7 ms·

Cyberpunk specifically has also been outdated fast by real world developments, and other genres emerging with similar topics, but different design(?)-language.

Cyberpunk specifically has also been outdated fast by real world developments, and other genres emerging with similar topics, but different design(?)-language. The whole cyberspace-element for example kinda died (or evolved) with the rise of the real internet, the Matrix-Movies and recently with stuff like VRMMO-stories from asia. The overall concepts and elements are still around in some way, but the specific combination and language that makes cyberpunk are gone. At the end I would say they were a result of their time, and time has changed, so not it's just nostalgia and retro.

pennomi 2mo ago
It feels like the last remaining promise of cyberpunk is widespread cybernetic augmentation. The rest of the genre is not really fiction anymore.
- fooqux 2mo ago
  I got a flier in the mail last week, offering a subscription service for ambulance rides. It was the most cyberpunk thing I'd seen personally.
  - everyone 2mo ago
    The most Cyberpunk thing imo is the bird's nests made using fibre optic cable from Ukraine. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/bird-nests-fibre-optic-cables-show-wars-impact-ukraine-2026-06-30/ https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/bird-nest...
    - fluoridation 2mo ago
      It's not really any more cyberpunk than, say, a crow collecting expended ammo casings because they're shiny. Just involving electronics technology doesn't make something cyberpunk.
      - cgannett 2mo ago
        Disagree, corvids collecting bullet casings because they are shiny is heavily Shadowrun/WoD/Hellboy coded aesthetically. Regular birds gathering fiber optic cables for nests is EXTREMELY CYBERPUNK are you kidding? The image evokes so much: capitalist excess, tech waste involving computers/internet/cybernetics, war bad, environmental degredation etc... the only part about this concept that isnt heavily cyberpunk is that the bird isn't sick, dying, or dead and is somehow happy to find such a workable and durable nest building material.
        fluoridation 2mo ago
        >capitalist excess ...What? It's waste from expended munitions. The Ukranian war isn't a corporate war, it's a war between sovereign nations. The drones were produced by and bought from corporations (I assume) but the result of the arms race for better measures and countermeasures would have been the same if each country had produced its own gear. >tech waste involving computers/internet/cybernetics Again, something doesn't become cyberpunk just because it involves computers or electronics. >war bad I don't think cyberpunk is anti-war as a central feature. It's certainly compatible with that message, but you could write a cyberpunk story that is pro-war, as long that war is to counter the power of corporations. >environmental degredation etc. All in all, discarded fibers are more of a nuisance to people than to the environment, I think.
        reformd 2mo ago
        > as long that war is to counter the power of corporations. didn't know that war was an integral part of the theme, or countering corpo powers. never read any manifest, though, ... the farce seemed less interesting than the chrome ... I thought cyberpunk was about the illusion of not being a laissez-faire self-made instrument ...
        mandolingual 2mo ago
        It's aesthetically extremely cyberpunk.
  - loudmax 2mo ago
    Incidentally, here's a recent article about how the economics of ambulances are broken in the US: https://davidoks.blog/p/why-american-ambulance-rides-are https://davidoks.blog/p/why-american-ambulance-rides-are If municipal emergency services in yout area don't cover ambulance rides, that subscription service might not be a bad idea.
- PurpleRamen 2mo ago
  We do have some degree of it, but it's more on the realistic side of performance. The remaining body has to handle them after all, so it's hard to enhance performance beyond human limits for real. Maybe with some more decades of development. But we've also learned that we don't need to change the body itself, when we can just enhance the tools we use. Smartphones are already seen as some sort of half-step towards humans becoming cyborgs. Similar have we now Exoskeletons, which are probably more practical than replacing a full limb.
- ajmurmann 2mo ago
  NIMBYs have managed to "safe" us from the architecture.
tetris11 2mo ago
I'd go the other way and say Cyberpunk was meant to be capitalism taken to its logical extreme (unregulated industries rife with corruption, with markets/regimes perturbed only through acts of violence and espionage). As life begins to imitate art, we're met with a The Thick Of It type situation where the satire of reality is no longer applicable and would be further diminished by continuing it > "Time and again, The Thick of It led and reality fell in behind."
- toyg 2mo ago
  Yeah, the issues of political critique that were key to early cyberpunk have largely been lost. It's partially the fault of the first Blade Runner movie, which exploded the genre while also sanitizing it of the harshest elements.
  - butlike 2mo ago
    I'm intrigued. What's some good unsanitary cyberpunk that predates Blade Runner? I'm new to the genre.
simplicio 2mo ago
I always find it kind of funny that after Cyberpunk was coined "X-punk" (steam-punk, diseal-punk, etc) became a construction to denote a particular type of "retro-future", sci-fi as imagined from a past time period. This wasn't initially true of the word cyberpunk, but over the intervening years its become true, as cyberpunk has more and more denoted the future specifically as seen from the perspective of the 1980s and early 90's. Its become "retro-actively retro".

