I mean, we could speculate and explore the strange future and stuff. Just without that tired trope of “well, science and technology progressed a bunch and then we got this really great machine”.

I mean there’s gotta be another way. Examples?

36 points

The Dune universe lacks computers, which is why spice is so valuable - does that count? Still has plenty of machines, but they aren’t the story

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19 points

It’s called Dune

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18 points
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Try searching for authors who describe their work as “Speculative fiction” - that’s the way most of them don’t admit to writing low-brow schlock like sci-fi.

Also near future sci-fi tends to be a bit lighter on the “magical machine” plot tropes. Climate fiction might be worth looking into too, most of the near future books exploring possible global warming consequences aren’t all hopped up on magical technological advances.

Edit: also check out various books described as literary speculative fiction. Authors who want the intellectual cred of being a literary writer tend to land in the speculative fiction genre more often than not.

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6 points

fun fact. Science fiction is speculative fiction- it’s just a sub genre that’s evolved into its own genre (same with fantasy.)

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16 points
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Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

The Godmakers by Frank Herbert

Self-Reference ENGINE by Toh EnJoe

*Bonus: Low (comic series) from Image

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5 points

+1 for Anathem. Such a good book. It has about 5 different parts where I thought, “remember when this book was about blank.”

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3 points

Cat’s Cradle and Anathem are among my absolute favorites.

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13 points

There’s plenty of star trek episodes that are more about philosophical and societal questions than tech.

The bicentennial man by Isaac Asimov comes to mind. Which is about a robot, but in essence it’s about the philosophical question what it means to be human.

There’s Ubik by Philip K Dick, which is about about tech, when you get down to it, but in a very unique and un-tech like way.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys is not about tech, but the chronicles of a brain surgery patient that became extremely smart.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons is basically just “The Canterbury Tales” in space.

There’s plenty more stories that are not really about tech. You could try searching for dystopia themes, like “Maze runner” or “the hunger games” or “I am legend” or “wayward pines”

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3 points

Flowers for Algernon is an extraordinary piece of storytelling, without relying too much on “the machines”

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