Dunno what she thinks, Dart, but: You might be interested--American science fiction began to question & speculate on this back in the 80S & 90s, most notably derivative of the writer William Gibson (who invented the term "cyberspace".) From Wikipedia articles:
"Johnny Mnemonic" is a short story by William Gibson, and the inspiration behind the film of the same name. The short story first appeared in Omni magazine in 1981, and was subsequently included in 1986's Burning Chrome, a collection of Gibson's short fiction. It takes place in the world of Gibson's cyberpunk novels, predating them by some years, and introduces the character Molly, who plays a prominent role in Gibson's Sprawl trilogy of novels.
The Keanu Reeves film plot differs considerably from the short story, and a novelization of William Gibson's screenplay written by Terry Bisson was published in 1995 under the title of Johnny Mnemonic. In 1996 a film tie-in edition of Gibson's original short story was published as a standalone book.
The story in the movie significantly deviates from the short story, most notably turning Johnny, not girlfriend Molly, into the primary action figure. In fact, the movie transforms this girlfriend from Molly into "Jane", as the film rights to Molly were owned by a company unaffiliated with the film's producers.
Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS) is a fictional disease in the film, which is not present in the short story. NAS, also called "the black shakes", is caused by an overexposure to electromagnetic radiation from omnipresent technological devices, and is presented as a raging epidemic affecting the world in the future. The plot of the film revolves around the one pharmaceutical corporation that has found a cure but chooses to withhold it from the public in favor of a more lucrative treatment program.
"That's the way the world works... right now." --Maria Sharapova at 17
