Cyberpunk is really dead?

I've seen a lot of people write about "cyberpunk is dead" on lainchan. Cyberpunk is really dead? I disagree with this because the i think cyerpunk dystopia is starting now. Yes, I know cyberpunk has been with us from the beginning but now things have become more visible. Not to mention Mark renaming Facebook to "Meta." (This sounds like "Metadata".) Let me know your opinions lainon. Btw I hope this picture doesn't get into my fuarrrking dream.

as a literary genre, yes cyberpunk is dead. All existing strains have either evolved (like Paolo Bacigalupi's books) or become so mainstreamed and commercialized that they lost their teeth. Like it or not, in the current year all cyberpunk is basically no different from Avengers. >I disagree with this because the i think cyerpunk dystopia is starting now. "starting"? The reason people wrote about it initially is that they saw it starting way back in the 90s. I'd say it's been thoroughly entrenched since 2011 and it's just getting worse every year.

Yeah I dont see OP's points either. Homeless people use computers now (smartphones) and corporates rule the governmental policies for long years, we basically own nothing and rent even the most basic accessories of our lives. How is this not high tech low life for more than a decade already? Honestly I would start reading posthumanist fiction if you want to prepare for the next step that is truly "starting now'.

>>28818 Isn't it post cyberpunk though? Since isnt post cyberpunk more optimistic about the future and mainly just focuses on aesthetics not the philosophy behind it so it's just a shallow interpretation of cyberpunk, right?

>>28820 I don't think there is a unified "post-cyberpunk", and I think that a lot of the successors to cyberpunk are more nihilistic and dystopian than cyberpunk ever was, mostly because of the ever more overwhelming proof of human-caused mass extinction and climate change. "solarpunk" may be what you're referring to.

>>28817 We live in a dystopia but not the cool kind :( Basically this >>28819 What we miss is the "punk" element, some neons, GMO soybean "coffee" but that's about it. We even have a gay and autistic but real cyber underground - the free software movement.

>>28821 Well not that im saying all modern cyberpunk is post cyberpunk just that's what Ive heard post cyberpunk described as. I am aware of solarpunk but I think that's more akin to steampunk and dieselpunk as far as I am aware. Im not a big reader so im mainly going off impressions and here say.

>>28822 >We live in a dystopia but not the cool kind >What we miss is the "punk" element, some neons This. Wee need more neon lights and actual rebels out there against the system

Well, basically we live in the Psycho-Pass timeline. I can see AI getting even more advanced and taking over areas of public life. It's pretty sad, but at least we are aware of it and can prepare for the worst to come: social rating and criminalisation of thought. Oh wait, we already have that. Still, you get the point, we can still get out of this. Maybe we can even manage to carve out a niche for ourselves, without submitting to the AI state.

>>28825 Depending on where you live and what you know of, its a lot worse than psychopass. Yes we live in a cyberpunk dystopia officially now, but this time its not a game or a movie where you can just turn off, but you live in it. People complaining about about lack of all the oppressive stuff will get it in their face real soon. Cyberpunk was supposed to warn the people and stop this from happening, instead people embraced this worst version of cyberpunk. Its basically cyber stalinism lead by a congloromate of the worlds most powerful corporations. I think the only way out is to let it crash and burn, npcs will go down with it, in fact the npcs are the worst aspect of this whole situation imo.

One reason cyberpunk is already dying off is because most younger people don't know how to use computers and most of them think torrenting or opening a command line is elite hacker skills. Also, everything interesting on the internet is going so far underground that most people don't know how to find it anymore.

>>28827 that doesn't mean that it's dying, that actually means that it's living exactly the way it was predicted: most younger people are not the main characters, they are those sector-d neets who live in a tiny rooms, with a terminal, a bed and a toilet, "jacked into sims" all day. that's actually the impression I get reading most of the boards. people are depressed, defeatist, on a cocktail of mood stabilizers. nobody's ever "going for it": run oberon for a year as your main system, or go to Serbia and work as a token American, move out to a farm and run your internet over a microwave relay. many such cases.

calling people "npcs" is dehumanizing and seeing yourself as the protagonist of a story is stupid. Everyone has an inner life, they're just too cowardly or too far down the propaganda hole to live authentically. You don't have plot armor. Any con man will tell you that most people are very closed off and to make them vulnerable you have to get them to open up to you. Of course the existence of such con men who make opening up so risky is the problem.

