The best speculative novels that explore the double-edged sword of technology

This is a fabulously wild ride into a dystopian world that carries all of humanity’s worst habits to their logical conclusions.

Atwood uses science, specifically unrestricted and unregulated genetic engineering, to demonstrate how a technology that was developed with a noble goal (in this case, creating pigs that can grow human organs for transplant) can spiral out of control.

There is a lot more to this twisted tale but I’d rather not spoil it, the slow reveal of what has carried the protagonist from bad to worse is what makes him a sympathetic character, who despite all his flaws we can’t help but root for.

The writing is impeccably full of a dark humor that makes the narrative exquisitely pessimistic because, in the end, humor may be all we have left. 

I love this book because it cleverly uses a piece of fictional technology to reveal both personal and universal dynamics that confront us in real life.

The technology is a very visible brain implant called a Pilot that improves the user’s ability to multi-task, theoretically making work or school much simpler. But, everyone’s experience with the device, whether or not they have one themselves, is different (and not necessarily positive).

The novel takes place from the perspectives of four family members and Pinsker does a wonderful job of showing us how each unique personality is affected by the Pilot, demonstrating how a piece of technology can create divisions and teaching us to approach technological advances in a prudent way.

This story is almost too close to reality, but that is what made it so engaging for me.

Mae begins as a very relatable and down-to-earth college graduate who is thrilled to be offered a job at the Circle – a tech behemoth. She is blinded by reverence and ambition as her job quickly sucks up her every moment with demands for pseudo-social interactions through the Circle’s constantly evolving network.

A commentary on all of the privacy issues we already face, this novel pushes them to their limits. The question is whether Mae will continue to bend to her new employer’s demands or whether she will break. The stakes continue to rise as her new job and her former life battle over her soul.

The technology that features in this book is more of a single-edged sword and a sharply-edged one at that, but it is one of my favorite fictional science tales of all time. Hilarious and devastating, it showcases the very worst of carelessness.

In Cat’s Cradle, a brilliant scientist has created a catastrophic substance simply because he could. Upon his death, he left a sample of it to each of his three children and as our narrator tries to keep track of these deadly samples, he becomes entangled in their absurd lives along the way.

We want pure science to be pure but, of course, scientists are just people and consequences are all that matter in the end. I love this book because it is absolutely outrageous and yet incredibly human.

I found the premise of The Candy House very intriguing – the novel is built around a new technology that allows you to download your consciousness.

The science is a little far-fetched (I certainly hope it is, anyway) and yet the reverberations of this fictional technology are easy to imagine in real life. The unique way in which the book is written, each chapter a window into a different life, shows how technology affects us all in small and large ways, whether we subscribe to it or not.

What I love most about this book, though, is the contrast between the intended altruistic uses for ‘Own Your Unconscious’ and the various uses which devolve from it. It all rings too true.