I'm a software engineer, completing 10 years of professional experience this year. I started my career as a web frontend engineer (it was easier for me to de...
I’m fairly pessimistic about the future. Occupy Wallstreet was a total failure. A bigger version can still be a total failure. We’ve been in a cyberpunk dystopia since 9/11, totally and transparently owned by megacorporations. I can easily see an AI-powered police state dramatically wasting energy to dominate the population.
Sure, but we need to also avoid situations where we are simply following its protocols while thinking that we’re fighting it. Occupy Wallstreet just vented our energy, and then we went back to work while the same processes accelerated. Terrorism always just increases the power of the police state. Both of these things operate within the protocols of the cyberpunk dystopia, and ultimately facilitate its growth.
The cyberpunk dystopia wants you to fight it. It wants a strong immune system. It wants you to test its boundaries. But I’m not suggesting complacence either.
I would reframe "fighting the cyberpunk dystopia no matter what" into something more human-affirming, just as a starting point. Human communities, human learning and expression, homesteading and communing with nature, anything DIY and IRL, I think all these things are more positive than falling into the excitement-trap of believing that you’re “fighting” the monopoly on violence.
I’m fairly pessimistic about the future. Occupy Wallstreet was a total failure. A bigger version can still be a total failure. We’ve been in a cyberpunk dystopia since 9/11, totally and transparently owned by megacorporations. I can easily see an AI-powered police state dramatically wasting energy to dominate the population.
I’ll frame your comment and hang it om my wall.
We need to fight against a cyberpunk future no matter what.
Sure, but we need to also avoid situations where we are simply following its protocols while thinking that we’re fighting it. Occupy Wallstreet just vented our energy, and then we went back to work while the same processes accelerated. Terrorism always just increases the power of the police state. Both of these things operate within the protocols of the cyberpunk dystopia, and ultimately facilitate its growth.
The cyberpunk dystopia wants you to fight it. It wants a strong immune system. It wants you to test its boundaries. But I’m not suggesting complacence either.
I would reframe "fighting the cyberpunk dystopia no matter what" into something more human-affirming, just as a starting point. Human communities, human learning and expression, homesteading and communing with nature, anything DIY and IRL, I think all these things are more positive than falling into the excitement-trap of believing that you’re “fighting” the monopoly on violence.