c10.------------------------------------. | | |c09 Pearl c08is thinking about Cyberspace c10| |c08 and how it already has taken over c10| |c08 our oh-so-modern world. c10 | |c08 With the friendly agreement fromc10 | | c09'Off-Piste'c08. c10 | | | `------------------------------------' c09 CYBERPUNK ANNO 1996 c09 Cyberpunk Is Dead c07We're all more or less fed up with scary stories, of what's going to happen in the near-future. All the horrible things that will come true, not 'wild' or 'fancy' stuff, but small things, really, like a worldwide 'c09Cyberspacec07'-net, where everybody can log on and off, as they feel like... For more info read William Gibson. But now I'm asking; Isn't the, socalled, c09 Cyberpunk-Culture c07 already here? Aren't we already experiencing the pseudo hightech society, where everybody owns a computer and is afraid to walk alone in the streets at night? c09By Martin Serup c09aka Pearl/Passion c07Everybody, no matter if you have been reading c09 B. Cartland c07 orc09 W. Gibsonc07, knows SOMETHING about the phenomena called 'c08Cyberpunkc07'. Like the folks who're claiming to be Cyberpunks, probably would say we're all some kind, more or less, Cyberpunks ourselves. Maybe that is so - eventhough it seems like the world has agreed that Cyberpunk is a literary genre, and NOT a sub-culture, we are all more and more becoming a part of the scary picture, created by the very first CP writers like c09 J.G.Ballardc07 andc09 William Gibsonc07; worlds where everybody, with repect for him/herself owns a(t least one) computer, and are fully capable of using those. Worlds where people talk to eachother through machines, phones if you prefer, without a wire. Small walkie-talkies you can (and do) bring everywhere. It's a picture of a world where you're bound to be unsafe, if you're walking alone in the streets, and the clock is past six in the evening. A super-ego-protective world, where you do what you can to stay clear of other people, when it comes to physical contact, and not only because of the long ranges there could be between eachothers, but because it's dangerous to TRUST other people than youself. Cyberworld is equal to Paranoia world. Wherec09 William Gibsonc07 takes over and adds new things to the old Science-Fiction genre, is when he's mentioning things like 'f4The Netf1', a global computernet, where you just have to jack your plug in and then you ARE in a Electronic Virtual World - based on really simple stuff like a harddisk and a modem! Gibson does also bring up the idea of multinational industries controlling the world, what he's saying is that money is power. Most of you readers will probably agree, with me drawing parallels so far. Gibson does also mention 'c08advancedc07' stuff like CyberWear; Cyberwear is some sort of mechanic part of the human corpse. It could be a false eye, to improve your sight, or maybe even a virtual heart to help you breathing, (there's a man in The States, who has got his heart replaced, with a synthethic one. So it can be done, as long eating loads of pills, as to keep your immune-system's antistuff-production down!) - even if the nature has turned off 'c08the big enginec07'. c09Gibson'sc07 (as well as c09Ballard'sc07,c09 Sterling'sc07,c09 King's c07and others) world is very violent, if you see someone fight in the street you don't interfere - you don't want to get yourself all messed up, for the sake of a stranger. c08 COMPARING THE DETAILS TO REALITY c07Well, does that sounds far out, to you? Really some kind of imagination those fellows must've had?! Of course you don't find my article odd in any way, mostly because you're used to read/see about this subject. Everybody's telling you that the velocity of the development is increasing unbelievably fast, sure it is. But we'll never get a 'c09Gibson-Sferec07' - Or do we already passed that stage? Doesn't every family have a(t least one) computer in the house? Everybody uses the computer for their work, the youngest girl at basic school and the eldest boy at university. What about father he's a regular driver does he use the computer? Well, he's laying the budget on the thing and after the children have finished off their homeworks, they can go and play on the damn thing. Or call their friends if they have a modem, a thing which's rapidly becoming more and more normal as an addition to the computer. Pseudo worlds are build around the computer - as for example The Scene. Are you Cyberpunks just because you have a computer in your house? Of course not! Yet what about the 'talkie' machines, CP-authors are so keen on writing about. First time