What to read this weekend: Near-future dystopian fiction and a new approach to explaining life's origin

New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention. Hum by Helen Phillips Robots have become a regular fixture of the workforce, and humans are losing their jobs to AI. Climate change is wreaking havoc on the planet. It’s getting harder and harder for the average person to make ends meet. Facial recognition technology is being used for surveillance. Sound familiar? In her new novel, Hum, author Helen Phillips paints a picture of what our near-future could look like. Its main character, May, has lost her job after technology made her role obsolete, and, desperate for money to support her family, she agrees to participate in an experiment that alters her face to make her undetectable to facial recognition. With the extra cushion from the payment, she takes her husband and children on a short, technology-free vacation to the Botanical Garden — but things go dangerously awry. Hum is a captivating, unsettling work of dystopian fiction that makes it impossible not to draw parallels with our current reality. Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence by Sara Imari Walker There’s so much we don’t know about the origins of life on Earth, and how it could appear on other worlds. Arizona State University theoretical physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker tackles the enduring question, “What is life?” and so much more in her book, Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence. It explores assembly theory, which, as Walker... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2024-08-10 19:43:55 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "What to read this weekend: Near-future dystopian fiction and a new approach to explaining life's origin"


Book Riot’s SFF Deals for March 27, 2023

The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-03-27 13:20:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The Best Science Fiction is Real: Realistic Sci-Fi to TBR

Red your way into the best realistic science fiction, ranging from well-known classics to lesser known gems. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-03-24 10:35:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Eric Brown, science fiction author and Guardian critic, dies aged 62

Writers, publishers and agents pay tribute to a warm, generous figure, author of more than 50 books ranging from SFF to crime to children’s literatureEric Brown, a prolific, award-winning author who published more than 50 novels, children’s books and short story collections, and who was the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-03-23 13:58:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Queer Villains Are Vital to Understanding Queer History

Whether or not you’ve watched season 2 of The White Lotus, Mike White’s anthology series, you’ve witnessed Jennifer Coolidge’s frenzied intonations onboard a yacht: “These gays, they’re trying to murder me!” Coolidge plays Tanya, a wealthy woman who finds herself at the center of a conspiracy to... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-03-21 11:05:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Book Riot’s SFF Deals for March 20, 2023

The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-03-20 13:42:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lit Hub Daily: March 16, 2023

Alexa Hagerty decodes the messages of trauma written in the skeletons of Argentina’s death flights victims. | Lit Hub History “Just when you think you’re about to get a thick and steamy anthology of what women want, we find the same censorship and control at play.” Is Gillian Anderson’s new... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-03-16 10:30:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Is Gillian Anderson’s New Anthology of Women’s Sexual Fantasies Too Restrictive?

As if starring in three seasons of Sex Education wasn’t enough, Gillian Anderson’s embarking on a brand new project set to get our pulses racing. At Bloomsbury, Anderson is leading an update of Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden, a groundbreaking 1973 book that collected anonymous sexual fantasies.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-03-16 08:54:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Book Riot’s SFF Deals for March 13, 2023

The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-03-13 13:58:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Last Year's Sci-Fi Was More Genre-Bending Than Ever

Want a glimpse into the future of SFF? We look at some of the weird and wonderful standouts from The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2023-03-10 17:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


2023 Nebula Award Finalists Announced

The 2023 Nebula Award Finalists were announced by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association this week. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-03-09 15:15:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


9 of the Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books To Read In March 2023

This exciting mix of new science fiction and fantasy novels out in March 2023 will help you finish off the worst of the winter. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-03-09 11:34:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Warsick: Testimonial Plays Share Ukrainians’ Experience of War, by Oleksandra Wallo & Anna Halas

Warsick: Testimonial Plays Share Ukrainians’ Experience of War, by Oleksandra Wallo & Anna Halas Essay [email protected] Wed, 03/08/2023 - 14:54 Scene from Performance Survivor’s Syndrome, based on a work by Andriy Bondarenko, Harmyder... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-03-08 20:54:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Book Riot’s SFF Deals of the Day for March 6, 2023

The best science fiction and fantasy book deals of the day, curated by Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-03-06 14:26:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this


We want and we fear emotions in our robots. Here's what science fiction can teach us about flashes of emotion from Bing

It is one thing to treat AI as a tool when it has no scope for emotion. It is quite another when AI has a full suite of emotional responses. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2023-03-05 19:19:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Find new inspiration with this CES-featured app

It often feels like the buzziest things to come out of CES every year are fascinating hardware, new applications of AI, and things that feel right out of science fiction movies. But, sometimes, the coolest things you find at CES are the most useful. Take, for instance, Deepstash... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2023-03-04 08:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


What Isaac Asimov Can Teach Us About AI

The science fiction writer imagined artificial intelligence—and what it might want—long before this uncanny reality ever became our own. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2023-03-03 12:19:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Researchers are using sound-waves and holograms to instantly mold tiny 3D shapes

The idea of growing organs or tissues for medical use still sounds like science fiction — and indeed, it's an incredibly difficult thing to do. 3D-printing technology has shown some promise in the field of biofabrication, but the process is too slow, and often damages the tissue it's working... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-03-02 21:40:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this


How NASA pulled off the DART mission, making science fiction a reality

In a test of planetary defense capabilities, NASA and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory crashed a spacecraft to alter an object’s orbit. NASA is No. 17 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023. Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2023-03-02 07:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Science Fiction Tried to Warn Us about AI. Or Did It?, by Tom Gammarino

Science Fiction Tried to Warn Us about AI. Or Did It?, by Tom Gammarino Essay [email protected] Wed, 03/01/2023 - 03:46 Photo by NASA / Unsplash “All our AI Frankenstein stories,” the author writes, “warn us that AI will destroy us, but far... Continue reading at World Literature Today

[ World Literature Today | 2023-03-01 09:46:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Haymarket Books, Kaepernick Publishing to Co-Publish Anthology Defending Black Studies

In response to educational bans, Haymarket Books and Kaepernick Publishing are collaborating on a compilation of essays by African American scholars and other Black intellectuals writing in defense of African American/Black Studies. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this