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"The technology is a couple steps higher, and so forth, but in this particular universe, technology is not good for people. Pollution is rampant, crime is rampa
by manuelabeledo 6y ago
"The technology is a couple steps higher, and so forth, but in this particular universe, technology is not good for people.
Pollution is rampant, crime is rampant and social and economic inequality is just accepted."
So what is the difference with our current world again?
Not trying to be a cynic here, but if we were to accept that most crimes aren't violent, then this description fits with what we have now.
The landscape of Cyberpunk 2077 itself looks exactly like many east Asian metropolis at night.
- monocasa 6y agoIt's a warning about the future... from the 1980s. It's more an alt history at this point.
- willis936 6y agoWe’re living in a cyberpunk dystopia. Fiction of the past (1984, blade runner) were exaggerated extrapolations of the path we have been on. The path was clear then and it’s clear now. Nothing has changed.
- hutzlibu 6y agoBut for a real dystopia we do have quite some freedom and wealth. (That means, if the lockdowns go away at some point. If not, well, then yes. Total dystopia. Everything private total restricted, only corporate and state buisness allowed. Peoples private life only exist in virtual realities) edit: everything is relative. I was born in east germany. A state where I would not have been allowed to openly say my opinion, or drive 30 km with my bycicle to the west or south, from where I live, as I would have been arrested or literally shot back then. Pretty dystopian in comparison. Also, people in north korea can say something today, about what dystopian feels like. That means, no they cannot, while they are there.
- KittenInABox 6y agoI don't know if we have freedom and wealth as correlated to happiness and fulfillment in life, however. And that's precisely what the cyberpunk genre originally was created as a commentary on- the ability to have so much advancement and also so much misery.
- hutzlibu 6y agoHm, but who is we? Society on average? Well, I guess by the amount of prescribed happy pills, probably yes. But I guess it will be hard to meassure, if past generations were really happier. In any case, with freedom and wealth you can build up and life alternatives today. There are quite some people out there trying this, with various success.
- Fnoord 6y agoHappy pills were literally in Brave New World. Metaverse, aspect of Snow Crash, is basically like MMOs such as World of Warcraft or Second Life, but once Facebook goes 3D (and to me the question is when with AR/VR), its more akin to Facebook. Wealth is so unevenly distributed that some people have 3 jobs just to pay their rent, whereas others buy their entire street's housing just to have a privacy while being the CEO of one of the worst private collection companies in the world (Facebook).
- hutzlibu 6y agoYep, but they were mandatory there. Are they mandatory for you? Kind of a big difference.
- disconcision 6y agosoma was not mandatory in bnw
- KittenInABox 6y agoMedication can be mandatory, absolutely.
- mercer 6y agoI find 'mandatory' to be a bit of a blurry concept, knowing what we know now about the malleability and susceptibility to various 'mind viruses' that we humans have. Sure, it's definitely important to acknowledge the difference, but it's also important to realize that we are not rational creatures that use our freedom well when there are all sorts of well-crafted 'hacks' applied to our brains on a constant basis. I think Cyberpunk understandably covers these themes with underline, highlight, and big red circles. Narratively it's easier to exaggerate. But it's really just shades of gray between being forced to take a happy pill, and being told, explicitly or not, by experts, friends and family that you should do so.
- nullsense 6y agoIt's got a real "back streets of Shinjuku after dark" vibe for sure.
- NortySpock 6y agoSolarpunk would be the positively imagined future. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk
- tachyonbeam 6y ago> So what is the difference with our current world again? Disagree. IMO the worst thing is government surveillance, and our lack of true democracy. It makes me sad that when Snowden made his revelations, absolutely nobody did anything. However... Electric cars and renewables are happening. Just look at the opening sequence of Blade Runner (staged in 2019?), and tell me we really live in that world. It's definitely not the case that economic inequality is "just accepted". Yes, it's a part of our lives, but the social justice moment is also huge, and sometimes misguided. They have caused a lot of things to change though. IMO, to create positive change, we really need to get away from the "it's just pointless" mindset.
- dilap 6y agoWhat's that line, the future is here, it's just not evenly distributed yet? Walking around SF and I definitely feel like we're pretty much at the radical inequality cyberpunk future we were promised. I walk outside and see self-driving cars right next to tent cities and people cooking over open flames on the sidewalk.
- tachyonbeam 6y agoHaving been to SF, I can see what you mean. I had never seen someone shoot heroin or smoke crack until I walked the streets of SF. I'm thankful that there are other cities and countries one can choose where to live. I hope they don't all end up that way.
- endominus 6y agoWhat actual change has the social justice movement effected? I know it's very loud and powerful when turned against isolated individuals, but I was unaware of a successful track record against the actual systemic causes of the various injustices they oppose. I just assumed that as a leaderless movement without clear goals or a definable end state ("end racism and sexism" is as malleable as "end terrorism" is), they functioned more as a pressure release valve for the frustration of a generation denied the freedoms of their predecessors without being anesthetized by the numbing flood of meaningless content and nihilistic culture that will safely neuter their descendants, than an effective agent for change.
- ch4s3 6y ago> technology is not good for people I would strongly argue that lot's of technology is great for people. CyberPunk didn't really anticipate how cheap solar and wind power would become, and a lot of the 1980's projections expect rising energy costs. Beyond that, just look at things like the mRNA vaccines rolling out this week. The technology behind it is something you can almost work with in a home lab, but was unimaginable 10 years ago, and will save millions of lives. > Pollution is rampant This is true in place, but it's getting better. China is starting to clean up, and India looks to be making moves in this direction. The US is far cleaner and greener than it was in the 80s. The famous smog over L.A. is nearly gone. > crime is rampant Crime until 6 months ago in the US had been declining for 30 years. > social and economic inequality is just accepted People are making plenty of noise about this, and just this week the FTC, and EU regulators are taking on tech giants. I'm keeping an eye on this topic. If we can get our shit together on CO2 emissions and how we utilize the ocean, the future isn't looking all that dim.
- f00zz 6y agoThere are mRNA cancer vaccines in clinical trial. I'd say the future is looking pretty awesome.
- f00zz 6y ago> crime is rampant (...) looks exactly like many east Asian metropolis at night Dunno about that, I was in Seoul for a few months for work and I've never felt safer in my life, even while walking alone downtown in the middle of the night.
- manuelabeledo 6y agoI meant that the cities look similar, not that they have the same issues.
- bllguo 6y agoyeah Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, the Chinese megacities - crime is not "rampant" in any
- CodeGlitch 6y agoHow have they achieved this do you know?
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- trustmeimrite 6y agoYou felt safe because of their immigration policies. Not letting culturally incompatible people in results in extremely low crime rates.
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- d_e_solomon 6y agoWoah. That's a hot take. Got a source for it?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]