tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383687614967941820.post8133348892237724461..comments2024-02-28T01:13:30.122-08:00Comments on Billy Goes to Mordor: How Cyberpunk Broke my Scifi DreamsNadavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13379496050656646495noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383687614967941820.post-25048243939419634282013-09-09T05:27:56.444-07:002013-09-09T05:27:56.444-07:00That's a good point.
I remember this Gibson i...That's a good point.<br /><br />I remember this Gibson interview where he says he's less interested in predicting future tech and more interesting in exploring how people use tech. Maybe in this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2FgOgHVsFQ<br /><br />"The Winter Market", "Burning Chome", and "Solstice"(James Patrick Kelly) seem to be really keen examples of this with their explorations of tech in the arts/entertainment industries. Even if the specific technologies they mention haven't come to fruition(yet?), there's something so very TRUE about these stories Billyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16717291964764757651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383687614967941820.post-16073289925770065642013-09-08T08:41:06.879-07:002013-09-08T08:41:06.879-07:00I'm curious if a single story in the anthology...I'm curious if a single story in the anthology has anyone using cellphones or living in a world with cellphones at all?<br /> It's an excellent example, in absence, of how sci-fi isn't always about predicting the future but is an exploration of now (whenever that 'now" is).<br /><br />JDJarvishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07691101939920824546noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383687614967941820.post-13582146081116010962013-09-03T11:46:18.290-07:002013-09-03T11:46:18.290-07:00Cheers, dude. It's not every day one gets to r...Cheers, dude. It's not every day one gets to riff off of Gibson ;)Billyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16717291964764757651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383687614967941820.post-90015876035926982512013-09-03T09:46:01.315-07:002013-09-03T09:46:01.315-07:00Billy, you really hit the nail on the head with yo...Billy, you really hit the nail on the head with your personal note, even more than the stories themselves. That was what we hoped for, and this is what we got. ScrivenerBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04861652415900436411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383687614967941820.post-21735819157875607222013-09-03T03:16:05.178-07:002013-09-03T03:16:05.178-07:00Yeah, you could group the modern disillusionment w...Yeah, you could group the modern disillusionment with Science together with that of the many political theories that have sprung-out of the Enlightenment. People had high hopes for the Age of Reason and those hopes have been partially realized, but not nearly as much as some had hoped. Isn't that what characterizes our Post-Modern era, a disillusionment with the Modern era's euphoric optimism?<br /><br />As for tech allowing us to "move beyond scarcity", I'd like to believe that such an eventuality would bring an end to war, hunger, sickness, etc. but I'm highly sceptical. There's something about human nature... there are different types of scarcity that will always lead to conflict: scarcity of power, scarcity of fame, scarcity of respect. Technology can't solve these, not unless it's used to clip our wings of free choice and self-reliance, a possibility which is arguably worse than our current one.Billyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16717291964764757651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8383687614967941820.post-8473926738096863812013-09-03T02:12:50.201-07:002013-09-03T02:12:50.201-07:00Isn't the fact that we have given up on the ho...Isn't the fact that we have given up on the hope that advancements in science and technology will give us fair, just societies of plenty actually a loss of hope in socialist (or utopian) politics? For example, we were promised (in the 50s and 60s) that the fact that technology would greatly increase our labour power would create societies of leisure. And technology did greatly increase our labour power, it had the imagined technical effect, but we (collectively) work longer hours than we used to, and the enforced 'leisure' of our reserve army of the unemployed is not the kind that is tended to by robot butlers.<br /><br />Cyberpunk came of age in the 1980s, as the welfare states, workers' rights, and equality of the anglophone states begins a (still continuing) roll-back of the progress since 1945 (and before). we might well develop the technology to move beyond scarcity, but we've lost hope in the politics needed to end want.<br /><br /> Andy Bartletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06683770320671028815noreply@blogger.com