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Ben Halpern
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Which modern fiction presents the most interesting techno-dystopia?

1984, and sometimes Brave New World, are conjured when we talk about tech-driven concerns about the future.

But which modern books, movies, shows, etc. present an interesting view of a scary future?

I imagine Black Mirror will come up, so please provide specific episodes which encapsulate the best ideas.

Latest comments (39)

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thecodingstoic profile image
theCodingStoic

The Jump 225 Trilogy by David Louis Edelman.

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cwreacejr profile image
Charles Reace

Iain M. Banks's "Culture" series of novels explore what it might be like when the AIs have far surpassed humans in virtually every category -- yet fortunately seem to enjoy keeping us biological types around (at least for entertainment?). "Excession" is probably my favorite installment. (They're all stand-alone novels, not a series.)

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ktm profile image
Kit McCormick • Edited

Lots of love for Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, but I will nominate 'Market Forces'. Dystopian and a bit on the nose in 2019.

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codebrotha profile image
T.

Thanks for all the responses everyone! I've been looking for new reads and this post is now my wishist.

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rhymes profile image
rhymes • Edited

It's interesting how none of the dystopias enumerated here are positive

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alangdm profile image
Alan Dávalos

Well, dystopia is a negative word to begin with, a list of techno-utopias would be kinda nice though

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rhymes profile image
rhymes

You're right, I was thinking of utopias and swapped the two words.

Thanks for the correction!

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Eric Skiff

Daniel Suarez's "Daemon" and "Freedom TM" are amazing explorations of a future techno-dystopia where an impossible to stop computer program sets out new rules for society.

amazon.com/DAEMON-Daemon-Daniel-Su...

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Seanmclem

Conceptually almost 10 years. Actually, since 2015

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elmuerte profile image
Michiel Hendriks

Idiocracy. A lot of parts of the movie are already true.

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Ryota Murakami

Black Mirror too!! if you like it, I absolutely recommend Psycho-Pass!

SIBYL.System that like mother of god computer.
Which scoring people mental health as a numerical Crime Coefficient.
Main cast are police officer guys and combat against murders with gun.
But the world gun is only work trigger when SIBYL.System's evaluated as insanely Crime Coefficient level.
The series give you philosophical question hard to make answer.

Originally Japanese Anime and netflix serving from 1st series with English subtitle.
And many English area fan forks publishing English wiki, reddit, twitter community etc!

psychopass.fandom.com/wiki/Psycho-...

Thanks reading 😄

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Cyril Niobé

The Circle (the book, not the movie!)