Welcome to the Tech & Lit Book Corner

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The Lit Side:

I have always loved to read but I had lost the habit once I was in college and reading at unprecedented volumes for class it sucked out the energy I had to read for fun. When I started my most recent job I found myself with ample time with an hour and a half door-to-door commute and decided to fill as much of that train time reading and have been trying to catch up since. And reading has been a great comfort to turn to during the pandemic in 2020 and going into 2021.

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The Tech Side:

Of course you can see this more on the main site, but I have been a data scientist/analyst for the last five years and studied Information Science and Statistics in undergrad. While I have primarily been in healthcare, data and technology are becoming increasingly ubiquitous . It's been incredible to see how the data and technology field is constantly changing and evolving and observing both its wonderful and harmful effects on the world and how people and societies are learning to adapt to having technology in all aspects of life.

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How is Tech Represented in Literature?

While this isn't universally the case, one of the most fascinating things for me to see as a reader is the skepticism that the arts and literary world have on the evolution of technology. Whether the book is a well-researched nonfiction study or speculative fiction, I've noticed that writers get to really explore with the human and/or societal relationship with technology. Do humans become incredibly dependent or even obsessive with new technology? Are humans ignorant or choose to ignore the extent of data capture on us and the types of decisions large entity systems that leverage this information? How does this impact how we relate or connect with one another? Sometimes books engage in compelling thought experiments, developing fantastical worlds to give us an alternate setting to explore how the technology of today could potentially manifest into the dystopian world of tomorrow.

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What's my perspective in all this?

I believe in the future of data and technology (and not just because it is currently paying my bills). We can do so much good with ongoing research and development of new algorithms and devices especially in healthcare. However, just like the science that backs the healthcare field, we need a similar framework to bring a healthy skepticism to any new development. What we really need is a balance.

My goal is to start this blog to connect the data and tech applications I work with on a daily basis to the broader world view that our media and literature see these advancements. I'll be reading books from non-fiction accounts of data and technology today, to science fiction dating back decades ago to try to explore the ever-changing relationship between humanity and technology.