{"title":"Science, Technology \u0026 Futures","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"biological-war","title":"Biological War","description":"\u003csection aria-labelledby=\"biological-overview\"\u003e\u003ch2 id=\"biological-overview\"\u003eAbout Biological War: A Scenario\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnnie Jacobsen’s reported nonfiction examines a biological catastrophe through a scenario that follows the spread of infection and the strain on the systems meant to respond. Interviews with experts in government, medicine, and the military inform its account of how a small beginning could have consequences across society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003ePreparedness and Human Choices\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book invites readers to distinguish between a scenario and a prediction. What does following events over time reveal that a general description of risk would miss? Consider the relationship between technical capability, institutional preparation, and decisions made under uncertainty. Which questions concern individual judgment, and which concern the way institutions are organized?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eElliot Ackerman’s Reading Context\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the recommendation supplied in the authoritative project spreadsheet, Ackerman describes the book as chilling and informative, yet says his response also included gratitude that humanity had not visited such terrors on itself. He expresses respect for Jacobsen’s work. That response offers readers a way to discuss the relationship between imagining catastrophe and recognizing the human choices that can prevent it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eWatch the 92NY Conversation\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJacobsen discusses the book with Ackerman at 92NY.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nnhUb6SjGwE?si=pZUCZSquDOoplkYX\" title=\"Elliot Ackerman in conversation with Annie Jacobsen about Biological War at 92NY\" style=\"max-width:100%;width:100%;aspect-ratio:16\/9;height:auto;\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/book-club\/august-2026-book-club-pick-biological-war-a-scenario\"\u003eRead the Biological War: A Scenario Book Club reading guide\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/section\u003e\u003c!-- Book context: Biological War: A Scenario; Annie Jacobsen; reported nonfiction; biological warfare; biosecurity; preparedness; Dutton hardcover July 28, 2026, ISBN 9798217046034, 432 pages. Elliot reading response supplied in authoritative spreadsheet; observed 92NY video retained. --\u003e","brand":"Annie Jacobsen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47477579055266,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0717\/9200\/1186\/files\/Biological_War_by_Annie_Jacobsen.jpg?v=1786478153"},{"product_id":"starship-troopers","title":"Starship Troopers","description":"\u003csection aria-labelledby=\"starship-overview\"\u003e\u003ch2 id=\"starship-overview\"\u003eAbout Starship Troopers\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert A. Heinlein’s military science-fiction novel follows Johnnie Rico into the Mobile Infantry. Training places him under extreme pressure before he enters the Terran Federation’s interstellar conflict with the Arachnids. His account follows the development of a recruit into a soldier while examining the demands of service.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eService, Responsibility, and Citizenship\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe novel invites a close reading of the relationship between military institutions and political life. Consider where Rico’s experiences support the ideas he is taught and where readers might question them. The book’s enduring controversy provides room for disagreement about authority, obligation, and the kinds of responsibility a society asks of its citizens.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eElliot Ackerman’s Reading Perspective\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn his March 11, 2025 reading list for The Week, Elliot Ackerman discusses the novel’s citizenship questions and recalls that his Marine infantry platoon read it as part of its required reading. He also distinguishes Heinlein’s book from the later film adaptation. \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/culture-life\/books\/elliot-ackerman-favorite-books-war-duty\"\u003eRead his published reading list\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003eQuestions for Book Club Readers\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow does the first-person account shape your judgment of the Federation? What does the training narrative reveal about the individual and the unit? How can a reader distinguish the narrator’s beliefs from the questions a novel makes available? Discussing those tensions can keep the conversation attentive to both the story and its political imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/book-club\/book-club-reading-guide-starship-troopers\"\u003eRead the Starship Troopers Book Club reading guide\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/section\u003e\u003c!-- Book context: Starship Troopers; Robert A. Heinlein; military science fiction; Johnnie Rico; Mobile Infantry; Terran Federation; listed Ace paperback ISBN 9780441014101, June 27, 2006, 288 pages. --\u003e","brand":"Robert A. Heinlein","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47668519665826,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0717\/9200\/1186\/files\/9780441014101.tif?v=1794095030"},{"product_id":"dune","title":"Dune","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDune\u003c\/em\u003e by Frank Herbert.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the desert planet Arrakis, Paul Atreides becomes caught in a struggle where political ambition, religious expectation and the demands of the environment are inseparable. Frank Herbert builds a world in which survival and power depend on understanding the same scarce resources.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRead it for the questions beneath the adventure: how leaders acquire authority, how belief can be used and how a landscape shapes human choices. Those questions make the novel especially rewarding to discuss beyond its plot.