At Big Data London 2026, Shubhangi Dua, Katie Baker, Christina Stathopoulos and George Firican got together for a slightly different kind of tech conversation: the EM360Tech book club.
From AI and consciousness to chaos theory, cult-like behaviour and the darker side of AI innovation, their reading lists cover some surprisingly tech-adjacent territory.
George kicks things off with Dan Brown’s Secrets of Secrets, a fast-paced mystery that explores consciousness and whether it could exist beyond the human brain - raising some intriguing questions about whether AI could one day interact with something resembling a universal consciousness.
Christina takes the conversation into sci-fi with The Three-Body Problem, recommending the trilogy for its fascinating connection between fictional storytelling and the very real scientific problem of predicting the movements of three gravitationally interacting bodies.
Katie’s pick, Cultish by Amanda Montell, takes a different direction, exploring how organisations and companies can develop cult-like characteristics - and why that feels particularly relevant when looking at the culture and behaviour surrounding AI adoption.
And Shubhangi recommends Culpability by Bruce Holsinger, a work of fiction centred around an AI industry pioneer whose personal life forces questions about the goals and consequences of her career.
What should the EM360Tech community be reading next?
