Is our current dystopia not good enough?
this post was submitted on 06 May 2025
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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:
- Dystopian city setting where mega-corporations rule
- Full integration of technology into society, featuring cybernetic implants
- Outsider protagonists (punks) who often are very familiar with the technology around them
- Hard boiled detective and film noir vibes and influence
- Themes dabbling in trans-humanism, existentialism, and what it means to be human.
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“We have dystopia at home”
Snow Crash seems to be a favorite of the current heads of mega tech corporations.
-Federal government still technically exists but has barely any ability to do anything -Everything privatized including police and emergency services -Wealthy live in gated communities while most of the population lives in corporate owned slums -Leader of a megachurch is trying to take over the world
Yeah, this one really seems like we are heading in that direction.
A mix of Her, Gattaca, Mad Max, Idiocracy, 1984, Ready Player One, Waterworld.
Robocop one is rather close.
Cyberpunk? Deus Ex, just the first game. The sequels have the depth of a puddle.
Or if climate apocalypse then something like Mad Max, but way dumber perhaps.
That'll do.
"This plague...the rioting is intensifying to the point where we may not be able to contain it."
"Why contain it? Let it spill over the schools and churches, let the bodies pile up in the streets. In the end they'll beg us to save them."
"You misunderstand. They're rioting because we're trying to save them with vaccines. They don't think they need to be saved."
"God, people are so fucking stupid. Why do I even want to take over the world?"
Yeah we were too optimistic in our dystopia fiction.
Idiocracy lacks the malice and bad faith.
The ones with fascist governments are the closest, like 1984.
If fascism is not a distraction. I still can't believe that the billionaires have let Trump win with no further plans.
They're working toward the Network State model where they basically get to be tech-enabled neo-feudal lords with near slave populations.
Yep, Ive heard it referred to as techno-feudalism.
Was Her a dystopia? I recall it being a fairly good world to live in.
Our dystopia somehow manages to both be one of the most boring and the most destructive. Figures.
The Road.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, or A Scanner Darkly. Definitely something by Dick.
Samantha Morton was the original voice for the AI (which I'm guessing would have been an amazing improvement), but was replaced by Scarlett after everything was recorded. Some BS about appealing to the American audience, but I think it was more about a cash bung and BJ.
Upgrade is perhaps an interesting cyberpunk dystopia given current events.
Repo the Genetic opera with Cyberpunk and probably a little Blade Runner later on.
It's not much of a dystopia, and it certainly doesn't seem to end that way, but the animated movie Robots just keeps feeling more and more relevant.
Elysium
Instead of a space station, the ultra rich will live in a giant gated city that has all the world's latest technologies and medical services.
The rest of us will work menial jobs to supply everything for the city.
That movie was contemporary geopolitical commentary using a sci-fi metaphor. Same as District 9 (a refugee crisis). So you could argue that future is now, depending on your views.
Science fiction is usually about present issues. It puts them in a different context to offer a different perspective and enable consideration.
That's true. It's also a way of taking contemporary trends and extending them in a slippery-slope type analysis.
The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror have entered the chat.
I replied elsewhere but, yes, that's what they want. Peter Thiel is a proponent of the Network State and absolutely is working towards that end.
Akira Battle Angel? But, before the war or without the warrior women.
^Alita
Although an Akira crossover with Alita could be fun.
The other one I was thinking of was Hunger Games .... 12 different regions governed over by one powerful region that controls everyone else with military power using all the latest most deadly and most invasive technologies humanity can imagine.
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most likely? not the xenomorph part of Alien, specifically, but the general message of unchecked corporate greed leading to disaster for everyone is an all-timer.
Weyland-Yutani has entered the chat
Wall-E, except no spaceship
I think Blade Runner 2049 is our most likely future from a food systems/decimated eco system perspective. Androids and flying cars, yeah, maybe. No natural vegetation and only the only crops being produced in greenhouses. Probably not by 2049, but I could easily see it by 2149.
Side note: I really liked Her. Great music, relatable story (for terminally online folk at least). If you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend.
"ChatGPT has released a new voice assistant feature inspired by Scarlett Johansson’s AI character in ‘Her,’ which I’ve never bothered to watch because
Tap for spoiler
without that body, what’s the point of listening?
"
Colin 'Scarlett Johansson's husband' Jost.
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1984, but with Idiocracy.
William Gibson's writing after the Sprawl trilogy always seemed very likely to happen. I mean, squatters living on the Bay Bridge in NorCal after it gets damaged in an earthquake, for instance. Not the really out there stuff.
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I was hoping for Shadowrun, at least there'd be magic, elves, orcs and trolls around
Nothing that relies on AI that can pass for a competent human.
Admittedly, this is an ignorant guess, but I don’t think we’re on the right track to manufacture consciousness. I’m not even sure it can be done at all.
1984 and brave new world simultaneously
This is what I tell everyone, we're on a path where both of these novels are true, at one point will there be a split of one or the other. I think it'll end up closer to 1984.
Or Judge Dredd, Demolition Man
I actually think that Hollywood is putting out these movies to get everyone used to the behaviour. Well not actually but maybe it's sort of somewhat possible.
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