This is the reason I don't understand cyberpunk, and it's just a depressing setting to me.
We basically live in an identical world to a fictional cyberpunk one but without the gadgets.
At least in fantasy, you can pretend that individual adventurers can save the world through the power of friendship, but cyberpunk just always fucking sucks and remains permanently depressing. It's the embodiment of capitalist realism.
Cyberpunk is a genre from the 80s when things like global networks and microcomputing were on the horizon but people didnt really understand what the implications would be so they made shit up. I dont think it hits as hard today because we have had these things for 30 years and a lot of the authors’ cynicism about capitalism has been proven right.
The 80s were also a time when brands were transitioning from being a company that sold a specific thing to broad conglomerates that encompassed vast ownership over multiple sectors of industry. Brands started cementing themselves as lifestyles, or identities, rather than places that make and sell a thing. That's always been the crux of cyberpunk to me, the exploration of the idea that large corporations exist that aren't anything in particular, they're all encompassing powers that govern society and shape everything into commercialism. Like the Tyrell Corporation makes replicants, but what they really make is the contours of social life. Weyland-Yutani makes spaceships and mining equipment sure, but they also have broad control over how labor is performed and seem to have command over paramilitary units.
So you're right, it doesn't hit as hard as it did back then because we've been living in that reality for decades. There's nothing to explore or a warning to make, the moment's already here.
There's also definitely something to be said about the genre's fear of white western society losing aspects of itself and absorbing Japanese/Chinese/Korean/etc culture.
I also think it should be noted that, unlike most genres, cyberpunk has not had any major revolutions or massive changes to its design. The only story that I've seen challenge the structure of cyberpunk is Mr. Robot, and only by changing the setting to the real world. Since cyberpunk was a product of the 80s, this means that modern cyberpunk stories tend to feel a bit reprocessed and bland. It's a zombie genre, far from dead but certainly not alive.
There's also the failure of late 90s post-cyberpunk and it's attempt to reimbue faith in liberal and social democratic institutions, though the best post-cyberpunk was always New Space Opera, which shared Cyberpunk's cynicism but explored the possibility of new systems.
Not all art is escapism designed to make people feel good feelings. Eliciting sadness, despondency, and hopelessness are all legitimate objectives for art.
I understand that the world as it is probably feels like it doesn't need more art like that though.
At the time this was the highest honor Poland could bestow on someone
why does he have to be so boring when he talks about it? I guess part of being a politician is describing art by its impact on the "new world economy" or whatever.
you say that but back in like 2009 I distinctly remember that libs and chuds would often criticize Obama for being too lighthearted. The boring way he talks was considered way too whimsical and charismatic back then. Now that I'm typing all this out it was probably just racism.
Maybe it’s all Trump’s fault. People are so used to Trump now they couldn’t see Obama in that way anymore.
Trump said so many things in 2016 that would have been national news stories for weeks but the campaigns just moved along as normal. Mitt Romney's campaign was torpedoed because he said he had "binders full of women." and that was enough. Howard Dean made a weird yell in 2004 and that sank his campaign.
In the Bush Jr vs Gore debates, Gore sighed at Bush and it was an entire media cycle.
Inaccurate things about cyberpunk:
- Japan never took over the world.
- Neon signs went out of fashion.
- ...I ran out of things for the list.
Can't mod our bodies in cool ways. Still got boomers hand wringing about gender and tattoos
