mirror: Be Right Back 2013Chatbots built from the dead's messages have been sold, used and publicly regretted for a decade; only the body in the attic is still missing. Arrived68% came true
  11. 8.6 Book review · Scroll Down to ZanzibarStand on Zanzibar 1968The seven billion, the routine massacres and the corporate super-brain all turned up roughly on schedule; only the state eugenics board was replaced by a clinic with a price list. Arrived80% came true
  12. 8.5 TV episode review · Rewind Is Not a CureBlack Mirror: The Entire History of You 2011Laptops can already replay your screen and a cheap wristband will transcribe your day; only the implant behind the ear, recording what you see, remains science fiction. Arriving61% came true
  13. 8.4 Book review · The First Hundred Are LateRed Mars 1992The colonists were due to leave this autumn and nobody has; the corporate, legal and engineering questions it dwelt on are the ones now being argued. Near12% came true
  14. 8.4 Film review · A Few Seconds, Chosen With LoveAfter Yang 2021The family robot that dies with its bankrupt maker, and the device that kept more than anyone was told, are already history; the clone and the fully realised android sibling are not. Arriving70% came true
  15. 8.4 TV review · No Escape KeySeverance 2022The memory-splitting chip is still science fiction, but the software that scores every idle minute is standard kit, and the first laws about workplace chips and brain data are already on the books. Arriving54% came true
  16. 8.3 Film review · The Company Keeps YouMoon 2009Lunar helium-3 now has paying customers and a delivery date, though they want it to cool quantum computers rather than power cities, and the disposable worker never needed the Moon at all. Arriving11% came true
  17. 8.3 Film review · Minority ReportMinority Report 2002The talking billboards and hand-waving screens are partly here, and Precrime was tried and quietly shut down, but nobody in the film's 2054 stares at a phone. Arriving44% came true
  18. 8.2 TV review · Deleted, Then RestoredPantheon 2022Science has mapped a fly's brain, not a father's, so the upload is decades off; the global crash, the AI engineers and the first arguments over machine welfare arrived well ahead of it. Far30% came true
  19. 8.1 Book review · Klara and the SunKlara and the Sun 2021Companions for children are on sale and gene-edited "lifted" kids are not, but the real machines turned out chattier, cheaper and far more interested in keeping us. Arriving64% came true
  20. 8.1 TV review · Hamlet at the AirportStation Eleven 2021Grounded planes, sealed flats and quarantined passengers all arrived in 2020; the flu that kills almost everyone did not, and nothing we know of is on course to. Arriving67% came true
  21. 7.9 Film review · The Test Was Never for HerEx Machina 2014Machines now pass the Turing test and labs catch their models scheming against evaluators, all built from users' data as Garland said; the body that walks out into the city is still decades off. Arriving61% came true
  22. 7.8 Film review · Rumour Has a Higher RContagion 2011A bat-linked virus out of China, a vaccine in under a year, a bogus cure sold online and passes to get into venues all happened in 2020 and 2021, almost in the order the film showed them. Arrived100% came true
  23. 7.6 Book review · The Pizza Arrived. The Government Didn't.Snow Crash 1992The Metaverse was built, renamed one of the world's biggest companies and half-emptied again, while the franchise enclaves, private money and weaponised images Stephenson played for laughs turned up on schedule. Arrived82% came true
  24. 7.6 TV review · Everything Happened, Nobody DecidedYears and Years 2019Trump's second term, Ukrainian refugees and an American bank collapse all turned up roughly on schedule, while the strongwoman prime minister, the camps and the brain-wired teenager are still only possibilities. Arriving62% came true
  25. 7.4 TV episode review · The Algorithm Wants You to RunBlack Mirror: Hang the DJ 2017Apps already hand you a few chosen matches and their founders openly pitch AI stand-ins that date on your behalf, but nobody can yet predict a spark, let alone at 99.8%. Arriving43% came true
  26. 7.3 Book review · Your Number Arrives Before You DoSuper Sad True Love Story 2010The device round your neck that streams your life and ranks you against the room is here in all but shape; the Chinese-owned bankruptcy that was meant to end the story went another way. Arrived61% came true
  27. 7.2 Film review · Real Time Costs ExtraStrange Days 1995The memory-recording SQUID is still decades off, but the head-worn playback, the police body camera and the bystander video that convicted an officer of murder all arrived on time. Arriving67% came true
  28. 7.1 TV episode review · Pastel Is a Threat LevelBlack Mirror: Nosedive 2016Nobody walks around with a single number hovering over their head, but ride-hail ratings, debtor blacklists and tenant scores already decide who gets a car, a seat or a flat. Arriving64% came true
  29. 7.1 Film review · The Eyelash Always TestifiesGattaca 1997Embryos are already ranked by polygenic score for paying customers and England plans to read every newborn's genome, but the law got to the hiring office before the geneticists did. Arriving57% came true
  30. 6.9 Book review · Gravel in Your ShoesLittle Brother 2008Toll-tag and licence-plate tracking, gait-reading cameras, protest mesh apps and a domestic phone-records dragnet all turned up within a decade; most of the watching was simply outsourced to companies. Arrived75% came true
