Arthur C Clarke

“The book looks at humanity’s future, but it starts off right at the dawn of humanity. That’s one of the things I really like about it because…developments in AI are now prompting us to ask questions about who we are as humans and where we’ve come from. One of the dangers from some of the current discussions about AI and ethics is that it would be easy to think that we can just look at where we are now. It’s too easy to think that we’re in a very good position and have made a lot of progress, so let’s just make that progress a bit further. But what we need to do is to keep in view a long historical sweep about where we’ve come from and who we are as humans….In the novel, the spaceship’s computer HAL 9000 ‘goes bad’. The way in which the story unfolds is a really powerful way of raising all the issues that are being talked about now in relation to AI. I find the book, especially by being set in space, produces a striking depiction of the central ethical questions about our relationship with AI.” Read more...

The best books on Ethics for Artificial Intelligence

Paula Boddington,

“Childhood’s End is Clarke’s best book by a long way. Alien “overlords” land on Earth and impose – by force – a benign and workable utopia. That sounds like a whole story there, but that’s only the start of Clarke’s compact, evocative novel. “ Read more...

Science Fiction Classics

Adam Roberts, Novelist

“It captures a unique moment in the history of human discovery. It’s a combination of the transcript of that panel discussion – which took place the day before the Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit Mars in 1971 – and essays that the panel participants wrote roughly one year later. The transcript and the essays book-end one of the most spectacular unveilings we’ve had in the history of solar system exploration. The book combines the scientific with the poetic. It includes a couple of poems by Ray Bradbury, whom I think of as the poet laureate of space” Read more...

The best books on Space Exploration

Andrew Chaikin, Science Writer

“The City and the Stars inspires me about disaster diplomacy while examining two different worlds that rarely interact, except in crisis mode. In reality, we know enough about each world, and have the resources, to be able to limit disasters; but some groups in society are choosing not to do so.” Read more...

The best books on Disaster Diplomacy

Ilan Kelman, Environmentalist