
The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore - lelf
https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-fantasy-and-the-cyberpunk-futurism-of-singapore
======
Mizza
Singapore is a weird place. During the flight, the stewardesses walked around
and handed everybody something - I was expecting a wet towel, but in fact it
was a card in multiple languages which says "If you are about to bring any
amount of drugs into the country, you are going to be executed." Lovely first
impression to set the tone.

Other than the omnipresent paranoia, the thing that struck me as the most
bizarre is that almost nothing in the country is oriented around children. The
fertility rate is basically the lowest in the world, as the way of maintaining
the population seems to be simply skimming the top few percent of qualified
workers from India, China, and other southeast Asian countries, people who
will essentially live at the office until they have made enough money to
return home, or simply retire and die alone in the country.

Another strange thing was the way the city is planned - everything is
concentrated to a district. For instance, rather than having record shops
peppered around the city, there is a the "record shop area", where there are a
dozen record shops in a single place. It's like this for lots of things -
books, refrigerators, etc.

The food was great though. I'm craving laksa just thinking about it..

~~~
rashkov
I wonder, would there be an opportunity to flush any substances down the
toilet, at that point? Sounds like a potentially terrifying situation,
considering the number of stories I’ve heard from friends and family about
accidentally flying with marijuana that they were unaware of was left over in
a backpack or whatnot.

~~~
Mizza
You would have to use the airplane toilet. Immediately after stepping off the
plane, you are scanned by some kind of scanning IR(?) camera, which I assumed
was looking for drugs. I actually had some vitamins in a baggie which I was
shitting bricks about, but the actually immigration point was very polite and
chill, much moreso than, say, JFK.

~~~
schoen
I think the IR camera was more likely to have been looking for _fever_ than
drugs. I don't mean to say that Changi doesn't have drug-detection mechanisms,
but the commonest use of IR cameras at international airport gates is to try
to find passengers who are showing signs of infectious disease.

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JSavageOne
These comments seem to paid a really dystopian picture of Singapore. Of course
there are problems with its government, but in my travels, Singapore was one
of the most impressive countries I've ever visited. By far the cleanest city
I've ever seen, the most futuristic, most efficient, and my favorite food
city.

Singaporeans visiting America for the first time are often shocked at how much
worse the U.S. was compared to their expectations, almost third-world like. If
more Americans visited countries like Singapore and saw how much further ahead
they are, maybe for once our people and politicians would have some modesty
and fix things instead of just being complacent.

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noobermin
I think it's funny how the author says the people sort of go along with the
government especially now just weeks after the recent election where
opposition parties took a district, which sure in terms of actual governing
power doesn't mean much, but means that the PAP is just starting to feel some
pressure from the outside, particularly among younger people and families who
opted to vote in the WP in sengkang. It doesn't really seem like sg will move
beyond a one-party state soon because of it but people are hoping the
government moves in a different direction especially after covid.

WP taking sengkang was big big news in sg, people have to understand the PAP
has dominated singapore's government for decades. In terms of actual power it
means little but it was a blow to the PAP's soft power as it was a clear sign
that people want the government to reorient itself.

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RyJones
Strange place. I was amazed how many homeless there are - which will be
denied, when mentioned.

I guess the people sleeping on the walkway to Louis Vuitton island were not
homeless? The sleeping people in the underpasses, sleeping under signs saying
not to sleep there also?

~~~
noobermin
My impression actually is there are far fewer homeless, compared to say
portland or LA.

~~~
Temasik
there are homeless in Singapore seriously?

~~~
theCodeStig
Yes

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PandaRider
> Many hardworking Singaporeans today resoundingly choose a government that
> promises economic stability even as censorship laws become more and more
> stringent and inequality is rife.

As a Singaporean, this is the point that sticks out as proof that the author
has lost touch with local sentiment. In the recent election, young Singaporean
citizens felt " especially agitated by Raeesah Khan being hit with a
sledgehammer." and thus many voted against the PAP. [0]

Yet, on the author's point of paradox of cyberpunk... there is a kernel of
truth. While most Singaporeans wouldn't scrape a temple for a new high tech
mall like Jewel, (IMO) most Singaporeans would be okay if it was for a new
train station so that we (ironically) can visit Jewel more conveniently.