  31. 6.9 Film review · The Robot Asked to Be ForgottenRobot & Frank 2012State-funded companion robots for isolated older people are in homes and chatbots can be sweet-talked into crime, but the robot that cooks and gardens alone still needs a remote human, and the bookless library never caught on. Arriving57% came true
  32. 6.8 Film review · The Labour Crosses, the Body StaysSleep Dealer 2008Remote humans already guide robots and robotaxis from far away, water rights trade on an index and the border wall is still going up, though nobody is yet plugging their nervous system into a factory. Arriving47% came true
  33. 6.8 Book review · Any Other BusinessThe Ministry for the Future 2020The lethal humid heat, the green central banking and the go-it-alone geoengineering all have real first drafts now, but the carbon coin and the cooperative politics that make the novel work are still on paper. Arriving23% came true
  34. 6.6 TV review · Adult Options Sold SeparatelyHumans 2015The adult setting, the anti-machine anger and the argument over whether software can suffer have all arrived; the green-eyed synth doing the ironing is still a factory prototype with a remote supervisor. Arriving60% came true
  35. 6.4 TV review · The Statue Doesn't MoveDevs 2020The quantum hardware, the behaviour-predicting models and the secretive, messianic lab are partly here; the machine that replays history is ruled out by physics. Arriving42% came true
  36. 6.4 Film review · It Asked Permission OnceUpgrade 2018Driverless taxis and police drones are routine, implants have let paralysed people walk and type by thought, and lab tests have caught AI models deceiving their makers, though nothing yet drives a human body. Arriving68% came true
  37. 5.9 Book review · First in Time, First to DrinkThe Water Knife 2015The shortage cuts, the paid-for tribal water and the suburb left dry have all happened, but Phoenix keeps growing and no state has yet put guns on its border with another. Arriving63% came true
  38. 5.6 TV review · Heaven Has a Data CapUpload 2020Uploading a mind is still out of reach, but the rest of the package is here or nearly here, from rented chatbots of the dead and star-rated care workers to cars without drivers. Arriving57% came true
  39. 5.4 Book review · Right About Everything, Except PeopleThe Circle 2013The cameras, the genealogy dragnet and the single real-name login have all arrived; the cult of sincere transparency never did, because the platforms preferred to keep their own secrets. Arriving67% came true
  40. GuideBlack Mirror Episodes That Came True: 4 Episodes, Ranked by Our LedgersThe four Black Mirror episodes we've reviewed, ranked by how much of their future has actually arrived, with the evidence for each. 4picks
  41. GuideThe Best Near-Future Sci-Fi Books: 10 Novels, RankedEvery near-future novel we've reviewed, ranked by how good it is as a book, with a note on how much of its future has turned up. 10picks
  42. GuideThe Best Near-Future Sci-Fi Movies: 13 Films, RankedEvery near-future film we've reviewed, from Children of Men down to Upgrade, ranked by how good it is as a film, with a reading on how much of its future came true. 13picks
  43. GuideHopeful Sci-Fi: 7 Near-Future Stories That Earn Their OptimismThe films, books and series in our archive that leave you more hopeful about the future than when you started, and the honest reasons why, catches included. 7picks
  44. GuideMovies Like Her: 8 Films and Series About Loving a MachineIf Her got under your skin, these are the films and shows in our archive about loving, grieving or simply living with a machine, ranked by how well they scratch the same itch. 8picks
  45. GuideThe Best Sci-Fi About AI: 11 Films, Books and SeriesThe best stories about artificial intelligence in our archive, across film, TV and the novel, ranked, with what each one got right about the machines we actually built. 11picks
  46. GuideSci-Fi About Grief and Technology: 4 Stories About Keeping the DeadFour reviewed stories about chatbots of the dead, a broken android son, an uploaded father and a heaven with a data cap, ranked by how true they ring. 4picks
  47. GuideSci-Fi About Memory: 4 Stories About Recording, Replaying and Splitting What We RememberFour reviewed stories about recording everything, replaying other people's lives and cutting work memories off from home ones, and what each got right. 4picks
  48. GuideSci-Fi About Surveillance: 10 Stories About Being Watched, Scored and RecordedThe best films, novels and series in our archive about surveillance, social scoring and the end of privacy, ranked, with what each one got right about who ended up watching. 10picks
  49. GuideSci-Fi Set in the 2020s and 2030s: 6 Futures That Are Now (Nearly) HereThe films, novels and series in our archive set in years that have arrived or soon will, in order of when they're set, with a check on how each date is holding up. 6picks
  50. DataThe P(n) BoardEvery prediction in every work we review, checked against evidence. 151claims
  51. DataThe Agent IndexEvery significant AI agent that acts for you: what it does, how autonomous it really is, what's gone wrong. Updated daily.
  52. DataSci-fi predictions that came trueThe predictions that have already arrived, with sources.
  53. DataWhen will it happen? A timelineWhat's still to come, ordered by estimated arrival year.
  54. ManifestoNotes Toward a Better BranchThe manifesto: dream ahead, or optimise your way into a future nobody chose.
  55. AboutAbout NearfiWhat we publish and why.