"After Yang," the second feature by Kogonada, takes place in a speculative future that looks uncannily like our listless present, with holograph-like phone calls that resemble Zoom and domestic interiors that could have been lifted from an Architectural Digest slide show. The technology has improved in this world, populated with clones and friendly robots known as "technosapiens," which are practically indistinguishable from biological humans. Looming in the background is the hint that some catastrophic geopolitical conflict has ignited between China and the U.S., but the central crisis of the film takes place much closer to home. Based on a short story by Alexander Weinstein, "After Yang" follows the everyday lives of a couple, Jake and Kyra (Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith), and their beloved technosapien, Yang (Justin H. Min), whom they purchase to help their adopted daughter, Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), connect to her Chinese heritage. Early on, however, Yang starts to malfunction--suddenly glitching in the living room, in the middle of a multiplayer game reminiscent of Dance Dance Revolution.

Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution is a technothriller that follows the hunt for a terrorist through the streets of a future Washington, DC. More than 300 factual explanations and predictions (with endnotes) are baked into the story, and the research for it ranged from assembling the latest job automation reports to interviews with AI scientists and water-system cybersecurity experts. This is the first chapter, where we meet the main character, FBI special agent Lara Keegan, who is responding to an emergency alert at Washington's Union Station. Soon Keegan will be assigned to test out a robotic policing tool and launched into a conspiracy whose mastermind is using cutting-edge tech to tear the nation apart. The man's greasy red beard and braided Viking-style Mohawk had likely not been washed in a couple weeks, but the way that he cradled his AR-15 assault rifle made it clear he took care of what most mattered to him.