alt Hacker NewsYeah, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, most science fiction depicted the world of the future as dominated by Japan… Look at Robocop 3 :)
That's just what the zeitgeist of the time was.
Computers were then just appearing (or increasing) in the public discussion, along with fears that they'll make humans less human somehow.
Like in this Computer Chronicles video about word processing [0] from 1983 at 4:08: "Some writers are concerned that computer assistance may promote dry bland writing."
Terminator appeared in 1984, and the first Alien movie in 1979 had an antagonist android. 2001 A Space Odyssey with a disagreeable AI came out in 1968. All way before the real world had anything remotely close to today's AI: It was a reaction to the appearance of computers themselves.
That just shows that humans have the same reactions whenever a new world-changing technology appears.
On the other hand, Star Trek had Data.
Ironically, the tech that people and media were mostly optimistic about turned out to be more dystopian than predicted: The internet :')