Michael Crichton spent his whole career writing books that warned of succumbing to the delusion that “we are in control.” Many of them were best-sellers; but there’s no evidence that anyone ever believed him.
In Prey, the scientific golden calf is nanotechnology; but really it could be anything. And we have the usual Crichton scenario of cocksure scientists totally losing control and being devoured by their own creation. Shades of Frankenstein. He gives the reader a few memorably creepy scenes, while he’s at it.
Crichton ultimately lost faith in these idols–if he ever had any faith in them in the first place: The Andromeda Strain, his first best-seller, suggests he was always skeptical of that “Ye shall be as gods” sales pitch.
And how the Loving Left reviled him when he died! All because he had too much integrity to hop aboard their Global Warming bandwagon. But that’s the Diversity crowd for you: death to everyone who isn’t them.
Crichton was exceptional. I can’t help. It admire his integrity to truth. Tech has changed things in the world, and while there’s great benefit, there is also great risk. He saw that.
He spent two full decades warning us against the pitfalls.
I only faintly remember reading his books, but the name brings a positive memory.
I think he’s most famous for “Jurassic Park.”