this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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Cyberpunk

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What is Cyberpunk?

Cyberpunk is a science-fiction sub-genre dealing with the integration of society and technology in dystopian settings. Often referred to as “low-life and high tech,” Cyberpunk stories deal with outsiders (punks) who fight against the oppressors in society (usually mega corporations that control everything) via technological means (cyber). If the punks aren’t actively fighting against a megacorp, they’re still dealing with living in a world completely dependent on high technology.

Cyberpunk characteristics include:

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Including any movie, TV show, video game, book, anime, whatever. What's your favorite depiction of cyberspace?

Maybe Hackers?

Or Lawnmower Man?

Maybe Ready Player One?

Or the video game Rez?

Or, I don't know, Tron?

Or maybe you prefer the "consensual hallucination" of Neuromancer? Or the Metaverse from Snow Crash?

Your avatar can look any way you want it to, up to the limitations of your equipment. If you're ugly, you can make your avatar beautiful. If you've just gotten out of bed, your avatar can still be wearing beautiful clothes and professionally applied makeup. You can look like a gorilla or a dragon or a giant talking penis in the Metaverse. Spend five minutes walking down the Street and you will see all of these.

When I say "cyberspace" I'm thinking any computer-driven virtual world you can navigate through in the first person. And personally, I'm excluding any virtual worlds that look identical to the real world. So I'd exclude things like The Matrix and The Thirteenth Floor.

What do you think? Which cyberpunk work created the best cyberspace world?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I like the book Hyperion's description. Kinda reminds me of how that Hackers depiction looks, except more massive and there are AIs (and other intelligences and processes) roaming around, enforcing rules, running algorithms.