I guess I would say that the story is the important thing, not the themes or real-world references or whatever. It's a novel, so above all, the story has to be compelling and the characters have to be believable and at least somewhat interesting.
With regard to real-world people, places and things, I was just aiming for verisimilitude, to make the setting (and the science and computer science) believable to people who knew the territory.
With regard to real-world people, places and things, I was just aiming for verisimilitude, to make the setting (and the science and computer science) believable to people who knew the territory.