Neon and corporate dystopias: why does cyberpunk refuse to move on? - Sensationalist Headlines

idk why you have to attack an aesthetic when you could just create a new one. I think cyberpunk is cool, but it's not realistic. The 80s imagined that technology in the future would look like technology did in the 80s: monochromatic, angular, blocky, etc. And that the cities of the future would end up as poorly maintained grungy shitholes corporations would be big, industrial, authoritarian, imperial monopolies which seek to crush everyone. I don't think any of these have come true, but it's still a nice aesthetic to play around with. I think that a cyberpunk future would honestly be a better future than the boring dystopia that we've actually developed: corporations aren't gigantic and industrial, they're gigantic and they pretend to be your friend. How cyberpunk thought a corporation would look like: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/revengeristsconsortium/images/2/2e/3-building1.png/revision/latest?cb=20160117064208 https://i.etsystatic.com/13055552/r/il/12aae2/1478047463/il_fullxfull.1478047463_9aw0.jpg What corporations actually look like https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_1280,f_auto,q_auto,fl_lossy/wp-cms/uploads/2018/09/5-90232824-first-look-facebookand8217s-new-frank-gehry-designed-campus-expansion.jpg https://media.giphy.com/media/xTiTnoUnHxVaaVNWhO/giphy.gif They know everything about you and are friendly looking and typically white with a rainbow palette pastel colors, not black with a single neon color that represents their entire identity. And cities aren't the overgrown jungles of wire that were predicted in Blade Runner and Akira. It varies on a city by city basis, but the crappy parts are usually just old and made of brick, not high tech with low standards of electrical insulation, densely packing 30,000 people into a single block. How Cyberpunk thought cities would look https://gwulo.com/sites/gwulo.com/files/styles/extra-large__640x640_/public/images/lambot-alley.jpg?itok=G0npCRFI https://www.architectural-review.com/Pictures/web/i/l/y/05_Alley_G_635.jpg https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jSiQ_kkNaTbMCQs9UL9sBE7xgIU=/0x0:3000x1255/1200x800/filters:focal(1470x326:1950x806)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56902609/027_blade_runner_theredlist.0.jpg How cities actually look https://media.timeout.com/images/101830363/630/472/image.jpg https://media.cntraveler.com/photos/5a9d825ad363c34048b3639a/4:3/w_480,c_limit/GettyImages-640006562.jpg https://cdn.japantimes.2xx.jp/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/wn20130918n2a-870x580.jpg http://www.thatgoangirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/bangkok-street-food.jpg Cyberpunk just thought the world would be oppressive and 1984-y, but the world is oppressive and white and shiny and gentrified. They got the entire aesthetic wrong. They thought we'd be wearing rugged black clothes, weird neon colors with crazy hairdos, but we're not https://cdn.japantimes.2xx.jp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/fb20130317a1a-870x580.jpg https://i0.wp.com/www.mumbailocal.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/People-Of-Mumbai.jpg we still wear t-shirts and jeans, suits and ties, with a few new hairstyles, and soft, neutral colors. The corporations may be gigantic and powerful, but they LOOK at LOT less scary, and the cities are a lot nicer than Kowloon walled city

no, you're wrong. you think it's all clean looking because you live in an area that's richer than the average city on earth the average human does live in the dirty cyberpunk podunks, your perception is distorted because of your privilege

A genre of fiction doesnt have to be realistic to be relevant. It's the concept of anticipation scifi, when people say "this is cyberpunk" they mean "our world shares similarities with this bleak dystopian scifi genre and that's concerning". Same idea with "this is orwellian" or "big brother like". Reality is probably never going to be close to theses worlds, but theses stories are cautionary tales of what could happen if an ideology goes too far. I mean what's the counter on black mirror episodes concepts that are a thing in the real world now. Fiction is also primarely made for entertainement, the real world is boring, so we make up more interesting stories. And when theyre worlds that have a lot of debth and coherance, it's really good fiction imo.

China is literally the cyberpunk distopia that the genre predicted, minus cool augs

And the arm prosthesis industry is growing very fast right right now, and people have already said they'd be down to replace their arm with a robotic one so we're just a few years away from that as well.

