Materialized Science Fiction: The Tech Oligarchy’s Blueprint for a New Global Order

Abstract This article examines how Silicon Valley’s tech elite has transformed science fiction into a practical ideology of governance, what I call “materialized science fiction.” It argues that figures such as Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Marc Andreessen systematically translate speculative imaginaries into real-world strategies that reshape global power structures. Through readings of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (1992) and Dave Eggers’s The Circle (2013), the article shows how these originally critical dystopias have been appropriated by tech leaders to legitimize privatized sovereignty, algorithmic control, and oligarchic dominance, while concealing concentrated power beneath narratives of innovation and inevitability. It further contends that the rise of a tech oligarchy signals a broader transformation in International Relations, as corporate platforms increasingly rival nation-states in governing populations, security, and economies. Ultimately, the article argues that science fiction has moved beyond inspiration to function as a blueprint for sovereignty; one in which power resides not in laws or treaties but in code, capital, and the infrastructures that bind them.