Since when was cyberpunk a dream to be pursued? It's the opposite of a naive dream. It's a nightmare full of high tech and people living on scraps, constantly trying to keep up with the tech fallout from big corporations. One of the most iconic places in cyberpunk was literally described as being "like a deranged experiment in social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept the thumb permantently on the fast-forward button."

How is this appealing? It's a warning, not a cosy idea to aspire to!

I think this is the difference between cyberpunk as a fiction genre and the views of the people calling themselves cyberpunks back in the day (or reading the Wired articles about them).

really depends on your literature. Star Trek's interpretation of the future is very different from Dune's. Much of cyberpunk tends to be cynical but there are some more utopic interpretations out there as well.

Neither Star Trek nor Dune are cyberpunk.

Didn't mean to imply there were. Just general differences in tone in Sci-fi in general.

What is a utopian view of cyberpunk fiction? I don't know any.

The "punk" in the genre is the rebellion against or rejection of a corrupt and oppressive system that chews people up and spits them out as either defeated or criminals. If you're reading something else, it's not cyberpunk by definition.

Remember, it's hi-tech and low lives.

> What is a utopian view of cyberpunk fiction?

Solarpunk, I would guess. "The street finds uses for things" doesn't end up being hardscrabble against dystopia.

I think the phrase people are looking for is cypherpunk, idk why the whole thread is referencing cyberpunk which has little to do with the subject matter and ideals being discussed, which are related to the cypherpunk movement.

Yep you're right.

My mistake. Thanks!

I think what he meant by the “cyberpunk dream” is actually the “solution” to the cyberpunk dystopia - i.e. “the net” was supposed to be a refuge from corporate/government monitoring and control.

In the early days of the internet it kind of was. Corporations haven’t waken up to the full commercial potential of the internet. Governments/law enforcement hasn’t quite figured out how this new at-the-time Internet thing worked - “series of tubes” or something.

Then as he noted, there is a significant downside to such a refuge.

to paraphrase one of the rpg.net mods:

transhumanism is how technology will reshape what we think it is to be human, how we view life, death, love, family, success, fear, etc. Cyberpunk is how it won't.