The Culture Section: We asked our readers what sci-fi or technical movies and books had the biggest impact on them. Here are the top picks.

Top Tech Movie: The Matrix

Winning four Oscars in 2000--for Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing, The Matrix stunned everyone when it came out. This second effort directed by filmmakers (and brothers) Andy and Larry Wachowski (Bound) was hailed as having a "bracing mixture of exhilarating action thrills and first-rate science fiction storytelling" by critics.

The story focuses on Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), a computer programmer in a large, faceless firm by day, and a top hacker who goes by Neo and pulls down big bucks in his clandestine life. Through a pal, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), he gets involved with a revolutionary called Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). Morpheus clues Neo in to the dark secret that the world as it appears is not the real world. Any more of a plot summary would not do justice to the movie; so if you haven't seen it, rent it!

Top Sci-Fi/Tech Fiction Book: I, Robot (1950)

If you want to get into sci-fi, this is the starting block. In this seminal collection of short stories, Isaac Asimov coined the term robotics and laid out the three laws of robotics: A robot may not harm a human or through inaction, let a human come to harm; a robot must obey humans, unless this conflicts with the first law; and a robot must protect itself from harm, unless it means harming humans or disobeying them. Many consider this collection the one of science fiction's great classics.

Top Tech Nonfiction Book: Hackers

Steven Levy's classic book tries to clarify the meaning of the word hacker. The term has evolved into a label for computer criminals, but originated with the members of the MIT model railroad club as a title of reverence for a person adept at developing elegant solutions to difficult logical problems. Levy follows these pioneers from the late 1950s as they work on ways of improving the electronic system powering their model railroad, -- coining the term hack in the process--and then as they go on to spark the computer revolution, taking the hacker tag with them. The New York Times called the book "a remarkable collection of characters... courageously exploring mindspace, an inner world where nobody had ever been before."