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Re:Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed ... by kadoban on Wednesday June 16, 2021 @09:35AM (#27528354)
A _lot_ of sci-fi in general is social commentary and/or recreational sociology.

By moving the setting to an unfamiliar one, you can make parallels to back to _familiar_ societies in a way that allows the audience to see them with a new eye. It's a nice trick to get around familiarity blindness and sidestep some biases.

Re:Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed ... by handrous on Wednesday June 16, 2021 @11:18AM (#27529486)
Black Mirror's Fifteen Million Merits is entirely an exercise in this.

"Gee, the apparent pointlessness of these jobs sure is dystopic, huh?" pauses, stares significantly straight at the audience

"Turning every little thing into a carefully-metered financial transaction sure is dystopic, huh?" pauses, stares at audience

"These screen-centric disconnected lives sure are dystopic, huh?" stares at audience

"Really horrible how they shit on the infirm or those who otherwise fall out of society and don't take their pointless jobs seriously enough, huh? I mean, what an awful system, right? Why, this is so obviously terrible and evil that it'd never exist in real life, in such a blatant way. Just ridiculous." stares at audience, judging them

"Amazing how this society's mass media so effectively and complete captures and commercializes dissent, isn't it? How awful!" stares at audience

"All these people could have just left and gone off into the forest instead of participating in, being ground down by, or willfully perpetuating this nonsense, and didn't just because that's scary and unfamiliar? What kind of cowards and/or monsters must these people be?" stares loooooong and hard at the audience

Re:Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed ... by godelski on Wednesday June 16, 2021 @01:55PM (#27531444)
Most stories are in general, but sci-fi in particular looks at society, politics, and their relationship to technology. Sci-fi frequently addresses issues of wealth inequality. I'm always amazed at how many people didn't realize Blade Runner was a critique on Reganomics.