Total Cyborg Brain Transplants ... A bit 2050 really dahlink
The
Cyber Punk genre had heavily dystopian themes: technology as a tool of tyranny, social disintegration, isolation, paranoia and powerlessness. Secretive, bitter and alienated heroes turned up the collars of their
Badass Longcoats while evil
megacorporations breathed down their necks. The tone of everything from
Neuromancer onward was bleak and depressing.
In
the 1980's, this future seemed probable: technology was not going to improve life, it was going to help The Man institute a
Big Brother world. Megacorporations were going to stomp out individual rights and enslave creativity. And
Japan was going to take over the world.
As if, right?
At the end of the 1980's
Cyber Punk moved on:
Deconstruction,
Reconstruction or just plain
evolution? Opinions differ: what follows is most generally termed "Post-Cyberpunk".
Post Cyber Punk works share an emphasis on positive socialization. The term originates with Lawrence Person's
Notes Toward a Postcyberpunk Manifesto
. In the article, he describes the typical Post-Cyberpunk protagonist:
''"They're anchored in their society rather than adrift in it. They have careers, friends, obligations, responsibilities, and all the trappings of an 'ordinary' life."
Character goals differed characteristically:
"Cyberpunk characters frequently seek to topple or exploit corrupt social orders. Postcyberpunk characters tend to seek ways to live in, or even strengthen, an existing social order, or help construct a better one."
The progression of the genre mirrors aspects of 1990's and 2000's
Real Life history. The Internet did not become a corporate tool; instead, it fostered a community-centric individuality that few saw coming. In fact, it allowed ordinary people the freedom and resources to express themselves and share ideas like never before.
In
the 1990's, giant corporations were still extremely powerful and unprincipled — as predicted. However, they were challenged: the internet increased corporate and government scrutiny. Additionally, the open-source movement attempted to turn technology towards the will of ordinary people, who in turn embraced some key open technologies (like wikis, including the one you're reading right now).
Meanwhile, across the Pacific, the Asian economic crisis turned the
highly-regimented code-bound economic steamroller that was Cyberpunk Japan into the
cuteness-saturated neophile
anime Japan of Post-Cyberpunk. Post-Cyberpunk also deals heavily with meme theory and often at least touches on
The Singularity.
What the old and new Cyberpunk genres share is a detailed immersion in societies enmeshed with technology. They explore the emergent possibilities of connectivity and technological change. Post-Cyberpunk is the leading edge of exploration into our
near future.
Cyber Punk is not quite dead. It's just
pining for the fnords.
Examples:
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- Ghost In The Shell, which despite having a future Japan inspired by Neuromancer, has employees of a fairly corrupt government as its heroes, something unthinkable in an earlier Cyber Punk work. Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex takes this even further, with the titular Stand Alone Complexes being both the strongest force for providing necessary scrutiny.
- Though Shiros less famous manga {Appleseed} starts with two soldiers scavenging for food in the wake of a nuclear holocaust fighting against gangs of mercenaries, they are soon taken to a city of Crystal Spires And Togas, where they are hired as paramilitary police officers.
- Dennou Coil, which is best described as "Ghost In The Shell as done by Hayao Miyazaki".
- Real Drive, which is basically "Dennou Coil as done by Shirow Masamune".
- Kurau Phantom Memory
- Perhaps the earliest example of Post Cyber Punk predates Cyber Punk itself - Astro Boy. It has many of the themes present in Post Cyber Punk works, where technology causes massive social upheaval and change that is rough, but ultimately good and a symbol of hope as cyborgs and robots experience discrimination, contemplate rebellion - but are ultimately integrated into society.
- Urasawa's Pluto fits the bill as well, essentially being a Darker And Edgier version of the original Astro boy
- The Dot Hack franchise.
- The Digimon series is perhaps an extreme example of Post-cyberpunk characterization. The main heroes are just normal kids with families and friends, who happen to also restore order to the Digital World. Also, there is a important focus on relationships as much as world saving.
