What Is Driving The Cyberpunk Renaissance ? 

in cyberpunk 2077 it's not about saving the worl d, it's about saving yourself.

Me and my best friend jokes about how we live in a shitty cyberpunk world. We have the megacorps and social problems but don't have the cool cyberware ect.

"Despite our unprecedented level of connectivity, we find ourselves more isolated than ever before" is so true. We are getting slowly detached with reality.

there's something deeply ironic about all the AI art used here

I think it's because Cyberpunk has a genuine promise of power in a powerless society. If you can find the right people, develop the right skillsets, and have reached a breaking point in your morality/ethical depth... then Cyberpunk is the perfect storm. You can be someone, you can do great things; you can finally live in a world where life may suck, but at least it's colorful and interesting, and there's a promise that things will genuinely get better for you. It's the American Dream, but darkly inverted. It's also a lot more fun than normal day-to-day life. Sure, you might be a criminal, but at least you're a criminal that believed in something and had fun doing it. Now, people might scoff at the "fun" bit, but it's true. Modern, mundane life is a government-corporate dichotomy that's just not that fun or interesting to engage with for most of us (work 9-5 for 30-40+ years, if you're lucky, and hope it doesn't become mandated to work a 9-9 in your lifetime... And pray that you don't get targeted by either one in the meantime). We'd rather ignore all this, leading to a positive feedback loop of miserable ideas and people in power. If no one thinks things will change for the better, they won't ever take the steps towards making things better. We've reached a point in our lives, where Cyberpunk seems more attractive than living as we do now, despite how much it would suck to live in any of these Cyberpunk worlds. That's a really big red flag. If a Cyberpunk world is becoming an escapist fantasy, then where are we going wrong?

The path to liberation is that technology is used to decrease the amount of time people spend at work, *not*, that the time they are at work is more productive. What it should be is that the work of 1 hour today reflects the work of 8 hours yesterday, and so, you are paid the same, and sent home with another 7 hours in your day. But that, wouldn't increase profit. That, wouldn't be advantageous. That wouldn't be the way to outcompete your competitors.

The part where you refer to the return of slave labour in Cyberpunk, was good… It comes full circle to the video title… Because the hard pill to swallow, Is that we are in that same phase of humanity, Just preliminary, Indentured servitude, That is nothing more than slavery, Rebranded, Under another name. With extra steps, If you will We will decay into this

I believe media always prepares humanity for the future the big companies are creating, so perhaps, we will live in a cyberpunk-like future, we are just being prepared, psychologically, for it

Good cyberpunk doesn't master end-of-history capitalism, it just makes the emotional reaction that much more relatable. It's the true literary meaning of catharsis being an intellectual engagement with harsh truths being taught by the gods of experience rather than the false idols of a better life when all that's good is absolutely dead. And that's our world and we know it.

Man I should rewatch bladerunner

More and more of my cyberpunk short stories are getting published. I bring in “urban” voice to cyberpunk; Central American and Caribbean immigrants struggling in the setting, amplifying the now surfaced child labor found in industrial meat packing (it’s been that way for a decade now) and other exploitive practices and toning down the Asian stereotypes. Plus I add heart by adding elements of family.

It does feel like most people are subconsciously aware of the cyberpunk future we're heading to. Everyone see's it but some haven't put the connection together just yet.

In the cyberpunk genre, the powers that be, are too powerful to overthrow, and doing so would spit something nastier out of the vacuum. The genres main core for characters, is usually the need for self preservation.

One year ago I started joking about the fact that Milan is the Night City of Italy, now I'm realising it's heading towards it full send. Can't even imagine for people in actual metropolis.

Another great video ! Will you ever explore anything other than cyberpunk ?

I think what's so interesting and also appealing about Cyberpunk media, is that that peoples lives are hard, and they have scrape by, and survive because of high crime rates and few human interactions but there's cool cybernetics, VR Networks, super fast computers, AI that actually talk and effect things. There's also the possibility of becoming a tough merc or a highly skilled hacker. We just have that in our reality.

Love your videos man. I love this style of presentation. Will you be making more of this type of video and about similar topics?

I was around for the first wave. The joke for years has been that we're already living in the prequel to Bladerunner

Back in the 90s it was cool escapism to a crapsack-y dystopia, intruiging but no more realistic than Back to the Future. Today, where we already had a Biff-presidency (and very likely will get another one) it's more like a trailer for what's to come... ...Probably without the cool music and the chrome. Because we can't have nice things, not even in the dystopian future.

the world of cyberpunk is terrifying. I hope we're smart enough to not fall that deep

That's pretty simple: we're starting to live in a cyberpunk world. AI isn't a futuristic concept anymore; virtual reality is becoming a routine; everyone has their bank accounts, passports and overall personal data online; e.t.c. In my country you can even pay taxes through the government's official website, which is convenient, but implies things that are scary af if you think about it for a while. Cyberpunk is far closer to us than we'd want to.

Really excellent videos. Thank you.

To what extent does cyberpunk today feed our isolation and apathy by offering us a dream world where the isolated individuals can fight and damage the oppressor.

do you make your own graphics for the videos or use already existing? Great Video btw

Where have did you find all these comic book style Images, Did you create them or are these comics already? Or AI? Very cool video 👨‍💻

The only difference between full blown cyberpunk and what we have goin irl is the fact that common folks still have some power.

this AI art is well put together, how long did it take you to tweak it?

It’s because we can all clearly see our society speedinggggg towards this future

Awesome video, dude. High Tech-Low Life, guilty as charged...

we are living it so

what is the title of Blade Runner comic book You showing?

good video

Solid analysis and argument. Unfortunately, I agree more than disagree.

