Fun reading for budding computer scientists

Tunnel made from books

The Computer Science Reading List

You can learn a lot of computer science reading fiction. So here is our reading list of novels and short stories containing lessons for budding computer scientists. Some fiction explains in an interesting way, some makes you think, some explores the effects on society of our technology, some gives you a window on to the way the world is now and some can give you ideas of things to build (or not build).

This is our fun, fiction reasing list, For more serious reading see our TLC Reading List

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Going Postal is by far the most fun way to learn about computer networks on any planet in any universe, real, imagined or riding on the backs of elephants on top of a turtle… (read the review)

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Service Model is about a utopian (or is it dystopian) future where humans have outsourced everything to AI and robots, allowing them to live a life of pleasure? Read it to think about what it means to be a tool following a program v a self-aware human, the ethics of AI and whether we should be thinking about who really benefits from AI: society as a whole or just a few….. (read the review)

The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster

Rusting cogs and a clock

How reliant on machines should we let ourself become? E.M. Forster’s short story written in 1909 covers themes of whether we should let ourself become disconnected from the physical world and the problems of becoming over-reliant on technology…and what would happen if it all stopped (as we have started to see happening with the consequences of bugs and cyber attacks leading to country and world-wide outages)….. (read the review)

More to come of course!