Ken MacLeod — Scottish Writer born on August 02, 1954,

Kenneth Macrae "Ken" MacLeod, is a Scottish science fiction writer... (wikipedia)

The world has become one big grassy knoll, crawling with lone gunmen who think they're the Warren Commission.
The idea of determinism combined with complete human responsibility struck me as very hard to reconcile with an idea of justice, let alone mercy.
The real world is far too complex and unpredictable to make something like the idea of humanity controlling its own evolution or engineering itself - well, I wouldn't say impossible but it should be approached with a degree of caution.
I'm a long-term optimist, and I don't think the problems with our society are from being overly optimistic.
Science fiction made me aware of how big and strange the universe was, leaving aside the whole question of aliens.