5 ms·

2017 and the Rebirth of Cyberpunk

59 points by evo_9 9y ago

NewHatMatt 9y ago
Site appears overloaded. Google Cache link: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:10YWuhB_ndMJ:https://www.neondystopia.com/cyberpunk-politics-philosophy/2017-and-the-rebirth-of-cyberpunk/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:10YWuh...
pmarreck 9y ago
I think the hotly-anticipated next game entry from CD Projekt Red (fresh off their Witcher 3 smashing success) is going to push this genre even further out there... "Cyberpunk 2077": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99qJGrPNLs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99qJGrPNLs That trailer is 5 years old, now :O
- endisukaj 9y ago
  ... and no other news since that trailer. It sincerely hope they don't delay it much more. Nothing good ever came from delaying and causing a game to be over-hyped.
  - cjsuk 9y ago
    Duke Nukem Forever for example
  - aluhut 9y ago
    There are news: http://www.forceclaw.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-important-production-stage-closed-engine-running-release-date-unknown http://www.forceclaw.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-important-produ... and of course: https://twitter.com/CyberpunkGame/status/951091371200466944 https://twitter.com/CyberpunkGame/status/951091371200466944
  - millzlane 9y ago
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/27/shigeru-miyamoto-rushed-game-forever-bad https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/27...
  - michaelbuckbee 9y ago
    Overhype is never good, but it's worth noting that their last game (Witcher3) was delayed [1] and turned out to be one of my personal favorite games of all time. 1 - https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-witcher-3-delayed-again/1100-6424075/ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-witcher-3-delayed-agai...
busterarm 9y ago
It's hard for me to take this author seriously when the author makes it painfully clear that a) they don't read books and b) they don't know anything about the genre or its roots.
- CodeMage 9y ago
  The "Post-Cyberpunk" section was especially jarring. Right off the bat, the author classifies "Snow Crash" as post-cyberpunk.
  - the_af 9y ago
    Everything that's jarring about the article seems to be taken directly from tvtropes. Now, I love tvtropes, but I'd worry about basing an article on "knowledge" from that site.
  - kernelbandwidth 9y ago
    Missing Stephenson's The Diamond Age was a bit of an oversight as well, considering that Snow Crash is one of the canonical Cyberpunk novels, while The Diamond Age is (IMO) a defining Post-Cyberpunk novel. The Diamond Age opens with a Cyberpunk fake protagonist written with every Cyberpunk trope in mind, and then the fake protagonist is killed off before the end of the Prologue and the real protagonist, the slain punk's baby daughter, is revealed. Stephenson's intent is clear: "This is not a cyberpunk novel." I'd also argue that Cyberpunk does not mean "everything is terrible", nor does Post-Cyberpunk have a softer and lighter view where "not everything is terrible." Rather, the difference is whether social control is rooted in 1984 or Brave New World. From this point of view, Ghost in the Shell and Minority Report are still Cyberpunk (edit: settings); the viewer is just seeing things from a point of view other than the completely marginalized. Shadowrun is a Cyberpunk setting whether you work for a corporate power or in the streets.
- the_af 9y ago
  Agreed. The author also presents a highly confusing timeline for 1st wave cyberpunk, 2nd wave cyberpunk & postcyberpunk. Confusing enough that I don't understand why the author thinks his/her examples are 1st or 2nd wave. And I am well-versed in the genre!
zengid 9y ago
It died?
- Yuioup 9y ago
  Nah. The only reason why this article exists is because of the upcoming CD Projekt RED Cyberpunk 2077 video game.
  - klez 9y ago
    Nah. Neon Dystopia has been around long enough and Cyberpunk 2077 has started being hyped long ago enough that I don't think the article has anything to do with that.
mnzaki 9y ago
Here's to hoping 2018 is the year of solarpunk!
- Cyberdog 9y ago
  For those also wondering: > This would be a world of decentralised eco-cities, 3D printing, vertical farms, solar glass windows, wild or inventive forms of dress and design, and a vibrant cosmopolitan aesthetic; where technology is no longer used to exploit the natural world, but to automate away needless human labour and to help restore the damage the Oil Age has already done. Solarpunk desires societies of polycultural ethnic diversity and gender liberation, where each person is able to actualise themselves in societal environment of free experimentation and communal caring; and driven by an overriding ethos of compassionate rationalism, where science and reason are not seen as antithetical to imagination and spirituality, but as concepts which bring out the best in each other. https://solarpunkanarchists.com/2016/05/27/what-is-solarpunk/ https://solarpunkanarchists.com/2016/05/27/what-is-solarpunk...
