To be honest, I would like to find something like this: the world is ruled by a small group of people living in paradise without denying themselves anything, the world’s population is small, robots work everywhere instead of people, all entertainment content is done by AI, ordinary people live in poverty, often take cheap drugs to escape from reality.
I just want to look at our very likely future and how writers describe it. I want to get a taste of despair. It would be Ironic funny if the book was called something like: when hell looks like heaven.
About a year ago, I think I found a similar book, but I forgot the name.
Not exactly what you’re after but William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy is pretty close minus the small population and only small parts of the population live in some sort of paradise. There’s also Burning Chrome, which is set in the same universe but is a series of short stories. It’s a dystopian near future sci-fi noir that is considered to have basically started the whole cyberpunk genre. Punchy writing, would recommend.
“The Naked Sun” by Isaac Asimov.
Follow up to “The Caves Of Steel,” but it can work as a stand alone.
In the future, humanity is split between the inhabitants of the Earth and the Spacers.
Earth people live in vast mega-cities and most are agoraphobics who would never step outside. They also hate and fear robots.
Spacers live on distant planets [FTL drive is real] On one world the population is limited to 50,000 humans, and each one owns hundreds, if not thousands of robots.
When I was like 11 or 12, “The Naked Sun” was the first non-kid’s novel I read all the way through. There were parts that didn’t resonate bc I was just a kid but it was a memorable experience and I spent the next 6 years reading all the science fiction I could get my hands on.
Reminds me of something Asimov said in a Q+A.
He was asked 'What do you consider “The Golden Age of Science Fiction?” ’
“Age 12.”
Breakout is a techno-thriller grounded in real science. Enjoyed this one.
Thanks.
Why do you want to do this to yourself?
I think it’s better to see it in art form beforehand, maybe it will give me the courage.
Or maybe it will sink you deeper. I rather go in the opposite direction and learn to rely less and less on whatever they try to sell me. “You will own nothing and be happy”, jokes on them, the older I get the more I realise I need less and less.
