Which near future science fiction book should we read? A blog book club query.

Which near future science fiction book should we read? A blog book club query.

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What’s a good near-future science fiction book to read, and would you like to read it together?

This question came up during the New Media Consortium’s 2016 conference (my materials).  I recommended that education and technology professionals pay strong attention to science fiction, and folks got excited, wanting recommendations.  So I’ve assembled some (below).

Why near future sf? Because things are changing very quickly, and science fiction historically has been a fruitful way of thinking about the emerging future.   Much of sf takes place elsewhen, either the far future (think space opera) or the past (think steampunk and alternate history), so the near future gives us the best yield.  As one blogger puts it,

near-future SF keeps things local; earth-bound. The reason I find these stories interesting is that they are a way to look at our own society and technology, only a step into the future. The best books are extrapolations of current technologies and situations that seem like maybe they might already be possible.

I’d like to recommend recent sf, too.  20th-century sf can be fascinating, but has dropped off the calendar too far to be of much use – although I welcome suggestions.  The oldest book I cite below is thirteen years old.

Also, sf can be fun.

It’s also time for another blog-based book club.  So far this blog has hosted discussions of Richard DeMillo’s Revolution in Higher Education and Robert Putnam’s Our Kids.  Previously it kicked off a more distributed discussion of Rebecca Solnit’s River of Shadows.  Let’s do another one!

Here’s my list.  Alphabetical by author.  I avoided Amazon links because some folks don’t like ’em.  I picked cover images when they looked neat.  I’ve read some but not all.  I’ve tried to balance author’s genders.

Madeline Ashby, Company Town.  Ashby’s a professional futurist, and uses this book to imagine what could happen with biology, technology, and society:

New Arcadia is a city-sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd. Hwa is of the few people in her community (which constitutes the whole rig) to forgo bio-engineered enhancements. As such, she’s the last truly organic person left on the rig–making her doubly an outsider, as well as a neglected daughter and bodyguard extraordinaire. Still, her expertise in the arts of self-defense and her record as a fighter mean that her services are yet in high demand. When the youngest Lynch needs training and protection, the family turns to Hwa. But can even she protect against increasingly intense death threats seemingly coming from another timeline?

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake.  The oldest book on our list (2003), and possibly the most famous.  It’s a dystopia, and then things get worse.  Focuses on biology, consumerism, and the digital world.

It’s hard to make VR look good from the outside.

Ernest  Cline, Ready Player One.  Something of a modern classic, this involves an epically elaborate computer game based on 1980s pop culture.  It’s played by people in a near-future dystopia, who use it to escape.

David Eggers, The Circle.  A look into a giant technology company and its impact on human life, from one of America’s most famous novelists.  (Thanks to Larry Johnson for the recommendation)

William Gibson, The Peripheral.  Part of this novel takes place in the near future, where poor folks and military veterans eke out an existence on the fringes of society.  Another part occurs two generations later, after civilization has been shocked and redesigned.  The two worlds come into contact.  (My review)

Malka Older, Informocracy.  All about a world driven by information and polling.  From the official site:

It’s been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global micro-democracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything’s on the line.

With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right by the idealistic Policy1st party and get a steady job in the big leagues. For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have so much to gain?

Ada Palmer, Too Like the Lightning (NPR rave review).  It takes place a bit further ahead than the rest of these books, but looks grounded in all kinds of ideas we’re thinking about today.  Lots of world-building with science, technology, and culture.

Nathan Rich, The Odds Against Tomorrow.  About a statistician tasked with predicting near-term futures, with an eye towards disaster.  Then real disaster happens.

Gary Shteyngart, Super Sad True Love Story.  Takes place in a decaying but technologically advanced America, and features a romance between digitally retro and non-retro characters.

Neal Stephenson, Reamde.  A thriller taking place in a future so near it might as well be the present, the novel involves a massively multiplayer online game, drug smuggling, new computer desks, a Welsh Muslim terrorist, and more.  Almost a caper.

Vernor Vinge, Rainbows End.  This is one of the older books (2006) on my list, but it’s a good ‘un.  The main focus is how education could change in the next generation or two.

…so which ones do you like?  What titles should we add?   If things get out of hand I’ll fire up a SurveyMonkey.

 

Edutech

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July 18, 2016 at 04:46AM