80s landscapes and human vs machine

[novoline]

Hello Everyone,
I'm new here; I'm doing some research for my work and am finding it very difficult to find sources for the topic I'm interested in. I'm hoping posting here can generate some suggestions.

I'm interested in finding writings that are set in the latter half of the 1980's, dealing with computers, automated systems, and networks taking over or improving on the human tasks. I don't necessarily mean as a central theme, only that the topic is dealt with in some way. I'm not talking about a sort of prediction of what the late 80s will be like from the past, but rather a concurrent reflection or later re-examination of the era through fiction.
A good but not Sci-fi example would be David Foster Wallace's The Pale King: older technology (reel-to-reel mainframes, punchcard systems) that served the bureaucracy and the prospect of newer automated systems that can virtually replace entire departments of the IRS.
Any suggestions are welcome, and thanks, all the best

n

 

[gully_foyle]

Umm, that's pretty specific. The period you speak of was dominated by the rise of cyberpunk, which essentially examined and conjectured on our networked world, data as a coMmodity and the cult of corporate identity. Where to start? Why, Neuromancer by William Gibson ofcourse.

 

[novoline]

Umm, that's pretty specific. The period you speak of was dominated by the rise of cyberpunk, which essentially examined and conjectured on our networked world, data as a coMmodity and the cult of corporate identity. Where to start? Why, Neuromancer by William Gibson ofcourse.

Cyberpunk is where to start, and in fact, that's where I started. I'm hoping to find books that were written during that time or later that examined the 1980s and its rising digital reliance in accordance with what was happening at the time culturally. Cold war, Consumerism, Reagan's economic boom, the rise of PC's, etc. Notice i'm not talking about digital culture or networks here, once we get into Gibson, et al it's in a territory that is very well known and thus not too useful for my research.