A passage of fiction is not an account of something that might once have happened in the visible world; it is not even an account of something that could conceivably have happened in that world… Such issues are irrelevant; a passage of fiction reports his or her contemplation of what did happen or what did not happen or what might have happened or what can never happen.
“If one had to categorize the future in one word, it would be that word “home.” Just as the 20th century has been the age of mobility, largely through the motor car, so the next era will be one in which instead of having to seek out one’s adventures through travel, one creates them, in whatever form one chooses, in one’s home. The average individual… will have all the resources of a modern TV studio at his fingertips, coupled with data processing devices of incredible sophistication and power.”
J. G. Ballard | Penthouse, April 1979