- _mhr_ 9y ago
  The issue with utopian settings for me is... where's the conflict?
noir_lord 9y ago
I'm hyped for Altered Carbon series. (NF, Feb 2018). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhFM8akm9a4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhFM8akm9a4 I adored that series and it was well written cyberpunk when I'd given up on ever finding more that I liked.
LeoNatan25 9y ago
Oh yeah, nothing says Cyberpunk like “Service Unavailable” in 2017.
jandrese 9y ago
I can't read the article, but the title is something I've been considering since last year. Our current politics is very similar to the fanciful corporate dystopias of the 80s Cyberpunk movement. There's a real chance to make something that's going to feel fresh and relevant even revisiting and old genre.
egypturnash 9y ago
Cyberpunk feels increasingly comedic and dated to me. My catchphrase for the past couple of years has been “This (is/is not) the cyberpunk dystopia I was promised”.
- linksnapzz 9y ago
  Tomorrow isn't what Yesterday told me it would be... If a cynic is just a disappointed idealist, then we might look at the cyberpunk of the '70s/'80s/'90s/today as the cynical reaction to the idealism of the jet-age future of '50s & '60s speculative fiction. I can't read the article, did they find something idealistic in the speculative fiction of the last few years to feel cynical about? Or is this a new coat of rust slathered over the old Gibsonian grit?
  - egypturnash 9y ago
    Well Gibson's short story "The Gernsback Continuum" is pretty much a middle finger to the SF of, like, 1910-1930. I wonder if there’s anyone writing something similar directed st 80s SF trends? And mostly the article is someone who just discovered ~~CYBERPUNK~~ saying a few big Hollywood sequels/remakes are A Cyberpunk Renaissance. It’s pretty clear they’ve never read a single book, just movies and manga.
- Jach 9y ago
  I've been saying the same thing too... At least synth music is more popular again... I'd much rather have an oppressive era of synth based music than another oppressive era of wubstep.
Jach 9y ago
I only skimmed it but my impression was this article seems to be confused about distinguishing cyberpunk-dystopia works from cyberpunk works that aren't also dystopian. But they're separate things. Same with post-apocalyptic.
ericthor 9y ago
The other night I watched the 1989 movie [Patlabor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patlabor:_The_Movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patlabor:_The_Movie) directed by Mamoru Oshii who went on to direct Ghost in the Shell in 1995. The plot is simple and there isn't too much grand philosophy, but the movies was prescient on issues of proprietary software, Internet of Things, urban waste, and Corporate/Government complicity/inaction. The movie doesn't read as a gritty cyberpunk or even as super cyber/futuristic. It's visually light and the public is optimistic and satisfied with the present. It resembles our present to a certain extent which makes it all the more interesting. Its main divergences from our reality is with the mechs which can be seen as bit of fun or be read as metaphor for technology that is starting to seem divine/magic to all expect for the few technically savvy enough to understand whats going on. I haven't watched the other movies or anime yet, but look forward to checking them out. [Spoilers] The general plot is.. A genius hacker creates a proprietary operating software(HOS) for a floundering robot/mech company. The company is able to not match competitors in creating robots, but is able to corner the robot OS market. The movie opens with genius hacker committing suicide. Shortly thereafter some robots/mechs sporadically go haywire. You follow from the perspective of a police unit who try to uncover why the robots are acting up and the mystery/motivation of the hacker. A small/funny scene..the police officers are concerned about their mechs own OS fearing that they also run HOS and have been compromised, but their chief engineer reveals that he lied to the higher-ups about installing HOS and chose not to install it because he couldn't see the code inside of it. Edit: HOS not BOS
- twic 9y ago
  BOS? I remember it as HOS - the Hyper Operating System. Here's the splash screen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0_ckVWukUo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0_ckVWukUo