- Yu Gi Oh has elements of this. Corrupt corporations and conspiracies? Check. Cyberspace? Check. Normal kids fighting evil? Check. While fighting consist of card games instead of high-tech action, the characterization and goals match.
- Ergo Proxy straddles the line between classic Cyberpunk and Post Cyberpunk
- Tell me Time Of Eve isn't Postcyberpunk. Go on. I dare you.
- Transmetropolitan borders this: While science has brought great wonders to humanity, humans are still the same old assholes. The most popular fast food franchise of the future serves cloned human meat.
- Note that this key factor is what makes Transmetropolitan Postcyberpunk - the technology does not alienate people, people alienate people. The bizarre transgenic modifications actively help to bring about social good and fight the apathy choking the system.
- Not to mention that the environment is cleaner than ever after the Industrial Revolution. Pollution has been utterly defeated in the comic's world, though Spider stil remembers how the rain used to be dangerously corrosive in his childhood, meaning that it took a long way to get to that point.
- The Surrogates isn't bleak enough to qualify as Cyber Punk and in the comic technology comes pretty close to solving all of society's problems, but even a society where (most) people can possess the perfect body and the worst crimes are damaging property has its own flaws.
- Tad Williams' Otherland tetralogy, which shares much of the tone and content with .hack despite being set in the late 21st century.
- Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash, and to an extent, Cryptonomicon. Snow Crash especially straddles the line between Utopia and Dystopia.
- To an even greater extent, The Diamond Age, which features a typical Cyberpunk character, Bud, being captured and executed by a pair of governments.
- Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow.
- Accelerando by Charles Stross.
- Bruce Sterling's 1988 novel, Islands In The Net is one of the original Post Cyberpunk works. Sterling tackles the problem of corporate power head on, envisaging Rizone, a highly networked multinational founded on "economic democracy."
- Vernor Vinge's 1984 novel The Peace War has both dystopian and Utopian themes. The Peace Authority is a strange semi-Stalinist state; authoritarian, yet antipathetic towards any government outside their own small territories. They are challenged by a free-spirited "hacker" community, the Tinkers.
- In Neal Asher's Polity Series, the protagonists are loyal to a benevolent autocratic government controlled by advanced artificial intelligence, and the universe is coming close to The Singularity. Essentially, the series takes the scope of Space Opera (with particular influence of The Culture), but gives it the gritty tone of Cyber Punk.
Live Action TV
Tabletop Games
- The third edition of R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk RPG is set in a Post-cyberpunk world. The irony of a post-Cyberpunk game called "Cyberpunk" is not lost on This Troper.
- Nor is it lost on RTG's staff. Mike Pondsmith wrote a considerable rant justifying the irony on the MZML on one occasion. (That in itself was ironic. Mike completely missed the point of what was being asked about (The "artwork" in C Pv 3).
- Transhuman Space is a post-cyberpunk setting for GURPS. Although the Broken Dreams sourcebook lends itself to a more classic cyberpunk feel.
- Eclipse Phase is generally post-cyberpunk, though some areas of the setting (the Hypercorp regions in particular) are closer to classic cyberpunk.
- Cthulhu Tech is very much a post-cyberpunk setting, with, despite the nature of the universe, a government that despite its flaws is trying to save humanity, an economy which is approaching post-scarcity with nanofactories and the D-Engine, and themes of transhumanism (though not of the kind that you necessarily like).
Western Animation
Video Games
- The Dot Hack franchise.
- Mega Man Battle Network takes place in an Everything Is Online world where Internet browsing is accomplished by using sentient programmes called NetNavis. While the world is generally bright and cheery and the protagonist and Nakama never stray into AntiHeroism, viruses, which serve as the game series' Mooks, are horrifically common and cyber-crime is a very real threat.
- Add all-encompassing Wi-Fi connectivity, angst, and aliens attracted to loneliness and you get Mega Man Star Force.
- Flashback has you playing a government agent who must stop an alien invasion. New Washington is delightfully dystopian, and at one point you must compete in a televised deathmatch for money.
- Deus Ex's world was incredibly dystopian. But the heroic characters and their goals? So very much aimed at improving the existing system.
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