6 ms·

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-

• 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.
        • fluoridation 2mo ago
          Cyberpunk is a genre of fiction.
          • mandolingual 2mo ago
            And an aesthetic. You can google it if you're unfamiliar!
            • fluoridation 2mo ago
              I'm very much familiar. It's just incorrect.
              • mandolingual 2mo ago
                So it is decreed! 'Cyberpunk aesthetic' is hereafter an incoherent concept! Well done, sir. Objective truth is defended.
                • fluoridation 2mo ago
                  I'm glad you've seen the error of your ways.
                  • 2mo ago
    • DroneBetter 2mo ago
      the bird's children may be crippled if it gets tangled in their feet while they're still developing, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stringfoot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stringfoot (which is in general a common sight wherever pigeons can be found); when my flat's fibreoptic was being installed, the cable-layers made a big deal of collecting the cuttings where they spliced the cable and ensuring nothing would be in reach of any animals.