William Gibson

William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer took the science fiction world by storm, winning the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick awards for best novel. The book described a bleak futuristic world where laptop-toting thieves jack into "cyberspace," a computer-generated virtual world that in retrospect looks a bit like the Internet. Gibson is credited with coining the term cyberspace (in his 1982 story "Burning Chrome") and is considered the father of the literary sub-genre known as cyberpunk. His novels include Count Zero (1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988), Virtual Light (1993), Idoru (1996), All Tomorrow's Parties (1999), Pattern Recognition (2003) and Spook Country (2007). Gibson also co-authored The Difference Engine (1991, with Bruce Sterling) and wrote the screenplay for the movie Johnny Mnemonic (1995, starring Keanu Reeves).

Extra credit: When asked where he got the idea for cyberspace, Gibson once replied "from watching stoned teenagers play video games."