Chester Publlic Library will host a “watch party” for this Zoom event. The series of events continues with Speculating About Our AI Future with Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu and Martha Wells, and will take place via Zoom at 7 PM on Thursday, Jan. 11. These three science fiction  authors will discuss the promise, perils and possible impacts that artificial intelligence will have on our future. 

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently “The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual; “Red Team Blues,” a science fiction crime thriller; “Chokepoint Capitalism,” nonfiction about monopoly and creative labor markets; the Little Brother series for young adults; “In Real Life,” a graphic novel and the picture book “Poesy the Monster Slayer.” In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Ken Liu (kenliu.name) is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, he wrote the “Dandelion Dynasty,” a silkpunk epic fantasy series (starting with “The Grace of Kings”), as well as short story collections “The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories” and “The Hidden Girl and Other Stories.” He also penned the Star Wars novel “The Legends of Luke Skywalker.” Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer and litigation consultant. Liu frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking and the mathematics of origami.

Martha Wells (marthawells.com) has been a fiction writer since her first fantasy novel was published in 1993, and her work includes “The Books of the Raksura” series, the “Ile-Rien” series, “The Murderbot Diaries” series, and other fantasy novels, most recently “Witch King” (Tordotcom, 2023). She has also written media tie-in fiction for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: the Gathering, as well as short fiction, YA novels and non-fiction. She has won Nebula Awards, Hugo Awards and Locus Awards, and her work has appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the BSFA Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, the Sunday Times Bestseller List and the New York Times Bestseller List. She is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and her books have been published in twenty-five languages. 

Author events are often a cornerstone of library programming. Throughout the pandemic, these events continued virtually as libraries collaborated to host authors and speakers. This ensured that Illinois communities had access to events that may otherwise be unattainable for a single library due to budget or production constraints. Illinois Libraries Present brought together diverse communities, ensured access to patrons across the state, and expanded the speaker’s platform. 

Speculating about Our AI Future with Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, and Martha Wells is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present (ILP), a statewide collaboration among public libraries offering premier events.

Illinois Libraries Present is funded in part by a grant awarded by the Illinois State Library, a department of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). Illinois Libraries Present is committed to inclusion and accessibility.