ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on the ideas of economic sociologist Jens Beckert to situate technosocial speculations by managers and entrepreneurs in the “as if” structure of capitalist economic discourse and practice. The chapter identifies such speculations as “business science fiction.” Business science fiction is not a description of the state of the art in automation but an attempt to influence future expectations. In its most ideologically crystalline form, business science fiction seeks to educate desire for a more fully automated capitalism managed by a technocratic alliance of engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs.