Of course people in cyberpunk are isolated. It makes us easier to control and dependent.

I think the recent rise of the cyberpunk genre has alot to do with how its turned out to be an almost idealised version of our actual reality despite the intention of being closer to a dystopic warning. We live in a world ruled by the corpos just as predicted while those corpos lock down cyberspace and push this dystopia on the ever more powerless masses in a manner that makes many cyberpunk works seem prophetic the only things we are lacking from most of these works is the cool augmentations. Not that cutting off your limbs to get a replacement is actually cool but being super human does have a certain attraction when being a regular human doesn't seem to be enough anymore, yet more accurate prediction. Most weeks as I'm reading the news or catching up on some tech inovation I see something that might well be new and novel to the masses yet seems familiar to me through the cyberpunk genre. While those masses seem to miss the point about where the risk is in such advances or even that there is a risk at all I can see that pattern and direction is the same as many authors imagined decades ago. The current tech illiterate spewings around machine learing and its obfiscation with the term AI and in some cases even AGI is so on the nose I do wonder if the people pushing much of this (not the scientists but the corpos that control them) have actually read a bunch of cyberpunk works and took it as a road map not a warning. Popular fiction is often something that seems to mirror reality which in the 2020s is the dystopic warning of the 1980s/90s, If films like Jonny Mnemonic were released in 2021 (the year its set) instead of 1995 it would of been much easier for the mass market to grasp and would perhaps be seen as a bit too obvious even lazy. I imagine Musk might even try to sue the production for being negative propaganda against neuralink. Even that name neuralink is almost perfectly cyberpunk just change the A to an O and its there, I just googled that to check it wasn't a Willam Gibson term and I was just having a mental blindspot. I wrote this at the start of your video and its nice to see thats its not that far from where you went with it

There is one silver lining upon the bleak and that is freedom of expression being most prominent realized in cryberpunk world. It is the ultimate fantasy of cool kids dream where no limits on vulgarity and offensive gestures . Cyberpunk is in many ways the polar opposite to the authoritarian 1984. Both are dystopia in their own way, but it is interesting that in the West cyberpunk is accepted as a pliable vision of future while the 1984 model is seen as a threat you cannot compromise with. Because cyberpunk has an appeal of agency even if it’s fake or rendered irrelevant, it still is on the menu

I'm not sure what we're mirroring in our world right now, but I honestly don't think it's Cyberpunk-esqe. Even Deckard met up with arms dealers and contacts in real space right? V Still had to sit down with Dex to do a job. Elliot's crew don't exist in some encrypted back channel, they all gather in a run down arcade which is def less secure than proper encryption messaging. You could wave these things away as just an issue of translation with the visual medium, but I think that they demonstrate something else, namely what I said before. What we're going through isn't a mirror of cyberpunk. And the comparisons that we can draw, like corps being greedy for money and power, that's just a universal truth, across time, political systems etc. I'm not 100% sure what I'm even trying to get across here. I think there's a missing element to this entire convo (and every variant of this convo) and I can't put my finger on it.

personally, I think we are living in a proto-cyberpunk world

Its because we live in a corporate dystopia already why not just change the aesthetic.

Alexa play Blade Runner Blues by Vangelis

What Is Driving The Cyberpunk Renaissance? The fact that people are realizing we are already living in the early stages of a cyberpunk dystopia.

I'm still convinced Watch Dogs 1&2 is cyberpunk

Also there's the Ai being used to replace people's artistic skills.

Cyberpunk picked up a lot of film noir ideas.

CP2077 was never a renaissance, it was final accord for Cyberpunk, because its no more about the future, its about reality. There is nothing new that cyberpunk can offer

Mr. Robot is a masterpiece.

Short answer. Because real life is not so slowly turning into one. A boring one but still a dystopian nightmare.

I really don't know why people wish to use energy of the imagination to reinforce miserable realities rather than seek refuge from them. It's probably the reason for a lot of suicides. People should really give themselves a break during their free moments rather than wallow perpetually in misery.

No space behind the end of your sentences and your question mark ty.

Tell me u dont know about Heavy Metal, without telling me u dont know about Heavy Metal

Low life refers to criminal activity and disreputable behavior not the standard of living.

Cyberpunk isn't vintage. If anything it's the most relevant genre right now.

People often interpret the "punk" in "Cyberpunk" as indicative of a revolutionary and counter-culture movements that fight the system and while it maybe true to an extent, "punk" in this case usually there to indicate moral decay of society and the "low life" aspect of Cyberpunk. The romanticized idea of a revolutionary who beats the corporation and changes the world is contrary to Cyberpunk spirit imho. Although it can be done right, like Johnny Silverhand for example, dude thought he could blow up the "bad guys" and save the world, but he just made things worse and in the end all he did was of no consequence, because that's not how the real world works.

Ifthenelse

DUDE , THIS VINTAGE OLD ASS GENRE OF SCIFI IS BACK BECAUSE REAL LIFE IS STARTING TO LOOK LIKE A SAD CYBERPUNK SHITTY COMIC FROM THE 80'S

Real life is driving the resurgence life without the fancy tech is increasingly becoming more dystopian I mean we got age old crafts and industry’s becoming automated replacing workers with machines whenever possible plus other trends of corporations having to much economic and political power as well as tech advancing too fast to see the drawbacks of misusage mixed with immoral business and external forces grifting leads to me a 22 yr old shmoe feelin like a npc in night city 😮