1 Elon: Let me tell you about my other plans. I’m trying to usher in a future Utopia where we all live and work in a virtual world!
2 Elon: Constantly plugged into the net, we’d never need to leave our homes!
3 Terry: That sounds like some sort of science fiction dystopia.
4 Elon: Utopia, dystopia... What’s the difference?!

This was admittedly inspired by the classic^[1] tweet:

Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus

— Alex Blechman (@AlexBlechman) November 8, 2021

This pretty much actually happens nowadays. Some companies are quite literally getting research ideas out of dystopian science fiction. You know all those episodes of Star Trek where Kirk or Picard has to fix a society that's gone completely bonkers? Like the one where they simulate war rather than actually bomb each other, because it's cleaner, and then have randomly designated citizens report for termination; or the one where a computer rules society and keeps everyone passive and peaceful at the cost of creativity^[2]? Twenty years from now, that society is us.

[1] Yeah, a "classic" tweet can be less than a year old. Deal with it.

[2] Okay, the dozen or so episodes like that.