It's often said that Science Fiction is the literature of change. When a culture is undergoing a lot of changes due to scientific advances and technological developments, and expects to undergo more. It's hardly surprising if stories about these changes become popular as a way of expressing people's feelings (optimistic or otherwise) about change. Another widely-held view is that Science Fiction is fiction that describes the impact of science or technology on people. To the extent that its readers are "science buffs" (never mind whether they know any science!), this may well be the chief reason we enjoy and obsess over reading it.