seen in Star Trek; Yes, of course I'm talking about the mobil telephone. A small invention everybody simply MUST own, you can't be 'lost' in our modern society. Most people own mobile-phones nowadays, it's almost as normal as the PC (computer). There're many small inventions, specally invented to make our life so much easier - things we don't really pay attention, because we're so use to them. Microwave owens, Airbacks, Rolling stairscases, Televisions, phones, VCR's, cameras, remoteable 'everythings' and so on. c08 INTERNET - A MATTER OF CP? c07Or what about the INTERNET - it's simply huge, and impossible to control. Partly because there are so many incoming datas all the time, and partly because of the floading borders there are in the internet. When you're talking online from Denmark with a guy in Australia, are you then obligated to follow the Australian or the Danish law?? Or maybe even the law of that country, which owns the satellites, sending the signals?! Therefore the net does also make terror-actions so much more easy to commit. Information is power, everybody is aware on that, but what will happen when everybody has access to everything? In 'the old days' a hacker, which went inside Pentagon and leeched some valuble informaion, had a hard time spreading them to 'strangers'. Today it'll take you about 10-20 secs to log on and 20 secs more to send the information out onto the worldwide net, known as INTERNET. c08 LEND ME YOUR CYBERWEAR! c07NOW you might ask, are we real 'c09Gibsonc07' Cyberpunks now? Well, we do have all the 'c08computerizedc07' ingredients, but we still need some. For example we don't have cyberwear... Or do we? Actually you could define regular glasses as Cyberwear, it's something which does not belong to your 'original starter kit'. But it's somehow to easy to say that Glasses or Hearing aid is Cyberwear. The ones of you who have read Gibson or seen some Sci-Fi movies know that most Cyberwear is operated 'inside' you. Okay, what happens when a guy crashes in his car, and the doctors puts several long silver screws in his leg, to make him walk again - I would call that Cyberwear, or what about Bypass-operations (perhaps not 'wear', and mostly it's your own veins used, but anyway...) or the small cardiac-machines which is sat inside you, to make your malfunctionel heart functionel. Certainly Cyberwear. c08 PUR CYBER-ENVIRONMENT c07In a normal 'Cyber-enviroment', there's bound to be ghettos of buildings which should have been torn down ages ago. They are standing as a opposition to the 'High-Tech' buildings, with their large mirror panomara windows, and billions of elevators and rolling staircases. Again we can just look at our world as it is today; every grand, or just semi big, city of Europe 'has it all' today. Like we have poor people without a place to sleep and nothing to eat, sitting in all major public places and begging. Usually we don't give them anything, eventhough we can afford spending 100 $ on a new pair of boots. The Ying-Yang (69) of the electronic age, as some tend to entitle Cyber-whatsoever, is easily symbolised by the big difference between poor and rich. Yet we do also have something in between - the average citizen! They're maybe the one who are living most in the ActualCyberReality, if you give it a thought there isn't a thing that's more 'Cybered' than driving in a normal train (or subway); When you're entering a station you'll maybe walk of a normal staircase or use an elevator, you'll perhaps pay for your ticket in a automat. Entering the train, you have to push or pull something, and if the train is old or worn down, you might have you put some muscle-effort into the project of opening the door too. When you arrive at your destination, you'll maybe have to use the rolling stairs, maybe they don't work (or a smart-ass has turned them off), so you have to walk 'the old fashioned way', up the stairs. When you have to exit the station building you're very likely to pass some electric doors, after that you can do what ever you want as long as you mind the traffic-lights telling you when to go and when not to. c08 SO? SUMMING UP... c07The conclusion must be that it's plainly ridiculous, to talk about the big scary future, soon to come, were we're all have to depend on c09 THE MACHINEc07, just to get by. We already do, and that's really no secret - the secret could be that the socalled Cyberpunk is dead! Everybody's already living in one big interactive 'Cyberworld' wether you like it or not that's the fact, so now I'm wondering; why bugger to write about a future, which has been past for years?