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Frank Herbert","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50822296469666,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0717\/9200\/1186\/files\/9780441013593.jpg?v=1793937656"},{"product_id":"the-ministry-for-the-future","title":"The Ministry for the Future","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Ministry for the Future\u003c\/em\u003e by Kim Stanley Robinson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKim Stanley Robinson uses imagined eyewitness accounts to explore the human consequences of climate change. The scale is planetary, but the narrative keeps returning to the lives through which a crisis becomes real.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRead it for the challenge of connecting individual experience to collective action. It opens a conversation about what fiction can make visible when the dimensions of a problem exceed any single person's perspective.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp class=\"book-cover-credit\"\u003eOrbit paperback, ISBN 9780356508863. Cover image courtesy of Hachette Australia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEdition note:\u003c\/strong\u003e The cover shows the Orbit paperback (ISBN 9780356508863). The Apple Books option is the US Orbit ebook (ISBN 9780316300162).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kim Stanley Robinson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50822296535202,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0717\/9200\/1186\/files\/download.jpg?v=1794248790"},{"product_id":"machines-like-me","title":"Machines Like Me","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMachines Like Me\u003c\/em\u003e by Ian McEwan.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn an alternative 1982 London, Charlie buys a synthetic human and helps design its personality with Miranda, the woman he loves. Ian McEwan brings artificial intelligence into an intimate relationship already marked by secrets.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe novel asks what moral understanding requires beyond intelligence. Read it for the tension between consistent principles and the evasions, compromises and attachments through which human beings live.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ian McEwan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50822334283938,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0717\/9200\/1186\/files\/9780525567035.tif?v=1794093217"},{"product_id":"the-singularity-is-near","title":"The Singularity Is Near","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Singularity Is Near\u003c\/em\u003e by Ray Kurzweil.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRay Kurzweil argues that technological development could transform intelligence, longevity and the meaning of being human. His account presents an expansive and optimistic vision while acknowledging profound consequences.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRead it as an argument whose assumptions deserve examination. Separate forecasts from evidence, and ask how the imagined benefits and risks depend on who controls and gains access to the technologies described.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ray Kurzweil","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50822352109730,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0717\/9200\/1186\/files\/9780143037880.tif?v=1794095335"},{"product_id":"super-sad-true-love-story","title":"Super Sad True Love Story","description":"\u003cp\u003eGary Shteyngart sets a love story inside an America coming apart. Financial anxiety, social-media pressure, political coercion and the pursuit of perpetual youth shape the world in which Lenny Abramov meets Eunice Park. Lenny's attachment to printed books already makes him an awkward inhabitant of that future. The possibility of intimacy has to compete with the systems through which people measure themselves and one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe novel's satire works on two scales at once. A national crisis supplies the public setting; embarrassment, desire and fear of rejection supply the private one. Lenny and Eunice are not simply illustrations in an argument about technology. Their relationship gives the larger argument its emotional stakes: what becomes of affection when people learn to regard both themselves and prospective partners as products?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a useful book to read beyond the question of which predictions came true. That question can obscure the more durable inquiry into status and mortality. The fear of being left behind, of becoming unattractive or irrelevant, is older than any device. Shteyngart places those familiar vulnerabilities in an exaggerated future so that their workings are difficult to ignore.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor discussion, consider the uneasy alliance between comedy and tenderness. When does the satire bring the characters into focus, and when does it tempt us to judge them from a safe distance? The novel offers a way to think about what literature can preserve when a culture increasingly mistakes information about a person for knowledge of one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEdition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Random House Trade Paperbacks paperback, 2011-05-03, 352 pages. ISBN 9780812977868. This listing identifies a publisher-documented reading edition; the printing visible in the New York library photograph has not been established.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/166486\/super-sad-true-love-story-by-gary-shteyngart\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003eBuy the paperback from Penguin Random House\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gary Shteyngart","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50851381280930,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0717\/9200\/1186\/files\/book-9780812977868-native.jpg?v=1794369030"}],"url":"https:\/\/elliotackerman.com\/collections\/books-science-technology-futures.oembed","provider":"Elliot Ackerman","version":"1.0","type":"link"}