Octavia Butler, mid-1990s:
"Imagine a future where food prices are high because of climate change and war, while grocery store shoppers are subjected to invasive surveillance."
Me, shopping in the mid-2020s and being told I have to wait for someone to unlock the toothpaste:
"Wait a minute."
And then they wonder why in times of unrest on the streets, some people go looting. I bet, they just want to have a short shopping experience once ...
;-)
@michael_w_busch Whilst being observed by two cameras.
I did not try to figure out where that store's security cameras were.
@Frank_Engelhard @michael_w_busch Not to mention the cameras built into the toothpaste tubes to aggregate PII about your habits to sell to dental insurance vendors.
Oct 26, 2026, 4:07 PM@cstross @Frank_Engelhard @michael_w_busch Those cameras were networked with the toothbrush sensors to serve up ads for local dental services.
@michael_w_busch the first couple pages of Parable of the Talents had me double checking the pub date. Sounded all too current during the Trump era
I first read Butler's Parables in early 2015.
A couple of months later, Trump started running for POTUS using the slogan that Butler had called two decades before.
So. Yeah.
(She was able to do that because Trump stole that slogan from Reagan.)
And yet they call science fiction "escapism"!