Cyberpunk is Now | HN

rogerdb:
I am a big fan of Neuromancer... I agree that the "cyberpunk" aesthetic has practically evolved into self parody... IMO the core of cyberpunk is about envisioning a world where advanced technology is useful and ubiquitous, yet humanity is worse off than ever ("high tech, low life"). It's a subversion of the simple tech dystopias where the technology itself is evil or is misused by evil people, and more of a realistic counterpoint to the idea that technological progress leads to inevitable utopia.

BLKNSLVR:
Your point "high tech, low life" just makes me feel that maybe cyberpunk is dead because it is the present.

Bluestein:
Totally agree. Let's see ...

• We have corporate dominance and mega-corps wield more power than many governments - just look at Google, Amazon, Apple, and Meta.

• We're living under corporate surveillance capitalism as our dominant economic model, where companies control entire digital ecosystems and infrastructure while exercising massive influence over politics through lobbying and campaign contributions. We've got platform monopolies controlling our information flow and commerce, with tech CEOs functioning as quasi-governmental figures making policy decisions that affect billions of us.

• We have a surveillance state and privacy erosion that permeates our daily lives through mass digital surveillance by governments and corporations, facial recognition systems watching us in public spaces, and social credit systems emerging globally. China is gonna get there. But that's not even the scariest thing. We ourselves might end up asking for it to be implemented, as one of our better options to restore some order at some point ...

• We've got constant data mining of our personal information for profit and control, living in smart cities with omnipresent monitoring while governments maintain backdoors in our encryption and communication systems. We've got predictive policing algorithms shaping law enforcement decisions across jurisdictions. We are getting a digital divide and social stratification that's intensified as extreme wealth inequality gets exacerbated by technology, creating a tech-literate elite versus a digitally excluded underclass. Go DEI that one out ...

• We're living in a world where access to technology determines life opportunities, while the gig economy creates precarious employment and automation displaces traditional jobs. We've developed digital literacy as a new form of class distinction, separating those who can navigate technological systems from those who can't.

• We have cybercrime and digital underground activities flourishing through ransomware attacks on our critical infrastructure - heck, entire complexes are built and kept for the purposes - cryptocurrency-enabled black markets, and state-sponsored cyber warfare. We're dealing with identity theft and digital fraud at epidemic proportions, while hacking collectives engage in cyber-activism and dark web marketplaces facilitate illegal goods and services. We've got these digital criminal enterprises operating across borders with increasing sophistication. NK'ers are mass-applying for jobs stateside. And getting the jobs.

• We have information warfare and reality distortion shaping our public discourse through disinformation campaigns that manipulate public opinion, deep fakes and synthetic media that blur truth and fiction, and filter bubbles that create echo chambers.

• We're living social media manipulation of democratic processes as routine, creating "post-truth" information environments where AI-generated propaganda slop and bot networks spread false narratives at unprecedented scale. We are even beginning to talk like the LLMs we created.

• We have technological dependency and addiction dominating human behavior as smartphone addiction and constant connectivity become normalized, with social media serving as our primary medium for social interaction. Our every communication is an ad. We've reached a pointed where digital detox has become both a luxury and necessity, and virtual relationships and parasocial connections replace face-to-face interactions. Ask Zuck. And he ain't even got started yet. His AI chatbots are gonna dopamine-cycle the heck out of us, and we will love him for it.

• We're already living with screen time dominating our daily lives, creating tech withdrawal symptoms and digital anxiety when devices are unavailable. We be doom scrolling ourselves to death - and loving it. Babies flick paper magazines to scroll. I've seen this.

• We have urban decay and environmental collapse manifesting in uninhabitable zones created by climate change, pollution and environmental degradation in industrial areas, and overcrowded megacities struggling with urban BAMA sprawl.

• We're watching gentrification displace communities while infrastructure decays in non-profitable areas, and resource scarcity drives conflict between populations competing for diminishing resources. We have biotechnology and human enhancement entering mainstream adoption through genetic engineering and CRISPR technology, performance-enhancing drugs and nootropics, and normalized cosmetic surgery. We've got biohacking communities experimenting with human optimization, pharmaceutical enhancement of human capabilities becoming commonplace, and life extension technologies remaining primarily accessible to the wealthy elite. Neuralink is right up the pipeline. In a sense one could argue all this sex changing going on is body mod going normalized.

• We are getting virtual reality and digital escapism providing alternatives to physical existence through VR worlds that compete with physical reality, online gaming as primary social space, and digital avatars representing virtual identities, though Zuck fell on his face of that a tad, to the tune of a few billions. Meta wasn't so Meta after all.

• We've got remote work blurring the boundaries between physical and digital existence, while virtual economies generate real-world value and emerging metaverse platforms promise complete digital immersion. We have AI and automation displacement restructuring entire industries as AI replaces human workers across sectors, algorithmic decision-making controls hiring (see Amazon pink-slipping bottle-peeing their meatbots), we got lending, and criminal justice, and automated trading systems manipulate markets.

• We're seeing AI-generated slop increasingly replace human creativity, machine learning bias perpetuate systemic discrimination, and autonomous weapons systems raise ethical questions about the future of warfare.We have punk aesthetics and counter-culture movements embracing technology through hacker culture and maker movements, DIY technology and open-source communities, and cyberpunk fashion with body modification subcultures. We're seeing street art incorporate digital themes, underground tech scenes and hackerspace culture flourish, and resistance movements use technology as tools against established power structures. Autonomous land drones attacked in Ukraine for the first time.

• We have global connectivity and cultural homogenization accelerating as the internet creates a global monoculture with English as the digital lingua franca, cultural products distributed globally and instantly, and traditional cultures disrupted by digital connectivity. We're dealing with global supply chains that remain vulnerable to disruption while borderless digital crimes challenge traditional jurisdiction and legal frameworks. We have transhumanism and human-machine integration advancing rapidly through smartphones functioning as external memory and processing organs, social media profiles serving as extended identity, and wearable technology monitoring biological functions. Heck, we got RFK pushing his smartwatch on everyone. Will probably get away with it too. Insurers must be salivating somewhere.

• We're beginning to see brain-computer interfaces move from science fiction to development reality, prosthetics controlled by neural signals become commercially available, and genetic modification for disease prevention enter clinical practice.We have economic disruption and digital currency challenging traditional systems as cryptocurrency undermines conventional banking, digital payments replace physical currency, and the gig economy destroys traditional employment models.

• We've got automated trading and algorithmic market manipulation creating volatility, digital asset speculation driving economic instability, and central bank digital currencies emerging as governments respond to decentralized alternatives.We have information as power and commodity driving our digital economy with data recognized as the new oil and most valuable resource, information warfare conducted between nations, and corporate espionage executed through digital means. We're living with our personal data being harvested without meaningful consent, algorithmic curation shaping our individual worldviews, and knowledge gaps creating significant power imbalances between those who control information and those who consume it. Bubbles are getting to be more like walled gardens.

... we're living in a world where the aesthetic might be less neon and leather, but the underlying power structures, technological anxieties, and social dynamics are remarkably similar to what Gibson, Philip K. Dick, and others envisioned decades ago. The main difference methinks is that our cyberpunk reality came wrapped in sleek consumer Apple products rather than the grimy underground aesthetic Gibson imagined.-

Cyberpunk is here. It just ain't totally evenly distributed yet.

[ From comment section of "What was cyberpunk? In memorium (1980-2020)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44548701 ; main comment thread https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=Bluestein ]