Books on Techno-Dystopias

Question

Hey HN, I'm looking for books on techno-dystopias, I have this idea on my head I can't get out and I am sure someone out there has thought about it before and chewed on it enough to make it readable.I hope I am wrong but the future of tech looks grim, it looks like we're headed to a Caves of Cud type of future. Anything you could want has already been designed, built and distributed for sale. There was a before-and-after event, some catastrophic event, and literally nothing is usable now, because the people that made it are gone, everything has DRM software in it and trying to use it without a license (prohibitively expensive) or edit it is worth capital punishment in some justice-dispensing-robot's brain somewhere, so we're back to being basically in 1836, but poor and irradiated.I'm not well versed in the science fiction literature, have you read such books? What are your favorites? Do you know of any that fit the above description?

webmaven · Accepted Answer

There have been stabs in that general direction, though I'm not aware of anything exactly like what you're describing.Check out The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster, Unauthorized Bread by Cory Doctorow, Permanence by Karl Schroeder.

DoreenMichele · Answer

It's not a book, but Alice Grove might fit your interest. It's a web comic archived here:https://www.questionablecontent.net/alice1.html

eigengrau5150 · Answer

Try THE PASTEL CITY by M. John Harrison. It's 70s science fantasy in the Dying Earth style, set in a far future where remnants of old tech keep showing up but hardly anybody gets the underlying science.

brezelgoring · Answer

If you have a thought or something related to the idea you'd like to discuss, feel free to do it, I'd love to hear it as well (I hope this is allowed in HN)

the__alchemist · Answer

Snow Crash and The Diamond Age might fit what you're looking for, although they environments they depict aren't strict dystopias.

wnkrshm · Answer

"Autonomous" by Annalee Newitz fits the bill from reviews/summary, though I personally have not read it.

Books on Techno-Dystopias

There have been stabs in that general direction, though I'm not aware of anything exactly like what you're describing.
Check out The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster, Unauthorized Bread by Cory Doctorow, Permanence by Karl Schroeder.

It's not a book, but Alice Grove might fit your interest. It's a web comic archived here:
https://www.questionablecontent.net/alice1.html

Try THE PASTEL CITY by M. John Harrison. It's 70s science fantasy in the Dying Earth style, set in a far future where remnants of old tech keep showing up but hardly anybody gets the underlying science.

If you have a thought or something related to the idea you'd like to discuss, feel free to do it, I'd love to hear it as well (I hope this is allowed in HN)

Snow Crash and The Diamond Age might fit what you're looking for, although they environments they depict aren't strict dystopias.

"Autonomous" by Annalee Newitz fits the bill from reviews/summary, though I personally have not read it.