Science fiction is such an enduring genre because it changes with our times. It's always funny to look back on what the past thought the future was going to be like. Like the Jetsons thought we would have rockets to take us from place to place, and Back to the Future thought we'd have hoverboards. What is with our obsession with flying objects? I'm sure our current predictions for the future will look just as silly to us in the future. Or they'll be dead on and everyone will be terrified.
The point is, that science fiction is always a product of its time. No matter what period it's set in, it will reflect the settings in which it was made. That's why so many people think Star Wars was partly an allegory about the war in Vietnam. No matter how far out we go, we're ultimately talking about ourselves. The same can be said about these sci-fi memes.