this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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Futurology

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Wait, corporate government, like in cyberpunk?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

I'm reading the Sprawl trilogy along with Shelved By Genre, and Gibson harps on the note that 'the Ultra Rich aren't human', and has some great examples in the books.

I think he was very observant, and Musk makes it so blatant.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

Basically. I mean there's a bit more to it than that but it's the core idea. It's also the goal of several tech oligarchs which is why he doesn't want the peons to be able to talk about it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

The term cyberpunk was first used to describe settings such as Snowcrash, i.e. dystopian corporate sci-fi, before it was adopted as a name for the gaming franchise.

I'm not sure if the person you are replying to was using it as a noun or an adjective, I parsed it is an adjective because it's more inclusive.

Anyway.. using cyberpunk to refer to the game franchise, would be a disambiguation. This is the article referring to the original usage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk?wprov=sfla1

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I was referring to cyberpunk as a genre and theme, I remembered some things after reading this post like shadowrun, cyberpunk ttrpg, Gibson's books, system shock, etc.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Yeah, I just tend to think of that stuff as corporate feudalism. And I learned that concept from playing shadowrun as a kid and then getting into other cyberpunk stuff.

And yeah, it seems to be the direction we are headed. Elon musk is a fan of blade runner and I don't think he identifies with the poor people but the rich CEO.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

They're both nouns, but I get what you mean.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Yep, I just want more people to read the book because I like it. Cyberpunk the game rocks, Snowcrash rocks.