StinkyJay

I don't think DFW set out purposefully to write a technically accurate prophetic piece of science-fiction in the way Clark or Asimov did, he wrote out of the typical literary author's urge to clear away an individual's crushing existential dread.

What's amazing is technology in American(or O.N.A.N) culture is presented as the cure for existential dread, so the technology itself is a like a literary character, it's almost the antagonist.

David Foster Wallace had an uncanny prophetic ability in Infinite Jest, he describes a company called Interlace which is essentially just Netflix. He also describes the failure of video-phoning because of social pressure

When I was reading the passages about new technology and the de-contextualation of media I was actually stuck by how the reality of media and communications landscape has eclipsed the novel in terms of absurdity. We now don't just phone instead of video-chat we text each other, now instead of physically owning entertainment cartridges we just receive a 30-day license that allows us to watch it. The truth as always has surpassed fiction.