Some truth here, but disagree. in 2021, cyberpunk is an alternate history, with a branch point in 1985 or so. Like the "Gernsback Continiuum", it's not a vision of our future, or even of our present, but of our past's future.https://twitter.com/strnglft/status/1359905418886144006 …
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3/ If you can come up with some reason that bytes and bandwidth might have grown much slower from 1985 to today, but drugs, genetic engineering, and other tech grew much faster, then you get cyberpunk I can't quite come up w such a scenario.
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4/ The world we live in has infinite data and infinite bandwidth. This means that data and bandwidth are fundamentally uninteresting. Shortages are interesting. Constricted supplies breed competition. Think about Johnny Mnemonic smuggling data.https://twitter.com/raptros_/status/1359909956187811850 …
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5/ The Road Warrior is about a world where gasoline is in short supply, thus the world revolves around that. Neuromancer is about a world where data / AI is restricted, thus the world revolves around that. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is where freedom is restricted, thus ...
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6/ All fiction (and all fictional worlds) posit a shortage, and thus a need / a want, that drives the characters, forms the McGuffin, etc. The Big Lebowksi is a world with a modest shortage of rugs, money, and trophy wives.
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7/ The world we live in has infinite bandwidth, but a shortage of tolerance for cultural dissent. Cyberpunk has a tolerance for cultural dissent, but a shortage of bandwidth.
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8/ Iron Dragon has a surplus of Vikings, and a shortage of spaceships.https://twitter.com/robkroese/status/1359911060791246850 …
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C'mon the founding works of cyberpunk don't really deal with the technology on more than a surface level. There is no exploration of technical problems. The corporatist, anomie and body horror themes that were always central really reasonate with the present though.
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Big difference is that it was coming from a left-wing Anti-Reagan Anti-Thatcher perspective when written in the 80s. Now capital is woke instead. Fertile ground today for a smart rw writer to update the genre.
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now that's fascinating. i have a sort of intuitive idea of why that is, but if you have a detailed explanation i would love to see it.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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