My friends and I argue about this all the time - does the world go the way of Star Trek, or Blade Runner? "The Culture Series," or "Snow Crash?"

I think dystopic cyberpunk universes are unsustainable - I don't get how you can cram hundreds of millions of under-classed people into what are essentially poverty ghettos without a total outright revolution, or just an apocalypse event that resets the technological scale or eradicates the human race. My perspective is that improvements in automation will lead to inevitably a realization that "working for food" is a dated concept that will go away. Hopeful, sure, but it's that or death in my opinion.

To see a business betting on the other end-game... that's harrowing.