Illustration by Liz Zonarich/Harvard Staff

Arts & Culture

Science? Yes. Fiction? Maybe.

Sci-fi books recommended by faculty, staff probe AI, humanity, censorship

Sy Boles

Harvard Staff Writer

March 17, 2025

6 min read

When the future feels overwhelming, some of us stock up on canned goods while others turn to books. Science fiction has long challenged how we think about technology and society, often serving as a warning about where we are going or as an inspiration to build new worlds. The Gazette asked Harvard faculty and staff from across the disciplines to give us their recommendations.

Karen Brennan

Timothy E. Wirth Professor of Practice in Learning Technologies; Faculty Affiliate, Computer Science, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Faculty Co-Chair, Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology

‘Blindsight’

Peter Watts

“Like many people, I’m thinking a lot about artificial intelligence,” said Brennan, who directs Harvard’s Creative Computing Lab. Brennan recommended “Blindsight,” which follows a crew of augmented humans encountering alien intelligence that seems to lack self-awareness but surpasses humans in capability.

“Through the account of the crew’s increasingly disturbing interactions with the aliens, Watts invites us to confront the uncomfortable possibility that consciousness — an aspect of human intelligence that feels so essential — might actually be an evolutionary aberration, a glitch that more powerful forms of intelligence would lack, beneficially. In this time when we’re trying to make machines more like our own minds, the book’s message feels especially urgent: Perhaps we should be less concerned about artificial intelligence becoming more like us, and more concerned about what it means if it doesn’t need to be.”

Theo Anthony

Radcliffe Institute Mildred Londa Weisman Fellow and Radcliffe-Film Study Center Fellow

‘Solaris’

Stanislaw Lem

Artist and filmmaker Theo Anthony recommended the 1961 Polish novel “Solaris.”

“A team of scientists travels to the oceanic planet of Solaris, whose waters display potential signs of intelligence. Scientific interventions fail; attempts to communicate come back as staticky echoes. Meanwhile, ghosts of dead lovers haunt the crew. ‘Solaris’ is a novel about encounters at the limits of understanding — a welcome dose of humility in the face of the unknown.”

Amy Deschenes

Head of UX & Digital Accessibility at Harvard Library

‘A Rover’s Story’

Jasmine Warga

Deschenes read “A Rover’s Story,” a middle-grade novel about the journey of a fictional Mars rover, to her 7-year-old. In the story, a rover named Res, short for Resilience, communicates with humans only in code, but is fascinated by humans’ emotions and experiences.

“My son and I chatted about why some people might feel like a machine is their friend or even their child. One of the hazmats (aka humans), Rania, is fully committed to her work, but we know from letters that her daughter writes to Res that Rania is missing out on time with her family in order to make Res’ mission a success. Rania, one of the more pragmatic hazmats, unexpectedly shares a song with Res before he leaves for his mission. She tells him that she hopes he will remember her and that the song will bring him luck. This shift in her behavior, revealing that she does have an emotional connection to Res, was another point my son and I discussed. We speculated that maybe she is missing her daughter and trying to connect with Res in a more meaningful way because of this.

“As AI continues to evolve in ways I can’t even imagine, this gave my son and I the opportunity to reflect on what makes us human. It led us to discuss how machines might act as surrogates for friendship, and why they will never replace true human connections. ‘A Rover’s Story’ invites us to embrace our unique human traits, even as AI and machines become a significant part of our lives.”

Ursula Friedman

College Fellow in Contemporary Chinese/Taiwanese/Sinophone and Latin American Literature, Translation Studies, Comparative/World Literature, Media and Sound Studies

‘Exorcism’

Han Song

Much of novelist Han Song’s science fiction has been censored by the Chinese government for being “too dark,” but for Friedman, that’s part of what makes his work so great.

“The universe has been diagnosed with an incurable disease and has begun to mutate, alternately waxing poetic and killing off patients, in a last-ditch attempt to cure itself,” Friedman says. “Yang Wei awakens to find himself relegated to a geriatric ward aboard the Peace Ark, a military-ward-turned-hospital-ship governed by robots and AI beings. The ship’s operations are overseen by a glitching AI being known as Siming, whose vacillating policies clash with those of the hospital authorities.”

“‘Exorcism’ certainly feels like an instruction manual for averting disaster in today’s world, in the sense that Siming manufactures and dramatizes disaster. In the novel, the key to averting catastrophe lies in recognizing that although the universe may explode at any moment, human beings can create their own narrative culture by questioning the authorities’ version of reality and choosing pain over cultural amnesia. The ‘narrative-implant therapy’ in the novel strikes me as hauntingly similar to much of the political rhetoric spun by the U.S. media. In the novel, the hospital system alters the warp and weft of time and space, just as the current political regime attempts to skew our perception of ‘reality.’ The colorful characters aboard the Peace Ark grow inured to their own insurmountable pain as war and death rage around them. Their anesthetized bodies become war zones upon which industrial progresses clash with the impulse to forget and destroy.”

Jeff Saviano

Business AI Ethics Leader at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics

‘Fahrenheit 451’

Ray Bradbury

Saviano, an AI ethicist, recommended Bradbury’s classic cautionary tale about censorship, saying it serves as an enduring reminder about power and control of information.

“In the novel, books are outlawed, and access to knowledge is systematically erased — not just through brute force, but through a culture of distraction and passive consumption,” he said. “People in Bradbury’s novel are pacified by immersive entertainment, which diminishes their curiosity and critical thinking. It’s not just about what’s banned; it’s about what replaces it.

“This theme is particularly urgent in the new age of AI, where algorithm-driven content curation shapes what we read, watch, and even believe. Just as Bradbury’s world suppresses books in favor of shallow entertainment, today’s AI systems can amplify mindless digital engagement at the expense of deep thought and critical thinking. ‘Fahrenheit 451’ reminds us that protecting intellectual freedom requires more than just keeping books on shelves — it demands vigilance against technology that prioritizes instant gratification over meaningful understanding. A must-read for anyone thinking about AI’s role in shaping the future of knowledge.”