Cyberpunk now?

I'm taking a risk and waxing philosophical.

It's my blog, I'm allowed...

Hypertext links are pending...

I looked at the cyberpunk books and movies of the 80s and early 90s and realized that everything in those books is not only possible now but exists in the form of realized technologies and jaded ideologies. We exist in a time where corporations (*namely corporate lobbyists) really do hold political power over governments. Large multinational corporations have more of the governments money in their control (*including the Federal Reserve). We all exist in a time where robotics have the power to enhance the human body (*hal-5 exoskeleton). We can even replace human actors and even singers (*Hatsune Miku) in the media we create.

What is the point of being human? Is humanity really a goal or a starting point? What are we really afraid of? If we are afraid of being mind hacked, we must simply remember the mind control of Mk-Ultra. If we are afraid of losing sensations such as touch or sight we must remember that if everything is an electrical signal to the brain then even this moment could be simply a simulated experience.

Why bemoan the virtual when we play games with reality everyday such as using a credit system of virtual cash or substituting real men with *metrosexualism? We have always been fabricators as well as builders. Every monument has its facade. We are in essence only an extension of the masks we've worn because many of us really have little to do with our innerself as much as discovering our abilities to please and interact with others. The social experience is a chain of events of displays of emotion and effort but we are no closer to others than we are to ourselves.

Maybe I'm getting off topic here, but this virtual reality is neither real nor virtual. We are descendants of a diluted culture. We do not have our bearings as a whole but yet we do not grasp what identity is to the individual. If you are between the ages of 18-30 you probably understand the feeling that there is nothing left to be into. The newness fades quickly and the attention span of most cultures or even subcultures degenerates by the decade. The faces we wear in the name of fashion or cultural conventions leap wildly between the extremes of liberalism and conservatism yet in nature there is only a balance dictated by what works.

The tribal ethic of the past was a tribal identity. This has been replaced by sports, military, career, or interest based groups. We can literally join and drop tribes ad hock for what suits us in the moment, even though psychologically we develop based on habitual patterns. This means that as we add and drop we are shaping ourselves based on momentary values. Unless habitually similar patterns have been chosen then we will develop as walking blanks. These walking blanks will have no association to anyone or anything other than gratification. For the sake of reference they are more like the Proles (*from 1984)

I can understand the argument of the conservatives for the sake of religion. Humanity needs a grounding ethical foundation. However what I disagree with is the illogical lies that are required to believe in dietys and metaphysical manifestations from ancient legends. I also disagree with the rampant bias against other cultures that creates more wars.

So what happens to the Youtube/On-demand generation that can upload entertainment at will from their phones since birth? They fulfill all of the cyberpunk requirements, Always connected and plugged into a never ending commercialized playground catering to split second gratification. 

If the movies and books of yesterday tend to be a plan for the future of today then welcome to cyberpunk. We don't need to wear our computers because our brains act as the ram. We don't need virtual reality (*especially with X-box live). We are all looking at the matrix right now because we are all connected online, a concept which was in the 80s mainstream unheard of.

In essence we are living in that same cyberpunk vision. The U.S. government is no longer a world superpower. There are large wars funded by multinational corporations in control of the government. Information for private corporations really is handled by information couriers in the I.T. field.

However, unlike the movies none of this is handled as glamorously or as symbolically. We are victims of our own limited view. Many do not see the world before them in this light. Hackers do exist, but they are more likely getting free cable or fixing up junk computers than running missions for hire. The cultural ethics of cyberpunk went out the window with the computer friendly 90s. The jet black screen filled with green letters became that world of color that the writers envisioned. The holograms became 3d graphics instead of using bulky headsets we just made the screen a bigger sharper image with HD.

The government and the Illuminati are riding in the backseat when it is the technology that we use that truly shapes us. Our tools are an extension of ourselves and our truest expression of that inner self is only evidenced in the world we create. In a world without fear the possibility of everything becomes one step closer to reality.