Great and thought provoking list, thank you! I would also mention “Maniac” by Benjamín Labatut, a powerful addition any anti-tech canon, tracing the dark lineage of modern technology through the life of John von Neumann. The novel explores the birth of quantum mechanics, the creation of the first computers, and the ominous rise of artifi…
Great and thought provoking list, thank you! I would also mention “Maniac” by Benjamín Labatut, a powerful addition any anti-tech canon, tracing the dark lineage of modern technology through the life of John von Neumann. The novel explores the birth of quantum mechanics, the creation of the first computers, and the ominous rise of artificial intelligence.
In the first part, Labatut recounts how scientific breakthroughs—originally driven by a search for truth—became tools of destruction, with early physicists unknowingly setting the stage for the atomic bomb. The centerpiece focuses on von von Neumann, whose genius helped design both nuclear strategy and computational logic, pushing humanity toward a mechanized, dehumanized future.
The third part envisions a world shaped by AI, where human agency fades as machines begin to outthink and outmaneuver us. Labatut presents technology not as progress, but as a force of alienation and existential peril—making Maniac a stark, lyrical warning about the cost of unchecked innovation.
Great and thought provoking list, thank you! I would also mention “Maniac” by Benjamín Labatut, a powerful addition any anti-tech canon, tracing the dark lineage of modern technology through the life of John von Neumann. The novel explores the birth of quantum mechanics, the creation of the first computers, and the ominous rise of artificial intelligence.
In the first part, Labatut recounts how scientific breakthroughs—originally driven by a search for truth—became tools of destruction, with early physicists unknowingly setting the stage for the atomic bomb. The centerpiece focuses on von von Neumann, whose genius helped design both nuclear strategy and computational logic, pushing humanity toward a mechanized, dehumanized future.
The third part envisions a world shaped by AI, where human agency fades as machines begin to outthink and outmaneuver us. Labatut presents technology not as progress, but as a force of alienation and existential peril—making Maniac a stark, lyrical warning about the cost of unchecked innovation.