59 points by evo_9 9y ago

Site appears overloaded. Google Cache link: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:10YWuhB_ndMJ:https://www.neondystopia.com/cyberpunk-politics-philosophy/2017-and-the-rebirth-of-cyberpunk/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:10YWuh...

pmarreck 9y ago

I think the hotly-anticipated next game entry from CD Projekt Red (fresh off their Witcher 3 smashing success) is going to push this genre even further out there... "Cyberpunk 2077": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99qJGrPNLs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99qJGrPNLs That trailer is 5 years old, now :O

endisukaj 9y ago
... and no other news since that trailer. It sincerely hope they don't delay it much more. Nothing good ever came from delaying and causing a game to be over-hyped.
- cjsuk 9y ago
  Duke Nukem Forever for example
- aluhut 9y ago
  There are news: http://www.forceclaw.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-important-production-stage-closed-engine-running-release-date-unknown http://www.forceclaw.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-important-produ... and of course: https://twitter.com/CyberpunkGame/status/951091371200466944 https://twitter.com/CyberpunkGame/status/951091371200466944
- millzlane 9y ago
  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/27/shigeru-miyamoto-rushed-game-forever-bad https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2012/apr/27...
- michaelbuckbee 9y ago
  Overhype is never good, but it's worth noting that their last game (Witcher3) was delayed [1] and turned out to be one of my personal favorite games of all time. 1 - https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-witcher-3-delayed-again/1100-6424075/ https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-witcher-3-delayed-agai...

busterarm 9y ago

It's hard for me to take this author seriously when the author makes it painfully clear that a) they don't read books and b) they don't know anything about the genre or its roots.

CodeMage 9y ago
The "Post-Cyberpunk" section was especially jarring. Right off the bat, the author classifies "Snow Crash" as post-cyberpunk.
- the_af 9y ago
  Everything that's jarring about the article seems to be taken directly from tvtropes. Now, I love tvtropes, but I'd worry about basing an article on "knowledge" from that site.
- kernelbandwidth 9y ago
  Missing Stephenson's The Diamond Age was a bit of an oversight as well, considering that Snow Crash is one of the canonical Cyberpunk novels, while The Diamond Age is (IMO) a defining Post-Cyberpunk novel. The Diamond Age opens with a Cyberpunk fake protagonist written with every Cyberpunk trope in mind, and then the fake protagonist is killed off before the end of the Prologue and the real protagonist, the slain punk's baby daughter, is revealed. Stephenson's intent is clear: "This is not a cyberpunk novel." I'd also argue that Cyberpunk does not mean "everything is terrible", nor does Post-Cyberpunk have a softer and lighter view where "not everything is terrible." Rather, the difference is whether social control is rooted in 1984 or Brave New World. From this point of view, Ghost in the Shell and Minority Report are still Cyberpunk (edit: settings); the viewer is just seeing things from a point of view other than the completely marginalized. Shadowrun is a Cyberpunk setting whether you work for a corporate power or in the streets.
the_af 9y ago
Agreed. The author also presents a highly confusing timeline for 1st wave cyberpunk, 2nd wave cyberpunk & postcyberpunk. Confusing enough that I don't understand why the author thinks his/her examples are 1st or 2nd wave. And I am well-versed in the genre!

zengid 9y ago

It died?

Yuioup 9y ago
Nah. The only reason why this article exists is because of the upcoming CD Projekt RED Cyberpunk 2077 video game.
- klez 9y ago
  Nah. Neon Dystopia has been around long enough and Cyberpunk 2077 has started being hyped long ago enough that I don't think the article has anything to do with that.

mnzaki 9y ago

Here's to hoping 2018 is the year of solarpunk!