>>28829 > moral police has arrived God damn it, is there no longer education in America, or is all you people learn is deconstruction? "NPC" is a tired metaphor, but metaphors are not inherently dehumanizing! Metaphors can serve to contextualize not yet humanized other. Like internet fad on squatting slavs from couple of years ago, opened more people to Russian culture, because it gave them an "in". Same way as "kalinka", war and piece, and ballet created a whole generation of russophiles a decade earlier. Some metaphors serve the purpose of satire, like caricatures. A caricature has a potential for dehumanization, but it can also serve a didactic purpose as well as pure slapstick. Take a picture of a "squinty eyed jap". It could be a war poster, or it could be a drawing requested by the very Japanese man from a roadside caricaturist. Or maybe it's an 80s poster at an American car company, the goal of which (despite what the moralists would say) is to first and foremost galvanize the workforce. The poster might be in poor taste, but it could be argued that it's not inherently dehumanizing. This is what's called authorial intent, but of course you, deconstructionists, don't believe in one, so I don't even know why I'm explaining all this to you.

>>28829 Not the poster you're replying to but >calling people "npcs" is dehumanizing and seeing yourself as the protagonist of a story is stupid. It is, yet >Everyone has an inner life is probably not accurate. Remember that half of the population has 100IQ or less. Dumb people have really simple reflections on life, themselves or anything at all. Low intelligence is still not a good reason to call someone an NPC, the good reason is ignorance. Ignorant people are indeed NPCs - even if they think, they don't care and are inert. Ignorant people don't deserve being respected. I can respect dumb people if they listen and care, but I will never respect ignorance. That's why I call ignorant people NPCs because they reject what is human - thinking - in the first place.

>>28827 Depends on what you consider 'interesting' because I think there's a lot of videos on normal personTube that give people a bunch of starting points. This is especially true if you're referring to 'le darkweb' content. Even though people nowadays don't have as much understanding these things move in trends.

>>28831 >Dumb people have really simple reflections on life, themselves or anything at all. The "npc" meme doesn't say that these people have simple reflections on life, or that they're ignorant, it says that they have no reflections on life at all. To call someone an "npc" is to say that not only do they not live authentically or have deep thoughts about the cosmos, but in fact they have no significant inner experience or soul (if you're into that kind of thing). if you think someone is ignorant and stupid call them ignorant and stupid. That doesn't mean they are incapable of agency or having complicated internal thoughts and desires. >>28830 >"NPC" is a tired metaphor, but metaphors are not inherently dehumanizing! The idea the metaphor conveys is what is dehumanizing, not the metaphor itself. And then you go on about how this is an attack on metaphors in general, but actually you're talking about stereotypes and not metaphors. Anyway, the NPC meme is not a metaphor, it is a meme. And the NPC meme is soykaf. That's a metaphor, because I'm not literally saying it is feces, I'm saying it's worthless and a bad way of viewing the world. >This is what's called authorial intent, but of course you, deconstructionists I find it odd that you'd immediately assume I'm a literary theorist from the fact that I don't like a meme.

>I disagree with this because the i think cyerpunk dystopia is starting now. That means cyberpunk has failed and is therefore dead, it wasn't supposed to be a fuarrrking instruction manual.

>>28831 Im the one hes replied to, altough i can see his point, but i agree with you. >>28834 >but in fact they have no significant inner experience or soul (if you're into that kind of thing). This right here btw, ignorance and rampant out of control stupidity and being even proud and happy for it is why i find them not worthy of any respect. Their lifes both inner and outer are shallow if not totally empty, if not even downright destructive and consuming. The fact that they basically alter the environment to be filthy, toxic and basically has no positive effect in the long term at all. Persons that dont think or reflect at all could be not considered human since homospaiens means thinking man, but i dont see that happening. But as you said its almost like they are soulless, i cant describe it any other way. Just cant put my finger on it, but these people arent just thoughtless but lifeless and hollow, literally like npcs with preprogrammed behaviour, almost like all the actions are predetetermined and they are incapable of conceiving any notion of adaptive behaviour. Theres just no spark in them, if there is anything remotely resembling something of a soul in them then i cant imagine what it takes to awaken it or whatever. >>28835 It started a long long time ago, in case people havent heard of snowden. Right now its in your face, but most people still dont realize it, even now when they are forced to give their personal data just to drink a cup of coffee in a public place. I dont really like being a bitter judgmental asshole, but every time i go outside and see this soykaf that is is going i cant help but think people will never improve and just keep going until there is nothing left.

>>28831 >Believe in the IQ meme The ignorant are you

>>28836 >Their lifes both inner and outer are shallow if not totally empty, if not even downright destructive and consuming. Again, this is what I believe to be simply incorrect, and also a harmful outlook on life. >Persons that dont think or reflect at all could be not considered human since homospaiens means thinking man, but i dont see that happening. "homo sapiens" is a name, not a description.