At least some of the aesthetic exists https://external-preview.redd.it/QLTnzubH7ozz8QphDuIquQyJkKC2svrf5uf9SHskMNw.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=030524b2fa19324e5eab790927ebf029f3eff3fa (grand lisboa casino in macau)

Honestly I Think the issue with Cyberpunk is it sort of lost its uniqueness and identity to regular sci-fi. Having cyberpunk aesthetics and many cyberpunk themes is sort of just core to the genre now, you're going to struggle to pick up a space opera novel or watch a modern sci-fi movie that doesn't have things like insane corporate empires, sprawling neon slum cities, underground punk rebels fighting authority, rampant augmentation and AI, and etc. I think the genre does need to evolve in some form if we want to still consider it an actual thing instead of a very loose moniker like heroic or dark fantasy. It needs a more unique spin if its going to be singled out anymore.

Those people don't know what it feels like to actually have a missing limb, they base their thoughts on an romanticized version of what a robotic arm feels like. Even the people with top of the line artificial limbs experience phantom pains and discomfort. They're better than a stub, but they still don't hold a candle to the real thing.

To be honest, I do wholeheartedly welcome Cyberpunk to expand their themes beyond the threats brought by electronics, cybernetics and free-market capitalism.

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/113069/9f5268a2-f2e5-4131-be8c-a9d0944e98d4/image.png

Is this one of those Facepunch threads where the consensus slowly flipped as the posts went on? I'm with all the folks saying neon signs and dark rain are just the aesthetic commonly associated with cyberpunk. Cyberpunk without cyber is classist literature, and cyberpunk without punk is just speculative fiction. Cyberpunk as a genre is its themes, not its aesthetic, and any fan of the genre will tell you that.

Yeah It's a very dumb sentiment I agree. I dont get it but it exists.

Kafkapunk, not Kraftpunk.

Cyberpunk themes are contemporary and the aesthetic looks dope. Why try to change the definition?

Ghost in The Shell is a very strange series when it comes to what it could be considered in terms of the whole "Cyberpunk" thing, i've heard it described more as "Post" cyberpunk in general, with stuff like the movie being a different thing, the Manga being closer to "typical" cyberpunk, and SAC being somewhere in the middle.

Nah mate, we live in a Brave New World on the surface, but when you peel back the curtains it's 1984 all the way. Take your post, expand that into 50 years from now, and you'll have your typical Cyberpunk situations. People start building up instead of out, the wealthy are living on the top seeing the sun and the poor are crowded in the streets in an almost perpetual night time. As time goes on, wealth inequality increases, so more and more people are living on the bottom, they own less and make less than ever before. Less money is put into infrastructures and aesthetics for the lower classes, so you end up with grime, angular and blocky buildings, and dark color palettes. It's not something I would call unrealistic.

I don't see how. It helped define for the genre and revitalise it in the 90s. It's probably the most influential franchise in cyberpunk outside of Blade Runner.

I likely this confusion comes from the franchise first anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex actually dips into Postcyberpunk themes (less dystopic part of series that is explored for once) while retaining Cyberpunk setting like it's Manga/Film predecessor and later successors so far.

You conveniently ignore the underlining themes of cyberpunk. Just because things look okay and you can post some pretty pictures doesn't mean that our trajectory as a society is going to be any different. We live in a society in which we have a lot of technology and we have fancy things continuously being developed. Things look great on the surface but the gap between poverty and the super rich is only getting bigger, our governments are bought and paid for by corporate interests. More people are living in urban centers/cities more then ever, mix this in with climate change, eventually a good portion of the country will be forced into centralized zones in order to survive. Which will only make things worse. Look past the superficial aspects.

It's true, montreal looks like shit

what do you mean, we have the prettiest white elephant in the world https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/224422/c1c4f18b-850d-422f-855b-c6458fd64882/Le_Stade_Olympique_3.jpg we only paid over a billion dollars for a gimmick that doesn't even work, what a deal!

This is a load of fucking bullshit. Poor != Cyberpunk

Your idea that cyberpunk didn't predict our current developments stems from the fact that you probably live in a comfy area of the world. For hundreds of million of people, their lives look exactly like the bladerunner images you posted. China is almost 1:1 what Cyberpunk predicted.

Yeah but there's a difference between how we see cyberpunk today vs how we saw it in the 80s; in the 80s, cyberpunk was speculative. Today, we are at the point where a lot of 80s films speculated about and the world doesn't look like that. Cyberpunk used to be futuristic, but now it's retro-futuristic. You could argue that we still haven't reached that point, but the essential premise is that cyberpunk assumed that technology would look the same as it did in the 1980s which just didn't happen. Technology is a lot more user friendly and a lot less authoritarian looking. Additionally, they thought that gadgets would dominate technology when in reality we do 90% of out technological interactions with a single device. Once again, there's definitely room for cyberpunk themes today, I don't think it needs to "move on" like the author says, but I do think we need more accurate speculation about what the future will look like. Cyberpunk is more of a filter into a time when we saw the rise of technology and computation as dehumanizing and oppressive rather than interactive and uplifting. When you look at cyberpunk via its sister genre, Outrun, it's more like nostalgia than it is speculative

