3 ms·

I really can't name a single cyberpunk novel from the 80s that is even a close approximation of the present. Mmmaybe the Akira manga, or Patlabor manga? If onl

I really can't name a single cyberpunk novel from the 80s that is even a close approximation of the present. Mmmaybe the Akira manga, or Patlabor manga? If only because they're intended to be taking place roughly the day after tomorrow.

bitwize 3y ago
That's because we got all the bad bits of cyberpunk without any of the cool bits. Megacorporations running everything and owning everyone, but no badass cyber-enhancements and only rudimentary (by comparison) VR.
- jprete 3y ago
  For what it’s worth, much of the cyberpunk skeleton is in place - good and bad - but it’s not clearly visible from a thematic perspective, because human life isn’t as cheap as in genuine cyberpunk environments. We’re also, frankly, moving towards larger levels of human commoditization. Cyberpunk might make people disposable but it doesn’t make them totally irrelevant, certainly not the way the modern world does, because otherwise the story doesn’t have main characters anymore.
  - bitwize 3y ago
    And yet social media is giving people a profound sense of entitlement that comes from believing you're the main character of some story -- colloquially called "main character syndrome". Maybe that just speeds the personal commoditization? (Syndrome (Incredibles) voice) "When everyone's the main character... no one will be."
- PoignardAzur 3y ago
  > Megacorporations running everything and owning everyone, but no badass cyber-enhancements and only rudimentary (by comparison) VR. Did we get the same cyberpunk media? Because "megacorporations running everything" isn't a massive hyperbole in cyberpunk like it is in real life. I'm not seeing corporate security with machine guns when I walk into Google. Cyberpunk 2077 starts with a brain-implants company straight-up murdering half the European council before a strategic vote. There's an ocean-wide margin between "corporations can influence home politics" and "corporations rule the world".
GeoAtreides 3y ago
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner is quite close, I think.

bitwize 3y ago

That's because we got all the bad bits of cyberpunk without any of the cool bits. Megacorporations running everything and owning everyone, but no badass cyber-enhancements and only rudimentary (by comparison) VR.

jprete 3y ago
For what it’s worth, much of the cyberpunk skeleton is in place - good and bad - but it’s not clearly visible from a thematic perspective, because human life isn’t as cheap as in genuine cyberpunk environments. We’re also, frankly, moving towards larger levels of human commoditization. Cyberpunk might make people disposable but it doesn’t make them totally irrelevant, certainly not the way the modern world does, because otherwise the story doesn’t have main characters anymore.
- bitwize 3y ago
  And yet social media is giving people a profound sense of entitlement that comes from believing you're the main character of some story -- colloquially called "main character syndrome". Maybe that just speeds the personal commoditization? (Syndrome (Incredibles) voice) "When everyone's the main character... no one will be."
PoignardAzur 3y ago
> Megacorporations running everything and owning everyone, but no badass cyber-enhancements and only rudimentary (by comparison) VR. Did we get the same cyberpunk media? Because "megacorporations running everything" isn't a massive hyperbole in cyberpunk like it is in real life. I'm not seeing corporate security with machine guns when I walk into Google. Cyberpunk 2077 starts with a brain-implants company straight-up murdering half the European council before a strategic vote. There's an ocean-wide margin between "corporations can influence home politics" and "corporations rule the world".

GeoAtreides 3y ago

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner is quite close, I think.