On a future Earth poisoned by global wars—amidst radioactive dust and neon signs beckoning people toward a sweet life in colonies on other planets—bounty hunter Rick Deckard must track down and ‘retire’ six fugitive androids: beings almost indistinguishable from humans. But as his investigation unfolds, Deckard begins to be plagued by doubts and questions—questions to which he has yet to...

*Summa Technologiae* marked the culmination of the classical era of future studies. In this book, Stanislaw Lem conducted a unique and bold technological analysis of civilizations. He examined the potential emergence of fundamentally new groups of scientific disciplines and completely rejected simple extrapolative models of the future. Written over forty years ago, the book remains entirely...

H.G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer and a ‘founding father’ of the science fiction genre. Although H.G. Wells’s novels lack the trappings of the modern world—such as computers, space shuttles, and particle accelerators—they continue to be read with undiminished interest and will never disappear from bookshelves.

Sasha, a young computer programmer from Leningrad, is driving through the forests of Northwest Russia to meet up with some friends for a nature vacation. He picks up a couple of local hitchhikers, who persuade him to come work with them at the National Institute for the Technology of Witchcraft and Thaumaturgy, or NITWiT. The adventures Sasha has in the largely dysfunctional Institute involve...