> Kate Williams wrote:
> >what would you all
> >recommend? I especially want the books that give social critiques and search
> >for or present alternatives to today's applications of robotics (i.e.
> >eliminate jobs AND shut masses of people out of the economy and out of
> >society). I'm worried about extreme cynicism (like snow crash, although its
> >on my list cause its so technologically creative) and about books being too
> >dense for typical high school kids -- these kids are straight outta toledo
> >(ohio).
You might want to look at Nancy Kress's Beggars trilogy--Beggars in
Spain, Beggars and Choosers, and Beggars Ride--which specifically
depicts a near-future America where automation has virtually eliminated the
need for blue-collar and unskilled labor. A small number of managers,
called Donkeys, basically run everything, while the masses devote
themselves to television, sports, and other leisure activities. This is a
powerful and chilling example of sociological SF.
Jack Williamson's The Humanoids is rather dated, but is still powerful.
Robots programmed to protect human beings from harm, gradually restrict
all dangerous or exciting activiities.
Kim Antieau's The Gaia Websters describes a society which intentionally
minimizes technology, as do such older feminists utopia/dystopias as
Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time and Joanna Russ's The Female Man.
This is also an important secondary theme in the work of such Quaker or
Quaker-influenced SF writers as Joan Slonczewski (A Door into Ocean), Molly
Gloss (The Dazzle of Day) and Judith Moffett (Pennterra, The Ragged World,
Time, Like an Ever-Flowing Stream).
Mike Levy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:37 PDT