Issues of Identity in YA Science Fiction Depicting Artificial Intelligence and Cybernetics

This chapter examines how young adult (YA) science fiction novels explore ideas about identity through stories featuring artificial intelligence and cybernetics. The authors share patterns found across 14 science fiction texts and series and discuss the implications of these depictions for the ways secondary teachers might teach YA science fiction. Examination of these texts suggests that YA science fiction encourages readers to remember our humanity, and that these novels more often depict humans as villains rather than rogue AI. The authors also share teaching ideas, including possible text pairings, vocabulary lessons, and multimodal responses to texts. These suggested learning activities can support students analyzing ethical issues related to digital technologies through reading YA literature.