this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2023
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Cyberpunk
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A place for discussion of all things cyberpunk (not primarily Cyberpunk 2077)
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Have you read The Peripheral? I have yet to start the second book (Agency) but I really enjoyed the neon-less future presented in the first one. It's specifically what Gibson thought could happen as a result of where we were in 2016: less people, body-integrated tech, synthetic organisms (with a specific lack of AI that humans can use), etc. The 2023 chapter descriptions (Hefty-Mart, fabrication, the 'viz') come with the neon he predicted in the 80s. The 2073 chapters come with nano-tech, artificial cosplay zones, and a steampunk-ish view of how tech works (e.g., all anyone in the book knows is that the stubs are located on a server that's 'probably Chinese').
I love me some Cyberpunk. Maybe it's not dead, so much as we're living in Gibson's 80's vision of 2023, and the next turn of the wheel is writing the future we want or are afraid of...What does 2083 look like?
I haven't. I got tired of Gibson for a little while around the turn of the millennium. I think it was really just that I was too young to appreciate his later work when all I wanted was more neon-filled dystopia. I'll add The Peripheral to my queue.
I like that perspective!
I hear that! It was especially good if neon-filled dystopia offered a way to be pertinent or at least meaningful in a present devoid of personality. I can make a difference to my collective or chosen tribe. I stand by the idea that saying cyberpunk is dead is akin to saying futurism is dead. It's just that the aesthetic represented by the term requires change.
Officially staking my claim on 'retro-cyberpunk' as a term. I know trademarking it would embody exactly what it avoids so...meh....