Our world is closer to Cyberpunk than your idea that we're driven by a clean oppressive corporate regime. It's anything but clean for the average person. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/1-billion-live-in-slums/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharavi https://youtu.be/FqbT7pFWS_I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberwarfare_by_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_from_U.S._drone_strikes https://www.statista.com/statistics/274774/forecast-of-mobile-phone-users-worldwide/ https://haveibeenpwned.com/PwnedWebsites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_ground_vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_by_country https://youtu.be/_rRA49RlP2g This is our future. You only see the tip of the iceberg and claim it's all of it.

Okay Okay cool now tell me what's cyberpunk k about those things, aesthetically

At its most basic level, TVtropes defines Cyberpunk as follows: Cyberpunk is a Speculative Fiction genre centered around the transformative effects of advanced science, information technology, computers and networks ("cyber") coupled with a breakdown or radical change in the social order ("punk") If I go back to my post, link by link: Slums, Flavelas & Dharavi - Despite all our advances in technology and increase in global production ("cyber"), billions of people still live in squalor due to market dynamics and politics ("punk"). Social Credit System - Use of advanced tech and AI that could potentially benefit society ("cyber") to instead increase its control over the population ("punk"). State-Level Hacking - Exploiting an extremely interconnected world meant to increase global prosperity ("cyber") to instead sow chaos and confusion without deploying a single soldier ("punk"). Armed Ground & Aerial Drones - Use of advanced tech and AI that would potentially benefit society ("cyber") to instead terrorize an enemy dehumanized by operators detached from war. ("punk"). Mobile Phones & Hacking - We're now more connected that human society as ever been ("cyber"), yet that fact is exploited for economic profit and to manipulate the masses. ("punk"). Waste & Pollution - Despite all the technology and wealth of modern human society ("cyber"), very few people push on the consequences of their prosperity on the rest of the world ("punk").

I mean, that nice shiny gentrified aesthetic is familiar if you live in a richer a area, but the poorer you are the closer to the traditional cyberpunk aesthetic you find yourself. But to be honest, why is the surface level aesthetic so important? The central themes of the genre are as relevant today as ever. I think it's a little silly to argue that real life doesn't have an on-the-nose thematic art direction where corporate headquarters radiate a palpable aura of oppression and dread - therefore cyberpunk as a genre is stuck in the past. Who cares how shiny and friendly the head offices of amazon look when their workers are being made to carry bottles of urine around warehouses lest they get fired for taking a toilet break?. Why does it matter whether the military drones that routinely rack up huge counts of collateral damage have chrome bodywork with magenta neon strips on them or not?.

You also have grinders attatching magnets and watches and dildos and shit to their body Also DIY Gene Therapy, but that's less cyberpunk and more stupid

I'd argue it does, just in an entirely different way. Sterile, lifelessly clean halls and rooms. "Open" office plans where everyone has a little space at big tables with no room for personal belongings and where everyone is always watching you. Turning every wall in to a pane of glass, further removing any sense of privacy and allowing you to be watched at all times. Even the parks and such frankly give the same feel. A plot of lands in the middle of an urban environment where they simply planted a few trees and patches of grass, all kept perfectly manicured in a complete mockery of the natural world. Look at Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Upper Hengsha: http://u.cubeupload.com/Coldmute/lTmexJ.png That, aside from the golden paint on the screen, looks all nice and exactly like those images you posted. Lots of pretty parks and artistic, unique architecture. Except that's literally built on top of a city size slum where daytime itself is a thing only the wealthy literal upper class has access to: http://u.cubeupload.com/Coldmute/0ZIBP1.jpg http://u.cubeupload.com/Coldmute/wwCwwi.png And this isn't just Deus Ex, other cyberpunk titles have done this same thing. Shadowrun talks plenty about the lifestyles of the rich and how corporate offices are all about keeping up clean friendly appearances even though they literally run the world. Hell in Neuromancer, one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, of cyberpunk has this too. It has the resort Case and the others visit, the corporate headquarters, the luxury space station, all this stuff. Which are all sparkly clean and shiny. They've always been a part of cyberpunk. And you can argue that people don't have the weird clothes and hairstyles but they actually do. That kind of thing has surged in popularity, a lot of people have taken to alternative appearances and fashion styles. Frankly we're already in the cyberpunk dystopia, its just in the early stages, we haven't even come close to the deep end yet.