![]() Their access to the high technology is almost always restricted or limited and a good cyberpunk hero always finds a way around this limitation. Theirs is life in a perpetual slum fighting over the corporate scraps or finding ways to sneak morsels off their masters’ tables. They strive to exist under the looming shadow of the megacorporations that rule their world. They are punks, degenerates, thugs, addicts and thieves. Low LifeĬyberpunk heroes are famously antihero. This technology sets them apart from the lower classes which characterize the ‘low life’ half of the axiom. The ‘elites’ which are almost always part of some megacorporation, have unrestricted access to this technology and use it to manipulate and control the world around them. The existence of this technology always creates a disparity between people in a cyberpunk world. ![]() Any or all of these may be included in a cyberpunk setting. Vast digital landscapes filled with hackers. Advanced robotics and/ or artificial intelligence. All the wonderful ideas about transhumanism are cast in the harsh light of the reality of what would happen if people actually achieved it. ![]() You can’t get away from high technology in a cyberpunk world, but the technology is always distorted. With that in mind, let’s find the simplest definition of cyberpunk: “High tech, low life.” And in postmodern fashion, let’s break down that saying and get to the heart of what cyberpunk really is. As such, I spend quite a bit of time in cyberpunk communities and one prevalent question seems to resound throughout: What is cyberpunk? It seems in our postmodern, deconstructed world, things kept getting divided, broken down in to smaller and smaller pieces until they don’t resemble the whole at all. As a matter of fact, several of my upcoming releases are cyberpunk stories. Quell saw the inevitability of it coming and tried to limit the ability to resleeve. They considered themselves above the people who lived below and their lack of empathy for human life was sociopathic. The meths used their power to fulfill their own perverted and twisted desires and to turn the world into their personal playground. And if you enjoyed these elements of Altered Carbon then I recommend it for a good read.Īnother great theme is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The whole idea reminded me of a scifi book I read a few years ago called Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. They wielded their power to selfish ends and countless innocent people suffered for it. This fact was also referenced frequently. Having escaped this cycle, the meths became something godlike. One point that was stressed throughout the season was that humans were born and eventually died. The meths had achieved immortality and in doing so lost their humanity. Methuselah was the oldest person in the Bible who lived to be over 900 years old. Altered Carbon illustrates this perfectly in the meths, short for Methuselah. The first is that of immortality and what happens when a group of people achieve it. The series brought up some really good thinking points that are actually relevant today. Hopefully we will get to see the further adventures of Takeshi Kovacs as he searches for Quell. Considering that Kovacs gave Ryker’s sleeve back at the end of the first season, this makes sense. Though it seems unlikely Joel Kinnaman, who played Kovacs, will be back. From what I’ve managed to dig up, there is good hope for a second season. Wrapping up the first series of Netflix’s Altered Carbon left me wanting more.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |