Mirrorshades question 2: Cyberpunk the movement

NeilNjae

Mirrorshades is regarded as the "definitive" cyberpunk book. Does this hold up? Do you think there's a cohesion to the stories in this collection, beyond the approximate date they were written? Does this collection tell you something about "cyberpunk" as it was envisioned at the time?

Apocryphal

Was ‘Cyberpunk’ envisioned? Like that way Malcolm McLaren envisioned ‘punk rock’ and milder a style out of what had really just been a local underground scene? Or was it just a fashionable way of doing certain things, for a short time?

In terms of the collection, I though it was diverse - more diverse than I would have expected. I tend to think of gritty near future dystopian cities, rogue hackers, technomancers, and for some reason revenge stories. And frankly a lot of these stories didn’t fit that bill. So, I probably learned something, which is always nice.

RichardAbbott

I was surprised by the prevalence of drug use in the stories, which seemed a more common feature than cyber stuff somehow. So I'd expected techno implants and the like, but hadn't really linked it in my mind to altered states of consciousness induced by other means.

Oddly enough, at my last "proper job" in London there was a questionnaire we all did speculating about future employment practices, and a couple of the questions focused on drug use for targeted purposes in a work context (as opposed to personal/recreational). Did we think that this would become commonplace in the next few years or decades, would we want personally to participate, did we anticipate some employers would make it a requirement of the job etc. Mirrorshades might easily have been source material for that!

Apocryphal

Those seem like odd questions to ask.

But I do feel drug use fits the setting, which is afterall about how tech can amplify a person at the risk of being addictive. It basically fills the role that sorcery takes in a Sword and Sorcery setting - that deep desire to achieve something using this ‘technology’, but at the risk or corrupting or losing one’s self.

RichardAbbott

> @Apocryphal said:
> Those seem like odd questions to ask.

We all thought so too, and there was (as you'd expect) a certain amount of cynicism as to the motive for asking... should we all be checking our employment contracts? 😯

>
> But I do feel drug use fits the setting, which is afterall about how tech can amplify a person at the risk of being addictive. It basically fills the role that sorcery takes in a Sword and Sorcery setting - that deep desire to achieve something using this ‘technology’, but at the risk or corrupting or losing one’s self.

I like that connection

NeilNjae

Nootropic drugs were all the rage in Silicon Valley circles for a while, along with microdosing pyschadelics I think.

I agree that these stories don't fit the contemporary vision of cyberpunk (as influenced by Cyberpunk Red and Shadowrun ) of high-tech implants, computer hacking, and flashy action. The focus is more internal to the characters.

I think there is a general theme of how technology can overtake people and restructure the way people view themselves, others, and society; and that follows through to how people interact with each other.

clash_bowley

@NeilNjae said:
I think there is a general theme of how technology can overtake people and restructure the way people view themselves, others, and society; and that follows through to how people interact with each other.

That to me is the essence of Cyberpunk.