i'm usually the guy pointing out emerging patterns in story selection so i was a little surprised that you chose this week to mention it.
the war theme was definitely strong (especially if you include
the bloodless invasion) but the last one was a month ago. there's only been two ai stories for several months (
another mentions an ai that never enters stage) but there was a block around the hugo nominations. you may have to resign yourself to this one, ai is to 2010 what space travel was to 1960. the theme of 'technology changes but people don't' is harder to get a grip on since it's more subjective.
i get the impression that you're including the last two stories in this but i would disagree.
the masks changed the very nature people;
book technology had changed what it was to be human and when books become obsolete it was going to change again. they fit under the broader category of 'changing technology and how it affects people' but that's not so much a trope of the genre as it is an identifying feature.
the book store in particular struck me as a new direction for ep. it's been years since they ran a story that simply looks at an emerging technology and speculates on what kind of cool changes could result. plenty of stories about how technology could be used to dehumanize & oppress (
implant memories to make people miserable,
isolate the sexes from each other entirely) but nothing about how things could get better. it's been oddly incongrouous on a show with the tag line 'have fun.'
my reading of the story selection over the past couple months is that they had theme oriented content left from pasts selections but made an effort to shuffle them up a bit. if we get two more ai oriented stories inside a month then, yeah, i'm there with you, but right now it feels like they're moving out of a rut instead of into one. maybe there's a new rut that you see and i don't.