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> we are getting the cyberpunk dystopia with none of the aesthetics that have made it a household word. Sure we are. The future is here, it's just not evenly d
by Animats 2mo ago
> we are getting the cyberpunk dystopia with none of the aesthetics that have made it a household word.
Sure we are. The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed. Here's a nighttime walk through Shenzhen.[1] Shenzhen is cyberpunk made real. Giant display screens everywhere. Light shows on major buildings, synchronized between the buildings. Robots on the streets. Drones in the sky. Cameras everywhere. Night markets where you can buy both food and electronics. Self-driving cars. Electric buses and taxis. Women in colorful outfits on motorcycles.
Shenzhen looks more cyberpunk than Cyberpunk 2077, the game.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiXpYbCZyjs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiXpYbCZyjs
- o-mo-ka-saaaay 2mo agoI think what is confusing some people is that those novels and authors are all American and they can’t seem to believe another country beat us to it. It’s like they expected God had made it so that America would be the leader in techno culture evolution. It would be endearing if it weren’t for their impotent rage response to enable fascism for their own ends.
- georgemcbay 2mo ago> I think what is confusing some people is that those novels and authors are all American and they can’t seem to believe another country beat us to it. Gibson's novels predicted Asian ascendency (insomuch as you can have ascendency in a dystopia). Through a quirk of the time period in which they were written they happened to present it as emanating from Japan rather than China.
- sporadicism 2mo agoAsian superpowers feature so heavily in the genre that it's a cliche. Also Ballard was British.
- Caracas288 2mo ago...And he grew up in Shanghai, China
- nephihaha 2mo agoJ.G. Ballard was not an American. He grew up in China and spent most of his life in the UK. He has a very subtle British sensibility to a lot of his work.
- apercu 2mo agoIsn’t Gibson Canadian?
- Duanemclemore 2mo agoNope, he fled the draft there from South Carolina*. He has been there since '67 though. He appears in an old CBC documentary about the Yorkville neighborhood and the hippies there from then. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.3202122 https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.3202122 *ETA: Whoops I just realized he was born in SC, but he grew up in Virginia. So THAT'S where he fled to Toronto from.
- apercu 2mo agoAhh. I’m a dual citizen and the entire time I lived in the GTA (18 years) it seemed he was in Canada so I assumed.
- harimau777 2mo agoI see it more a reflection of the degree to which America was foundational to programming and internet culture. So in a sense America did beat them to it, even if they might eventually surpass America they are still operating in a technical culture that the US created.
- asnelt 2mo agoThat's an interesting video. If the skyscrapers were flickering just a little faster, the sky would be the color of a television tuned to a dead channel.
- Animats 2mo agoThat's just a normal night. For special events, the skyscraper lighting is much more dynamic.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDNkcKiD2Ow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDNkcKiD2Ow
- kergonath 2mo ago(For those who did not get it, it’s the first line of Neuromancer).
- suprjami 2mo agoAnd from John's parent comment, "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed." is a quote attributed to William Gibson. We're all just quoting authors now.
- nfnfjfjdj 2mo agoit just looks like a normal city. If we're declaring things cyberpunk based on LED displays Las Vegas probably wins but China is a horrifying totalitarian dictatorship with a market economy and by that measure sure, guess they beat us to the dystopia! go communism! go China! weeeeee
- TitaRusell 2mo agoThe CCP is firmly in control of China. They don't let corporations run the country.
- api 2mo agoThat just means one giant corporate entity runs the country.
- abc123abc123 2mo agoAnd let us not forget that there are about as many billionaires in the chinese parliament as there are millionaires in the US parliament. China is corrupt, mercantilist, and run like a maffia family, and with the coming demographic hit, their power will soon diminish.
- contingencies 2mo agoHumans everywhere have those characteristics. Currently, China has substantial control of the supply chain for almost everything. I think you'll find Chinese power remains but the wealth and power distribution internally becomes even more centralized. The US and China are similar in this regard.
- Fricken 2mo agoJohnny Mneumonic (1995), set in the mid 2020s, depicts Beijing as the global epicentre of power and wealth. Much of the action is set in Newark New Jersey, a dystopian hellscape where civil order has broken down.
- jmilloy 2mo agoThis video does not look cyberpunk to me. I see cyber, but where's the punk? Where's the "lowlife" or the societal collapse? This is high tech and highly controlled by enormous economic actors, but that doesn't make it cyberpunk at all.
- harimau777 2mo agoI'd argue that currently the closest thing to that is queer culture. The vibe of social rejects reclaiming their own sense of style is very cyberpunk!
- csomar 2mo agochina has something like 50million homeless people. You are seeing the Arasaka quarters. There are much dodgier areas in all of the big Chinese cities (though surprisingly safe as the Chinese are quite docile)
- aaron695 2mo ago[dead]
- busfahrer 2mo ago> The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed. One of my favourite Gibson quotes.