Klept Means Theft

Written for the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, Washington, this essay addresses the growing use of science fiction tropes and themes by the ultrarich by deploying terminology from the study of colonialism. It portrays the billionaires as klept, short for kleptocrats, a term out of William Gibson’s Jackpot series; the indigenes from whom these colonial powers steal concepts for their own corporate uses are imagined as fans of science fiction. This trend is reflected in the popular press—as discussed, for example, by sf author Charles Stross in Scientific American. The problem of the ultrarich assimilating utopian ideas and concepts out of science fiction and fantasy works threatens the otherwise equal byplay and diverse understanding of these works by fans, authors, and critics, as some examples demonstrate. But approaches exist that fans might adopt to counter this co-optation of sf concepts. References to colonialism provide a framework to discuss numerous examples taken from fiction, film, and other sf works to define the issue as significant for fans who, going forward, must work to retain their independence from a klept redefinition of utopian sf ideas.