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People say this a lot but I think something else is true. The cyberpunk visions are obvious applications of certain technologies. When that technology becomes c
by carom 3y ago
People say this a lot but I think something else is true. The cyberpunk visions are obvious applications of certain technologies. When that technology becomes capable and people start to apply it, they name it after what was coined previously.
- tivert 3y agoIn the case I'm thinking of, the person was interested in the technologies and the capabilities the protagonists display. He wanted them so much that he couldn't see the bad parts. He didn't comprehend: 1) the protagonist doesn't enjoy the cyberpunk environment as much as he enjoys reading about it, and 2) in a realized cyberpunk environment, he wouldn't even be a protagonist.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoHow do you know whether they comprehended something?
- tivert 3y ago> How do you know whether they comprehended something? How do you know anything at all? You don't need a sci-fi mind ray that extracts thoughts in raw form to figure out something like that.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoOkay, so how did you figure it out with such certainty?
- bee_rider 3y agomaybe we should build the mind ray just to see if it has any applications though
- programd 3y agoHere you go: https://www.science.org/content/article/ai-re-creates-what-people-see-reading-their-brain-scans https://www.science.org/content/article/ai-re-creates-what-p...
- zajio1am 3y agoOr he comprehended that, but also understood that SF writers are not infallible prophets, setting and style are just independent stylistic choices, and cyber-setting from cyberpunk novels could be easily adapted for techno-optimistic SF, but these were out of fashion in 1970s.
- PoignardAzur 3y agoYeah, I feel like people are pattern-matching way too much. If a company invents a giant spaceship, it doesn't materially change the design whether the ship is called "Icarus", "Death Star", "Enterprise" or "Generic-Acronym-GKLE597". It certainly isn't strong evidence that the CEO has learned the wrong lessons from greek mythology or star wars. Names are just fun.