In general, a lot of well-known cyberpunk seems to have underestimated governments--their competence, power, longevity, and reach. China features prominently i

In general, a lot of well-known cyberpunk seems to have underestimated governments--their competence, power, longevity, and reach. China features prominently in The Diamond Age as a location, but not as a powerful, cohesive, oppressive, incredibly successful authoritarian government. It's sort of a laughing stock in Snow Crash, and barely present in Neuromancer. Despite its reputation for being darkly cynical, I think we can look back now and see that cyberpunk as a genre was essentially optimistic about the power of computing technology--optimistic that it would indeed radically change power structures, society, and our relationship with governments. Instead what we see today is not that different from this time 100 years ago: super rich oligarchs controlling much of the economy, rising racism and bigotry, authoritarians using new technologies to seize power and splinter their opposition.