How to Fictionalize New & Changing Tech

[Hopscotch]

Curious to hear what scifi writers think of this approach:

How to Fictionalize New Technology Even As It’s Constantly Changing
Claire Stanford on a Novelist's Approach to Tech
Literary Hub   April 19, 2022

“…As I came to realize [in writing her first novel Happy For You], this was a two-fold problem. First, there was the actual hardware and software that was always advancing….And second, there was the ever-developing political context of internet technology…

“More complex was building the app, JOYFULL [that is central to her story]…What if JOYFULL wasn’t a finished app, but was in process? This decision—to make the app in development rather than fully existing out in the world—was one of the keys to writing about the technology. An app in development could be imperfect; an app in development could have glitches….

“I began to think of the app as a character in its own right, one with its own distinct voice and its own slant on the world. Thinking of the app as its own character freed me from trying to mimic existing technology…By giving the app its own individuality, it began to matter less what else was happening in hardware and software developments; this was the way JOYFULL spoke, this was the way JOYFULL thought….”

https://lithub.com/how-to-fictionalize-new-technology-even-as-its-constantly-changing/

[Jeff Tanyard]

What she describes has been done before.

Heinlein did something very similar in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.  His "app" was the HOLMES IV computer that achieves self-awareness early in the novel and develops its personality throughout the book.