[0]: [https://mothership.sg/2020/07/inderjit-singh-pap-
ge2020-crit...](https://mothership.sg/2020/07/inderjit-singh-pap-
ge2020-criticism/)

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ordinaryradical
And for those of you that want the greatest novelist of cyberpunk, William
Gibson, and his take on Singapore, "Disney Land with the Death Penalty."[1]

[1]
[https://www.wired.com/1993/04/gibson-2/](https://www.wired.com/1993/04/gibson-2/)

~~~
bitwize
I love how Gibson compared it to Stephenson's burbclaves, which to me is like
the literary equivalent of a famous musical artist singing the "Weird Al"
Yankovic version of their own song (which has also been known to happen).

~~~
macando
Which artist did that?

~~~
bitwize
I know of at least two. The Barenaked Ladies have been known to interject
lyrics from "Jerry Springer" into live performances of "One Week". And The
Presidents of the United States of America sometimes close out live versions
of "Lump" with "And that's all I have to say about that" (the final line of
"Gump").

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Causality1
"Cyberpunk dystopia" seems very inaccurate to me. Nothing whatsoever about
Singapore is "punk" in any sense of the word. "Cyber-utopian" is a better
descriptor, with the emphasis on the traditional connotations of the word
utopian, that being an aim for perfection at significant cost to principals
that don't fit the vision.

~~~
Apocryphon
Well, the ruling corporate authority in a cyberpunk state isn't very punk,
either. It exists as an edifice to be opposed or exploited by such a
rebellious subculture. Maybe Singapore is a cybernetic dystopia in search of a
cyberpunk movement.

Also, the street samurai/cowboy hacker trope isn't ubiquitous to every
cyberpunk work. Ghost in the Shell, a seminal work, is about law enforcement
officers who uphold the state, and occasionally chase down cyberpunk anarchist
hackers. (Blade Runner is much the same.) You can have the trappings of the
genre without all elements of it.

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pengaru
As someone who has lived in several tourist-ridden parts of California, the
idea of turning the airport itself into a tourist trap is _very_ appealing.

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aaron695
The fact the "Four Floors of Whores" was government sanctioned always fit well
with the Disneyland feel to me.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchard_Towers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchard_Towers)

I started seeing the beauty in rubbish after visiting Singapore a few times.
There's something quite unsettling when there is absolutely none.

~~~
ValentineC
> _I started seeing the beauty in rubbish after visiting Singapore a few
> times. There 's something quite unsettling when there is absolutely none._

If you were here during our lockdown, you might have seen plenty.

Some parts of Singapore's population don't see the civic responsibility in
throwing trash into bins, unlike most of Japan and Taiwan.

Singapore is a clean _ed_ city, not a clean city.

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holografix
As draconian and harsh a lot of Singaporean laws seem to be it’s hard to argue
with the country’s success. I’ve been to Singapore many times and a lot of
south east Asia as well and as someone who grew up in a third world tropical
country (Rio) I don’t have a romantic view of SEA as many Euros or Americans.

Singapore is a paradise compared with Indonesia, Malaysia etc.

~~~
hatenberg
Given the pandemic its a paradise compared to most of the states too.

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HHC-Hunter
My biggest disappointment about Singapore is the censorship.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Singapo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Singapore)

My biggest boast about Singapore are the privacy laws and technology
infrastructure.

Singapore could be great, if only a few things were to change.

~~~
dehrmann
The PAP is slowly losing popularity. A second political party gaining power
could change things.

My take on the censorship and police state is that it's there so there aren't
significant racial or religious tensions.

------
francobatta
Interesting... regardless, I'd love to visit SG someday

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simonebrunozzi
The Wired website is a f*cking joke.

I clicked to read the story, and I have pop-ups and banners all over the
place. I try to click the "X" to close them, and I can't.

Goodbye, Wired. I'm not going to read the article and I'm not going to read
you in the future.

