Communications Breakdown

SF Stories about the Future of Connection

Jonathan Strahan

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Year: 2023
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9780262376204
• Subtopic: Science Fiction
• Index: Literature

In Communications Breakdown, award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan asks some of the world's best science fiction writers to consider how the very idea of communication might change in the future. Rich terrain for speculation, this anthology brims with human stories about the future face of our age-old need to connect. As cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson said, "The future is already here—it's just not evenly distributed." So what happens when inequalities keep the future from everyone's front door? Who is in control? These stories show humanity's ability to construct the best possible worlds while also battling our potential to inflict unlimited harm.

Communications Breakdown features contributions from Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Famer Cory Doctorow, the winner of the Times of India AutHer Award Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Hugo Award winner Ian McDonald, as well as an interview with digital privacy activist Chris Gilliard by author and journalist Tim Maughan. Breaking down how we think about communication, Communications Breakdown calls readers to look at how vulnerable our modes of communication—and indeed, we ourselves—are.

Contributors
Elizabeth Bear, S.B. Divya, Cory Doctorow, Chris Gilliard, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Ken Macleod, Tim Maughan, Ian McDonald, Anil Menon, Premee Mohamed, and Shiv Ramdas. Artwork by Ashley Mackenzie

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Here Instead of There
• 2 Moral Hazard
• 3 Sigh No More
• 4 Less Than
• 5 What about Privacy?
• 6 The Excommunicates
• 7 Noise Cancellation
• 8 My City Is Not a Problem
• 9 Cuttlefish
• 10 Company Man
• 11 At Every Door a Ghost
• Artwork: Ashley Mackenzie
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors