By Nguyễn Đặng Thiên An ’23
Staff Writer
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently announced the company’s rebranding as Meta, short for Meta Platforms, Inc. This rebranding demonstrates the advancement of technology, a topic that has been foretold in many science fiction and cyberpunk novels. According to NPR, the social media platform superimposes the digital world into the real one, allowing users to roam places such as concerts and workplaces, rendered in three dimensions.
Cyberpunk novels such as “Snow Crash” by Neale Stephenson envision how the world might grapple with highly developed technology. The novel, published in 1992, coined the term “metaverse,” predicting current fascination with futuristic technologies such as digital currency and virtual reality as an escape from the dystopian world.
The list below introduces newly released books that revolve around advanced technology.
“The Future is Yours” by Dan Frey
Published Feb. 9, 2021
In archival-style prose — emails, personal text messages, testimonials and blog spots — Dan Frey chronicles the downfall of the friendship of two young tech entrepreneurs and the cost of revolutionary technology. The genius programmer, Adhi, along with his best friend and charismatic businessman, Ben, invents a computer which allows them to see one year into the future. The novel then turns into a techno-capitalist drama as their invention becomes one of the most valuable assets of Silicon Valley, according to Kirkus Reviews. Saturated with clearly explained technical terms, “The Future is Yours” explores how clairvoyant computers connect with the data of the future, eventually leading to a data disaster.
Frey is a screenwriter and novelist based in Los Angeles. “The Future is Yours” is his second novel.
“The Startup Wife”
Published July 13, 2021
In “The Startup Wife,” author Tahmima Anam ’97 reimagines social media with meaningful human connections. According to Simon and Schuster, the protagonist Asha Ray creates an app called “We Are Infinite.” After its launch, WAI attracts many venture capital firms, press and millions of subscribers worldwide. Amidst marital turmoil and tensions in male-dominated tech culture, Asha Ray finds ways to mitigate damages to her users’ emotional investment.
Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tahmina Anam graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1997 and now resides in London. According to HarperCollins Publishers, Anam’s first novel, “A Golden Age,” was awarded the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book.
“First Woman: NASA’s Promise for Humanity”
Published: Sept. 25, 2021
According to their website, NASA’s first graphic novel, written by Brad Gann and Steven List with illustrations by Brent Donoho and Kaitlin Reid, follows Callie Rodriguez, the first woman to set foot on the moon. Rodriguez explores a fictionalized version of life on the moon, alongside her trusted robotic assistant. Achieving many accomplishments in NASA’s Artemis Missions, Rodriguez is the role model for the Artemis Generation — the next generation of moon explorers.
To further enhance the reading experience, readers can download NASA’s First Woman application to immerse themselves in the augmented reality outer space world. Through this app, NASA’s Orion spacecraft and the moon’s surface are within reach.