Non-Fiction Highlights: The Impact of Technology on Society

There’s nothing like the experience of reading a fascinating non-fiction book: having your curiosity teased, assumptions challenged, knowledge nourished. The only thing better is reading a few of them. Entirely new things are created in the bright and lively disco-temple of your head; knowledge and ideas meet and discreetly procreate, and something vital and original comes into being.

Mr B’s Non-Fiction Highlights are curated lists of books designed to speak to one another. They are at once a collection of individual voices-each title comes as a recommended read for its subject-and a great choir: in combination, you get a fuller, more grounded and satisfyingly interconnected reading experience.

Are you excited, concerned, or confused about recent developments in AI? Are you interested in how big tech, gamification, and social media affect our day-to-day lives? These are the solidly analogue books for you. I particularly recommend ‘The Tyranny of Algorithms’ by Argentinian philosopher Miguel Benasayag for an exploration of how technological development has interacted with the history of Western thought, and the threats posed by AI to individual freedom and social cohesion. There’s also ‘You’ve Been Played’ by neuroscientist and video game developer Adrian Hon, a warning siren from within the video game industry about the ways in which gamification is creeping into education, work and public life, suppressing wages and threatening individual autonomy; it’s a must-read.