pennomi 2mo ago

It feels like the last remaining promise of cyberpunk is widespread cybernetic augmentation. The rest of the genre is not really fiction anymore.

fooqux 2mo ago
I got a flier in the mail last week, offering a subscription service for ambulance rides. It was the most cyberpunk thing I'd seen personally.
- everyone 2mo ago
  The most Cyberpunk thing imo is the bird's nests made using fibre optic cable from Ukraine. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/bird-nests-fibre-optic-cables-show-wars-impact-ukraine-2026-06-30/ https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/bird-nest...
  - fluoridation 2mo ago
    It's not really any more cyberpunk than, say, a crow collecting expended ammo casings because they're shiny. Just involving electronics technology doesn't make something cyberpunk.
    - cgannett 2mo ago
      Disagree, corvids collecting bullet casings because they are shiny is heavily Shadowrun/WoD/Hellboy coded aesthetically. Regular birds gathering fiber optic cables for nests is EXTREMELY CYBERPUNK are you kidding? The image evokes so much: capitalist excess, tech waste involving computers/internet/cybernetics, war bad, environmental degredation etc... the only part about this concept that isnt heavily cyberpunk is that the bird isn't sick, dying, or dead and is somehow happy to find such a workable and durable nest building material.
      - fluoridation 2mo ago
        >capitalist excess ...What? It's waste from expended munitions. The Ukranian war isn't a corporate war, it's a war between sovereign nations. The drones were produced by and bought from corporations (I assume) but the result of the arms race for better measures and countermeasures would have been the same if each country had produced its own gear. >tech waste involving computers/internet/cybernetics Again, something doesn't become cyberpunk just because it involves computers or electronics. >war bad I don't think cyberpunk is anti-war as a central feature. It's certainly compatible with that message, but you could write a cyberpunk story that is pro-war, as long that war is to counter the power of corporations. >environmental degredation etc. All in all, discarded fibers are more of a nuisance to people than to the environment, I think.
        reformd 2mo ago
        > as long that war is to counter the power of corporations. didn't know that war was an integral part of the theme, or countering corpo powers. never read any manifest, though, ... the farce seemed less interesting than the chrome ... I thought cyberpunk was about the illusion of not being a laissez-faire self-made instrument ...
        mandolingual 2mo ago
        It's aesthetically extremely cyberpunk.
- loudmax 2mo ago
  Incidentally, here's a recent article about how the economics of ambulances are broken in the US: https://davidoks.blog/p/why-american-ambulance-rides-are https://davidoks.blog/p/why-american-ambulance-rides-are If municipal emergency services in yout area don't cover ambulance rides, that subscription service might not be a bad idea.
PurpleRamen 2mo ago
We do have some degree of it, but it's more on the realistic side of performance. The remaining body has to handle them after all, so it's hard to enhance performance beyond human limits for real. Maybe with some more decades of development. But we've also learned that we don't need to change the body itself, when we can just enhance the tools we use. Smartphones are already seen as some sort of half-step towards humans becoming cyborgs. Similar have we now Exoskeletons, which are probably more practical than replacing a full limb.
ajmurmann 2mo ago
NIMBYs have managed to "safe" us from the architecture.

tetris11 2mo ago

I'd go the other way and say Cyberpunk was meant to be capitalism taken to its logical extreme (unregulated industries rife with corruption, with markets/regimes perturbed only through acts of violence and espionage). As life begins to imitate art, we're met with a The Thick Of It type situation where the satire of reality is no longer applicable and would be further diminished by continuing it > "Time and again, The Thick of It led and reality fell in behind."

toyg 2mo ago
Yeah, the issues of political critique that were key to early cyberpunk have largely been lost. It's partially the fault of the first Blade Runner movie, which exploded the genre while also sanitizing it of the harshest elements.
- butlike 2mo ago
  I'm intrigued. What's some good unsanitary cyberpunk that predates Blade Runner? I'm new to the genre.

simplicio 2mo ago

I always find it kind of funny that after Cyberpunk was coined "X-punk" (steam-punk, diseal-punk, etc) became a construction to denote a particular type of "retro-future", sci-fi as imagined from a past time period. This wasn't initially true of the word cyberpunk, but over the intervening years its become true, as cyberpunk has more and more denoted the future specifically as seen from the perspective of the 1980s and early 90's. Its become "retro-actively retro".