Blade Runner, Altered Carbon, and the Relevancy of Cyberpunk

Some clarifications: -- Murders in the Rue Morgue was published in 1841, not 1814. My apologies! Also, I feel like this is a good time to explain how I'm handling sponsorships on this channel, since this video has some critiques about advertising, but then it ends with an ad for a sponsor, Skillshare. So what gives? Well, here are the rules I follow when putting ads on my videos: 1) It has to be something I like and which I think is useful for my audience. 2) The sponsor doesn't have control over the content of the video. 3) For the past few months, I've turned Adsense off for videos with sponsors attached (for at least the first 30 days after publishing). This means that, instead of seeing an unrelated ad before the video, you get something I've chosen at the end. I think this is a good trade-off. It also means my salary isn't as connected to how many people are watching the videos, which lets me take more risks in the kinds of content I'm making. My other source of revenue is crowdfunding on Patreon. If you'd like to help me out, consider pledging here: www.patreon.com/justwrite I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone has about all this on here, or on Twitter :) Thanks for watching (and reading) everyone!

Cyberpunk is literally my favorite genre of anything ever

Let me just say, THERE ISN'T ENOUGH CYBER PUNK!!!!

Cyber Punk: High tech, low life. I've never known a time where this wasn't a relevant genre.

How can nostalgia be a concern when the themes of cyberpunk are more relevant today than ever before? Artificial Intelligence, Internet dependence, power brokers, hyper consumerism, income inequality and our beloved smartphone accomplice... we have become Cyberpunk. It is prophetic in nature.

The wild thing about the reduction of cyberpunk to its aesthetics rather than its core concepts is that a lot of recent works sort of remove the "punk" entirely. The rebellion is hollow; no meaning only neon.

I know why we can't grow past the traditional idea and aesthetic of cyberpunk. Because it just looks cool!

Everybody is just gonna forget about Metropolis being a huge inspiration.....

Ghost in the Shell is an interesting example, because while it certainly has a lot of cyberpunk in it, the animated series at least (moreso than the animated movies, and I won't comment on the original manga) has an airier, less dystopic outlook. I've heard this sub-genre been called post-cyberpunk , or even cyberprep. The subgenre essentially takes the same premise of a future filled with technology that blurs the lines of individual, technology, and corporation and society - but essentially comes out with the conclusion that rather than this causing a dystopia on the verge of collapse, it's.... well, business as usual. People deal with it. Some things get better, other things get worse, and it's more of an evolving process of trying to figure this out, rather than sliding deep into despair.

The neo(n) noir aesthetic is one of the main aspects of cyberpunk that makes me love it so passionately. Naturally the possibilities of action are among the most thrilling out there, but that colorfully dark atmosphere man... nothing makes me happier (I know it shouldn't haha)

Sad that people always forget the amazing work that Japan have made for the cyberpunk genre. Ghost in the Shell and Akira are one of the most notable examples.

I have to disagree with the assessment that cyber punk uses outdated tropes. I would rather say that all the 1980 tropes came true: - 0.1 percent of the richest people own more wealth than the bottom 50 percent. -Mega corporation have seen their real world equivalent in Amazon, Google and Apple. And with one mega merger happening after the other (look at Disney for example) that trend will only continue.

I like Asimov's quote that technology is a speeding train moving into the future, and the sci fi writer is tied to the front trying to peer ahead to see what's coming.

"...the ads that track our movement and report information on us. I'd like to see cyberpunk explore that aspect." That is literally a major plot point in Minority Report, and it's alluded to several times in Altered Carbon.

2049 is one of the best sequels ever made, just saying.

Blade Runner 2049 did update the cyberpunk genre with things like we are becoming more and more dependant on technology to create meaning in our lives and form relationships. The main character's love interest is literally and hologram designed to form relationships. Not to mention, it's set at a time when Earth is facing complete environmental collapse.

Ending w advertising. The irony

I think that Joi in Blade Runner 2049 somewhat tackles what you were alluding to about the advertising that tracks you. Essentially, she tells you exactly what you want to hear in a similar way that advertising is targeted based on our viewing and searching history, giving us products the program thinks we want.

I love cyberpunk...there's not enough of it around

We live in the early stages of a cyberpunk world.