Authors :
Yirjum Loyi
Volume/Issue :
Volume 11 - 2026, Issue 1 - January
Google Scholar :
https://tinyurl.com/yvtm6htn
Scribd :
https://tinyurl.com/8at8kaft
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.38124/ijisrt/26jan1448
Note : A published paper may take 4-5 working days from the publication date to appear in PlumX Metrics, Semantic Scholar, and ResearchGate.
Abstract :
In contemporary dystopian fiction, overt authoritarian violence has given way to more subdued, bureaucratic
forms of control. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami depicts a near future in which surveillance capitalism, artificial
intelligence, and predictive algorithms influence daily existence. The book, which is set in Los Angeles in the 2040s, depicts
a society where freedom is only granted under certain conditions, dreams are tracked, and risks are measured through ones
digital footprints.This article examines how The Dream Hotel depicts capital surveillance and AI policing as intertwined
systems that control mobility, bodies, and minds. The study explores how algorithmic governance, while portraying itself as
impartial and effective, reproduces earlier forms of racialized and gendered control by heavily referencing the novel's
narrative details, characters, and institutional spaces. By foregrounding the surveillance of dreams and interior life, Lalami
exposes the psychological reach of future policing systems. Ultimately, the novel suggests that the most dangerous forms of
surveillance are those that operate through comfort, care, and economic logic rather than force, making dystopia feel not
distant, but familiar.
Keywords :
Dystopian Fiction, AI Policing, Surveillance Capitalism, Laila Lalami, Speculative Fiction.
References :
- Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Vintage Books, 1977.
- Lalami, Laila. The Dream Hotel. Pantheon Books, 2025.
- Zuboff, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. PublicAffairs, 2019.
In contemporary dystopian fiction, overt authoritarian violence has given way to more subdued, bureaucratic
forms of control. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami depicts a near future in which surveillance capitalism, artificial
intelligence, and predictive algorithms influence daily existence. The book, which is set in Los Angeles in the 2040s, depicts
a society where freedom is only granted under certain conditions, dreams are tracked, and risks are measured through ones
digital footprints.This article examines how The Dream Hotel depicts capital surveillance and AI policing as intertwined
systems that control mobility, bodies, and minds. The study explores how algorithmic governance, while portraying itself as
impartial and effective, reproduces earlier forms of racialized and gendered control by heavily referencing the novel's
narrative details, characters, and institutional spaces. By foregrounding the surveillance of dreams and interior life, Lalami
exposes the psychological reach of future policing systems. Ultimately, the novel suggests that the most dangerous forms of
surveillance are those that operate through comfort, care, and economic logic rather than force, making dystopia feel not
distant, but familiar.
Keywords :
Dystopian Fiction, AI Policing, Surveillance Capitalism, Laila Lalami, Speculative Fiction.