Cyberdog 9y ago
For those also wondering: > This would be a world of decentralised eco-cities, 3D printing, vertical farms, solar glass windows, wild or inventive forms of dress and design, and a vibrant cosmopolitan aesthetic; where technology is no longer used to exploit the natural world, but to automate away needless human labour and to help restore the damage the Oil Age has already done. Solarpunk desires societies of polycultural ethnic diversity and gender liberation, where each person is able to actualise themselves in societal environment of free experimentation and communal caring; and driven by an overriding ethos of compassionate rationalism, where science and reason are not seen as antithetical to imagination and spirituality, but as concepts which bring out the best in each other. https://solarpunkanarchists.com/2016/05/27/what-is-solarpunk/ https://solarpunkanarchists.com/2016/05/27/what-is-solarpunk...
_mhr_ 9y ago
The issue with utopian settings for me is... where's the conflict?

noir_lord 9y ago

I'm hyped for Altered Carbon series. (NF, Feb 2018). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhFM8akm9a4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhFM8akm9a4 I adored that series and it was well written cyberpunk when I'd given up on ever finding more that I liked.

LeoNatan25 9y ago

Oh yeah, nothing says Cyberpunk like “Service Unavailable” in 2017.

jandrese 9y ago

I can't read the article, but the title is something I've been considering since last year. Our current politics is very similar to the fanciful corporate dystopias of the 80s Cyberpunk movement. There's a real chance to make something that's going to feel fresh and relevant even revisiting and old genre.

egypturnash 9y ago

Cyberpunk feels increasingly comedic and dated to me. My catchphrase for the past couple of years has been “This (is/is not) the cyberpunk dystopia I was promised”.

linksnapzz 9y ago
Tomorrow isn't what Yesterday told me it would be... If a cynic is just a disappointed idealist, then we might look at the cyberpunk of the '70s/'80s/'90s/today as the cynical reaction to the idealism of the jet-age future of '50s & '60s speculative fiction. I can't read the article, did they find something idealistic in the speculative fiction of the last few years to feel cynical about? Or is this a new coat of rust slathered over the old Gibsonian grit?
- egypturnash 9y ago
  Well Gibson's short story "The Gernsback Continuum" is pretty much a middle finger to the SF of, like, 1910-1930. I wonder if there’s anyone writing something similar directed st 80s SF trends? And mostly the article is someone who just discovered ~~CYBERPUNK~~ saying a few big Hollywood sequels/remakes are A Cyberpunk Renaissance. It’s pretty clear they’ve never read a single book, just movies and manga.
Jach 9y ago
I've been saying the same thing too... At least synth music is more popular again... I'd much rather have an oppressive era of synth based music than another oppressive era of wubstep.

Jach 9y ago

I only skimmed it but my impression was this article seems to be confused about distinguishing cyberpunk-dystopia works from cyberpunk works that aren't also dystopian. But they're separate things. Same with post-apocalyptic.

ericthor 9y ago

The other night I watched the 1989 movie [Patlabor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patlabor:_The_Movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patlabor:_The_Movie) directed by Mamoru Oshii who went on to direct Ghost in the Shell in 1995. The plot is simple and there isn't too much grand philosophy, but the movies was prescient on issues of proprietary software, Internet of Things, urban waste, and Corporate/Government complicity/inaction. The movie doesn't read as a gritty cyberpunk or even as super cyber/futuristic. It's visually light and the public is optimistic and satisfied with the present. It resembles our present to a certain extent which makes it all the more interesting. Its main divergences from our reality is with the mechs which can be seen as bit of fun or be read as metaphor for technology that is starting to seem divine/magic to all expect for the few technically savvy enough to understand whats going on. I haven't watched the other movies or anime yet, but look forward to checking them out. [Spoilers] The general plot is.. A genius hacker creates a proprietary operating software(HOS) for a floundering robot/mech company. The company is able to not match competitors in creating robots, but is able to corner the robot OS market. The movie opens with genius hacker committing suicide. Shortly thereafter some robots/mechs sporadically go haywire. You follow from the perspective of a police unit who try to uncover why the robots are acting up and the mystery/motivation of the hacker. A small/funny scene..the police officers are concerned about their mechs own OS fearing that they also run HOS and have been compromised, but their chief engineer reveals that he lied to the higher-ups about installing HOS and chose not to install it because he couldn't see the code inside of it. Edit: HOS not BOS

twic 9y ago
BOS? I remember it as HOS - the Hyper Operating System. Here's the splash screen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0_ckVWukUo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0_ckVWukUo