Some more dystopias which feel uncomfortably relevant:
Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler, 1993): Climate change, social inequality, and unchecked capitalism causes collapse of society. People live in small communities vulnerable to raids from criminal gangs, or give up their freedom to become indentured workes under the protection of big corporations.
The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood, 1985): Women have lost all legal and political rights, and fertile women are forced to bear children for the ruling classes. Queer people are executed.
Kodemus - or The computer who thought “What the hell” (Tor Åge Bringsværd, 1968, short story in Norwegian): Everybody have a small computer, a Little Brother, which you carry around everywhere, and which helpfully tells you what to do so you don’t have to think for yourself. When the protagonist loses his Little Brother, he breaks down, unable to make any desicions.
Murderbot series (Martha Wells, 2017): Huge corporations have (almost) all power, and there’s widespread slavery, unconsensual experiments on thinking beings, and intrusive surveillance everywhere.
And a couple of social media posts which can be read as very condensed dystopias:
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Originally Posted by Alex Blechman (2021)
Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale.
Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Adrian Bott (2015)
‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.
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