So how would he describe Generation X’s trajectory? “I’ve never discussed Gen X that way, but I like what Tiffanie Darke has done. It’s as good as it gets with generational observation; she’s crazy smart,” Coupland says. “Conceptually, Gen X went from being the bash-it-with-a-stick piñata generation to being the serious generation that is heir to the greatest generation – my parents’. Boomers haven’t changed a bit. In as much as there is a Gen X, it’s paying for school bills for their kids and nursing care for their parents. There’s not much free time to be either pro or anti-establishment. They’re too busy working themselves into the grave.”

Coupland feels “neutral” about millennials, he says. “I will say that pretty much everything they say about millennials is what they said about X except that millennials seem unable to cope when things don’t go their way.” And does he envisage our culture accelerating at the same pace it has been in the past few decades? “Yes, faster actually. Data is the new time. The Cloud is the new infinity. It’s all really happening right in front of your face.”

But we certainly shouldn’t be afraid of what the future holds, in his view. “No. Things are actually pretty good right now,” he says. “We’re just conditioned to using alarmism as our default setting. I’m not in the least bit worried, nor should you be.” His optimism may be be less evangelical than Tiffanie Darke’s, but it is no less persuasive – and soothing. As someone who has been described as “clairvoyant”, what does Douglas Coupland think the future holds for Gen X? “A really good bottle of Pinot Gris, a comfortable bed, good wi-fi, and nobody around to bug them.”

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