Recommended by  Cathleen Civiello

Since the 1980s, I have been working in environments where understanding the psychology of emerging technology has been critical, both in my roles as a managerial leader and as an embedded consultant. I have often struggled with ways to easily discuss the manner in which technology can have positive and negative influence on clients, their organizations, and, often, their families. In the 1990’s I stumbled across the value of using popular fiction (e.g., novels, TV, and movies) that addressed emerging technology and related issues for organizations and people within organizations. For example, when we were first debating whether there was such a thing as internet addition and related issues associated with the depth of psychological immersion in cyberspace as related to work, my clients were huge fans of one of the later Star Trek series. It provided good examples to start conversations about their concerns.

With the current AI discussions and the need to be balanced between overenthusiastic, at times risky, rapid adoption of AI and being paralyzed by concern about risk, I found this book helpful (and fun to read despite the serious topic).