
2017 and the Rebirth of Cyberpunk - evo_9
https://www.neondystopia.com/cyberpunk-politics-philosophy/2017-and-the-rebirth-of-cyberpunk/
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ericthor
The other night I watched the 1989 movie
[Patlabor]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patlabor:_The_Movie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patlabor:_The_Movie))
directed by Mamoru Oshii who went on to direct Ghost in the Shell in 1995. The
plot is simple and there isn't too much grand philosophy, but the movies was
prescient on issues of proprietary software, Internet of Things, urban waste,
and Corporate/Government complicity/inaction.

The movie doesn't read as a gritty cyberpunk or even as super
cyber/futuristic. It's visually light and the public is optimistic and
satisfied with the present. It resembles our present to a certain extent which
makes it all the more interesting. Its main divergences from our reality is
with the mechs which can be seen as bit of fun or be read as metaphor for
technology that is starting to seem divine/magic to all expect for the few
technically savvy enough to understand whats going on. I haven't watched the
other movies or anime yet, but look forward to checking them out.

[Spoilers] The general plot is.. A genius hacker creates a proprietary
operating software(HOS) for a floundering robot/mech company. The company is
able to not match competitors in creating robots, but is able to corner the
robot OS market. The movie opens with genius hacker committing suicide.
Shortly thereafter some robots/mechs sporadically go haywire. You follow from
the perspective of a police unit who try to uncover why the robots are acting
up and the mystery/motivation of the hacker. A small/funny scene..the police
officers are concerned about their mechs own OS fearing that they also run HOS
and have been compromised, but their chief engineer reveals that he lied to
the higher-ups about installing HOS and chose not to install it because he
couldn't see the code inside of it.

Edit: HOS not BOS

~~~
twic
BOS? I remember it as HOS - the Hyper Operating System. Here's the splash
screen:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0_ckVWukUo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0_ckVWukUo)

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NewHatMatt
Site appears overloaded.

Google Cache link:
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:10YWuh...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:10YWuhB_ndMJ:https://www.neondystopia.com/cyberpunk-
politics-philosophy/2017-and-the-rebirth-of-
cyberpunk/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

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jandrese
I can't read the article, but the title is something I've been considering
since last year. Our current politics is very similar to the fanciful
corporate dystopias of the 80s Cyberpunk movement. There's a real chance to
make something that's going to feel fresh and relevant even revisiting and old
genre.

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noir_lord
I'm hyped for Altered Carbon series. (NF, Feb 2018).

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhFM8akm9a4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhFM8akm9a4)

I adored that series and it was well written cyberpunk when I'd given up on
ever finding more that I liked.

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busterarm
It's hard for me to take this author seriously when the author makes it
painfully clear that a) they don't read books and b) they don't know anything
about the genre or its roots.

~~~
CodeMage
The "Post-Cyberpunk" section was especially jarring. Right off the bat, the
author classifies "Snow Crash" as post-cyberpunk.

~~~
kernelbandwidth
Missing Stephenson's The Diamond Age was a bit of an oversight as well,
considering that Snow Crash is one of the canonical Cyberpunk novels, while
The Diamond Age is (IMO) a defining Post-Cyberpunk novel. The Diamond Age
opens with a Cyberpunk fake protagonist written with every Cyberpunk trope in
mind, and then the fake protagonist is killed off before the end of the
Prologue and the real protagonist, the slain punk's baby daughter, is
revealed. Stephenson's intent is clear: "This is not a cyberpunk novel."

I'd also argue that Cyberpunk does not mean "everything is terrible", nor does
Post-Cyberpunk have a softer and lighter view where "not everything is
terrible." Rather, the difference is whether social control is rooted in 1984
or Brave New World.

From this point of view, Ghost in the Shell and Minority Report are still
Cyberpunk (edit: settings); the viewer is just seeing things from a point of
view other than the completely marginalized. Shadowrun is a Cyberpunk setting
whether you work for a corporate power or in the streets.

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pmarreck
I think the hotly-anticipated next game entry from CD Projekt Red (fresh off
their Witcher 3 smashing success) is going to push this genre even further out
there... "Cyberpunk 2077":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99qJGrPNLs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99qJGrPNLs)

That trailer is 5 years old, now :O

~~~
endisukaj
... and no other news since that trailer. It sincerely hope they don't delay
it much more. Nothing good ever came from delaying and causing a game to be
over-hyped.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
Overhype is never good, but it's worth noting that their last game (Witcher3)
was delayed [1] and turned out to be one of my personal favorite games of all
time.

1 - [https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-witcher-3-delayed-
agai...](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-witcher-3-delayed-
again/1100-6424075/)

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egypturnash
Cyberpunk feels increasingly comedic and dated to me. My catchphrase for the
past couple of years has been “This (is/is not) the cyberpunk dystopia I was
promised”.

~~~
linksnapzz
Tomorrow isn't what Yesterday told me it would be...

If a cynic is just a disappointed idealist, then we might look at the
cyberpunk of the '70s/'80s/'90s/today as the cynical reaction to the idealism
of the jet-age future of '50s & '60s speculative fiction.

I can't read the article, did they find something idealistic in the
speculative fiction of the last few years to feel cynical about? Or is this a
new coat of rust slathered over the old Gibsonian grit?

~~~
egypturnash
Well Gibson's short story "The Gernsback Continuum" is pretty much a middle
finger to the SF of, like, 1910-1930. I wonder if there’s anyone writing
something similar directed st 80s SF trends?

And mostly the article is someone who just discovered ~~CYBERPUNK~~ saying a
few big Hollywood sequels/remakes are A Cyberpunk Renaissance. It’s pretty
clear they’ve never read a single book, just movies and manga.

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Jach
I only skimmed it but my impression was this article seems to be confused
about distinguishing cyberpunk-dystopia works from cyberpunk works that aren't
also dystopian. But they're separate things. Same with post-apocalyptic.

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LeoNatan25
Oh yeah, nothing says Cyberpunk like “Service Unavailable” in 2017.

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mnzaki
Here's to hoping 2018 is the year of solarpunk!

~~~
Cyberdog
For those also wondering:

> This would be a world of decentralised eco-cities, 3D printing, vertical
> farms, solar glass windows, wild or inventive forms of dress and design, and
> a vibrant cosmopolitan aesthetic; where technology is no longer used to
> exploit the natural world, but to automate away needless human labour and to
> help restore the damage the Oil Age has already done. Solarpunk desires
> societies of polycultural ethnic diversity and gender liberation, where each
> person is able to actualise themselves in societal environment of free
> experimentation and communal caring; and driven by an overriding ethos of
> compassionate rationalism, where science and reason are not seen as
> antithetical to imagination and spirituality, but as concepts which bring
> out the best in each other.

[https://solarpunkanarchists.com/2016/05/27/what-is-
solarpunk...](https://solarpunkanarchists.com/2016/05/27/what-is-solarpunk/)

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zengid
It died?

~~~
Yuioup
Nah. The only reason why this article exists is because of the upcoming CD
Projekt RED Cyberpunk 2077 video game.

~~~
klez
Nah. Neon Dystopia has been around long enough and Cyberpunk 2077 has started
being hyped long ago enough that I don't think the article has anything to do
with that.