>>28836 >Soulless, lifeless... Lain, when is the last time you talked to someone? Like, actually talked to them for more than 5 minutes, and not just "hello, thank you, please, etc." I think you should look beyond the sphere of g-store cashiers, coworkers and coffee-addicts. People are generally interesting to talk to, but you have to find something to talk to them about. Not everyone has the same interests, and if you can hit the spot, people can actually tell you things you never even knew about. Even simple things, like how their work is going, can tell you a lot. That requires some empathy and a feel for the flow of the conversation, knowing how to direct it towards topics you are interested in knowing about. But it can be done. >People giving up privacy It's all too simple, the reason for it is the same as for why things like cars, banking apps and condoms exist: convenience. Don't want to walk or take the bus? Use a car. Don't want to deal with paperwork and walk to the bank? Use the app. Want sex, but don't want or can't afford a child? Use a condom. And: don't want to painstakingly search for an article you may need, but may not even know exists? Let our algorithms and recommendations system handle, just as an example. Convenience is the key component of people's willingness to give away their private data, and the main reason why they will never, ever, give a sh!t about privacy. This a loosing battle, and you mental, physical and morale resources are better spent on thinking about how to protect YOUR privacy, YOUR data, YOUR loli collection. Be more egoistic, people won't give a sh!t about your efforts anyway. This is a self-help group, not a public initiative.

The developments sound cute but we're still quite ways off anything resembling dystopia, plus we have the real problems out there to deal with instead of pretending we can rebel against the system just with computers The way meta got laughed off it's probable we'll never reach that phase

>>28839 Even if IQ isn't real, normal distribution of intelligence is. So the point that 50% of the population has lower than average intelligence still stands, because you can't disprove that - it's pure math and biology. >>28834 >To call someone an "npc" is to say that not only do they not live authentically or have deep thoughts about the cosmos, but in fact they have no significant inner experience or soul (if you're into that kind of thing). I don't often call people NPCs, they must deserve it first. NPC stands for Non Player Character. If life is a game and they're not playing it then that makes them NPCs somehow, even if they have souls and inner experience. I think that you fell for the halfchan npc meme too much - these memes are used to dehumanize people who hold a different political opinion, but I don't mean it like that. Even if I use the term, I don't fall for dehumanizing propaganda. >if you think someone is ignorant and stupid call them ignorant and stupid. Does it make any difference? I have no respect for people who willingly chose to not make any effort to understand something even if they could. They reject thinking and thinking is what makes us human. You don't play a game if you're not even trying. sage for off topic

>>28829 >calling people "npcs" is dehumanizing and seeing yourself as the protagonist of a story is stupid. Based narcicisst hunter. Remember, understanding what's wrong with society and not doing anything makes you as bad as any "NPC".

>>28843 > I have no respect for people who willingly chose to not make any effort to understand something even if they could. They reject thinking and thinking is what makes us human. some ppl jus dont have the time or willpower to understand everything they can. the single mom who works two jobs barely has enough time to raise her kids, let alone educate herself on opsec. the depressed teenager is more concentrated on why their life is like kicking dead whales down the beach ass. others would rather spend their time educating themselves about other things. i dont think any humans have no interests. that being said, i empathize w/ ur pov. some ppl rly can seem like willfully ignorant, inhuman beings. >>28842 this

More like we are entering a series of collapse that will lead to the renewal of civilizations. The "cyberpunk" dystopia would need huge amounts of refined rare earth minerals so they cannot pull it off. They also need much more of other resources. Such dystopia is dead in the womb. Plenty of other dystopia going on though. >>28835 Cracking the German enigma code is more reason to spit on Turing.

>>28847 >Cracking the German enigma code is more reason to spit on Turing. As if hitler was pro free speech in the first place, as if he wasn't making a dystopia himself. Also nazi engineers made computers and advanced technology such as rockets possible in the first place. Unplug yourself from the internet please, if you unironically consider computers to be "homo devil machine", unless you're a LARPer. But yeah, you're probably a LARPer.

>Not to mention Mark renaming Facebook to "Meta." (This sounds like "Metadata".) To me it sounds more like metastasis, like when cancer spreads to the brain.

>>28847 > Cracking the German enigma code is more reason to spit on Turing No, to praise him. Down with the German genocidal empire, down with the barbaric German race.

>>28852 To me it sounds more like metabolism, the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms!

>>28860 >>28852 sounds more to me like metaknight, everyone's favorite kirby villain

Snowcrash was a mistake, and every Techbro thinks the villian that spies on everyone is actually the good guy.

>>29253 based and accurate

>>28861 now this is what I call based and kirbilled

>>28844 Uh yeah about that... what are we supposed to be "doing" exactly?

>>28824 >robot hand preparing coffee Jesus, that is incredibly inefficient. You can easily just set up a vending machine that does the exact same thing and that's gonna be more cost effective and easier to troubleshoot/repåair. That coffee stand just exists to sell people on a gimmick, give of a sense of a faux-future to clueless people so that they buy a coffee just for the gimmick of it all, though I highly doubt it's all that profitable in the end.