One of my favorite movies as a kid was My Fellow Americans (1996), starring Jack Lemmon and James Garner. Sure, I was a weird kid. But I thought the film was hilarious. I had the chance to rewatch it recently and the start of the film nearly had me in tears. It shows political presidential rivals Kramer and Douglas giving conciliation speeches when they were voted out of office. It was supposed to be funny but it rings a little harsh right now.
Modern presidential elections feel a bit terrifying, maybe even dystopian, especially the last two (and don’t forget 2000!). Naturally, I turned to books for solace. Instead of reading nonfiction books about elections, which would probably just make me more anxious, I instead chose SFF books about elections. Dystopia meets dystopia. Of course, I certainly hope our upcoming elections will bring more hope and joy than the past, but for those who need some catharsis…
Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling
(Translated by Jamie Lee Searle) Qualityland was one of those books where the book cover sold it for me. It looks like the cardboard packages that have become a part of daily life. In Qualityland, people’s lives are ruled by algorithms and ranking systems—what you do, where you can eat and drink, even whether people can take photos of you, is dependent on your ranking from 1 to 100, based on 42 categories. TheShop knows all and sees all; notably it knows what you want sometimes before you do. Yes, I find it as terrifying as you do. This was written before the sudden obsession with A.I. in the past year too!
So if you are like Peter the Jobless (his surname taken from his parents’ job), this system is not quality for him. All he wants to do is return something that he did not want, which sends seismic tremors into the system. His adventure to return this item makes Peter realize how this system does not work for him and people like him and he wants to fix that. Peter is not the only one who wants to change the world— an android named John of Us is running for president and may have a shot. Will Peter be able to return the unwanted item? Will John of Us become president and be able to make changes to make the world a more humane place?
2040: A Silicon Valley Satire by Pedro Domingos
When I heard about this title, I knew it would complement Qualityland well. This time the focus is on artificial intelligence: it’s the 2040 presidential election and one of the candidates is an A.I. bot named PresiBot, made by company KumbAI. Yeah, I can totally see that as a real company name in the future. PresiBot’s opponent is a man culturally appropriating Native American culture and pretending to be a Native American chief who promises to abolish the country. It’s a great book for folks who are tired of techbro hijinks and their obsession with technology changing the world. (I’m a little meh on the whole fake Native American chief part but the rest on A.I. stuff is chef’s kiss.) My only worry with this book is that someone might actually think PresiBot might be a good idea…
Infomocracy by Malka Older
We always talk about needing informed voters but what would that look like? In Infomocracy, Information, a company, has established centenals, micro democracies containing 100,000 people, who vote every 10 years and whichever party holds the most centenals holds a supermajority. Everyone has the information they need to make their informed decision. One party, Heritage, has been in power for twenty years, since this new world order was created, and will do anything to keep it while other parties may entertain less legal or peaceful ways to gain power. The novel focuses on events around the election with characters hailing from different parties. It’s the first of the trilogy Centenal Cycle. I love how Infomocracy takes a different route about the power of information in elections.
No Harm Can Come To a Good Man by J.P. Smythe
Where Qualityland focuses on TheShop that fulfills all of your desires, No Harm focuses on algorithms that make predictions… which we know are happening right now. In this book, ClearVista is the app of the moment. It searches the Internet and calculates probabilities for anything, including life and death. Lawrence Walker, a family man, decides to run for office, but gets a disturbing response from ClearVista about his chances of winning the presidency. Can ClearVista actually predict the future or does it help make that future happen? Can Walker remain intact despite the future predicted for him?
Beneath the Shine by Sarah Fine
Last but not least, we have this work that has been described as a YA dystopia Scarlet Pimpernel— featuring a world where technologists control all the wealth, robots have taken people’s jobs, and the elite have smartphone-like computers in their brains. When Marguerite’s video ranting about her father’s suicide goes viral, it helps elect a new president, a populist who wants to open technology for all. While she ends up befriending the new president, her role in his election and alliance has made her a pariah at her school, filled with the kids of the technologists who are unhappy about the proposed changes. Marguerite befriends Percy who seems shallow but hides his own pain about the murders of his famous scientist parents.
Things may not be great on a micro-level, nor are they great at a national level. There’s a terrorist attack and technologists are turning up dead. Marguerite and Percy find themselves in the middle of it all. Can they find out the truth of who is behind the murders and terrorist attacks? Will they survive? Elements of this remind me a little too much of 1970s Chile (which was the focus of my undergraduate thesis).
I find it fascinating that so many SFF books on elections focus on technology and the consequences of it on our lives and politics. Let me know your favorite SFF political stories in the comments!
