Literature concerning technology

[kbwebster]

Hi there guys, I'm doing a philosophy module named The Philosophical and Cultural Impacts of Technology and I could use all of your help!

So I'd love if you guys could recommend me any pieces of literature (including poems, plays etc) that deals with the nature of technology and its influence upon us. It would be brilliant if you could recommend earlier classics but I would be happy with any well written material! It can be based loosely or not at all upon technology as long as there is some sort of notion of an opinion/statement towards technology- even concerning capitalism since we are also looking into the nature of the chain of production. I already have several up my sleeves that are the likes of H.G Wells, Orwell, Shelley, Brecht.

I'd really appreciate all input you have to offer, it'd greatly help me out!

Thanks, Klarissa

[Wondra]

I'd recommend checking out William Gibson starting with neuromancer.

[kbwebster]

I'll be researching into that now, thanks for replying!

[The Atheist]

Definitely add in Brave New World. Stephen King's Cell might be worth a look, too. The book is rubbish, but it includes a good look at people's (King's?) fears of cellphones.

[OrphanPip]

I suppose an early work of scientific utopianism like Francis Bacon's New Atlantis might be useful to you. Also, Book III of Swift's Gulliver's Travels is often read as a critique of the Royal Society and contemporary inventors.

[Calidore]

My first thought was Neuromancer as well. I don't know how well it has aged, but it was groundbreaking and hugely influential at the time

[Paulclem]

Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais has a parody of the scientific method:

Chapter 13 How Grandgousier realised Gargantua's marvellous intelligence by his invention of an arse-wipe.

[Emil Miller]

Look no further than E.M.Forster's 1906 short story 'The Machine Stops'. It predicts the internet and the collapse of civilisation as a result of new technology.

[AuntShecky]

The hero of Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" introduces "modern" (at the time) sensibility and devices into an anachronistic setting to a great, comic effect.

[kev67]

I read Hard Times by Charles Dickens recently, which is in part about the impact of heavy industry on society, including pollution, monotonous de-skilled work and industrial accidents. It also criticised laisser-faire and utilitarian economic theories, which Dickens suspected were self-serving. The main target of the book was education. Dickens supposed that hothousing children exclusively with factual or technical information would result in emotionally stunted young adults.

[kbwebster]

Thanks everyone, fantastic input with some books I have somehow managed to forget about! Really appreciate the help!

[luhsun]

Robots series by asimov and collaborators.. how men and robots may coexist or clash seen through the various permutations of the 3 laws of robotics

[wreade1872]

Don't know if this is useful but there's a really interesting idea written kind of like a story, its a bit hard to describe but check out Roadtown by Edgar Chambless.
Its about redesigning towns so that they run in one continuous line instead of the way we live today, its really interesting and ends up with a sort of socialist commune kind of feel to it.
I'm sure it wouldn't work... but i can't figure out WHY it wouldn't .
[Text available on archive.org.]

Oh and you could also check out the book version of the classic film Metropolis. Thea von Harbou helped write the film then took her notes and expanded them into a full book. Its kind of odd, the way machines are described i could never tell whether they were symbolically in peoples heads or literally plugged in, Matrix style.
[Text available on Manybooks.net.]

[kelby_lake]

Crash by JG Ballard. I haven't read the novel but the film is certainly a nightmarish tale of technology (in this case cars) deadening us to any feeling.

[sandy14]

Both Crash & The Machine Stops are good recommendations. I'd add Huxley's Brave New World. In addition the poetical works of John Clare which features a reaction to the enclosure movement & railways. Take a look at Clare's The Moors.

In addition, Dickens - the first chapter of Hard Times - Coketown is worthy of consideration & Shelley's Frankenstein.