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Welcome to ‘Disneyland With the Death Penalty’ | WIRED

wired.com · 4,484 words · saved by 1 readers

WIRED sent William Gibson to Singapore to see whether that clean dystopia represents our techno future.

"It's like an entire country run by Jeffrey Katzenberg," the producer had said, "under the motto 'Be happy or I'll kill you.'" We were sitting in an office a block from Rodeo Drive, on large black furniture leased with Japanese venture capital. Now that I'm actually here, the Disneyland metaphor is proving impossible to shake. For that matter, Rodeo Drive comes frequently to mind, though the local equivalent feels more like 30 or 40 Beverly Centers put end to end. Was it Laurie Anderson who said that VR would never look real until they learned how to put some dirt in it? Singapore's…

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