Science-fiction has predicted a lot of technologies that might come to pass, yes. But I’d argue they didn’t predict the broader social and political dynamics that would come as a result of them. So while say, you could argue Jerry Pournelle predicted the smartphone in his fiction (which he called “pocket computers”), he didn’t predict the rise of say, social media and the economic and cultural impacts of mobile computing. So I’d say, yes and no.

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I’m pretty sure broader social and political effects (as 2nd order) was unpredictable for the engineers building these technologies as well. Even the visionary ones. (Steve Jobs - App Store is one example). Ain’t it all come down to the problem of affecting human behaviour at any sizeable scale? Wether it’s political, social etc. it seems hard to predict.

It’s like you pick your shots and see what sticks

Well, that's kind of my point in my original note.