A cyberpunk (design) future is closer than you think
by Tyson Pink
Cyberpunk is a word you might have heard thrown around and, while you might not necessarily know what it refers to, you’re probably more familiar with it than you realize.
Cyberpunk: What even is it?
cyberpunk
noun: cy·ber·punk \ˈsī-bər-ˌpəŋk\
1: science fiction dealing with future urban societies dominated by computer technology
Merriam-Webster’s definition is a good place to start, but I think it misses the stark contrasts of cyberpunk. Cyberpunk deals with a typically dystopian near future. Advanced technology is readily available and shadowy corporations have more clout than governments, putting profits before people. Think high-tech noir and you’re pretty much there. David Ketterer defined it as “high tech, low life”.
Cybernetic implants — technological ‘upgrades’ to the human body — are common. You could have stronger arms, faster legs, zoom lenses in your eyes, or jack the Internet straight into your brain.
Hackers are often the anti-hero protagonists, and they rule the roost in a society where information is currency.
It’s sci-fi, but there’s no aliens. Cyberpunk explores the intersection of technology and humanity, how easily we get lost in the first, and what it really means to be part of the second.
Origins of cyberpunk
The term itself was coined in the 1980s by author Bruce Bethke in his short story, Cyberpunk, and came to classify an entire genre of science fiction. Works such as Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner (and the novel it was based on, Phillip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), and William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer now epitomize the genre.
Bladerunner follows Rick Deckard through rain-slicked streets in his hunt for missing androids so realistically human-looking that sometimes even they don’t know whether they’re ‘real’. Neuromancer tells the story of hacker Henry Case working in a virtual reality matrix (not the same one as the movies). Both of these works were instrumental in defining the look and feel of the genre, though it can be argued that the visuals of Bladerunner were heavily influenced by the 1980s, considering the novel was written in 1968.
These helped inspire a spate of works in the 1980s and 1990s — a period when the science fiction was quickly becoming science fact — such as The Lawnmower Man, Hackers, and even Robocop, not to mention games like Cyberpunk 2020 and, later, Shadowrun.
The dense, artificial urban setting is characterized by bright lights and deep shadows, the flashing neon signs all pitching their messages to a bustling public steeped in technology.
Gibson once said that “modern Japan simply was cyberpunk”, and it’s not hard to see why.
The World of Tomorrow, Today
The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.
— William Gibson
The thing is, Gibson is right. This future, dystopian or not (though the current climate, both political and environmental, suggests more dys- than u-) is much closer than we think.
Most of us already carry portable technology that is many times more powerful than the Moon lander. The vast Internet is merely a tap away, and augmented reality is bringing it up from our screens and putting it all around us.
The bright neon lights are everywhere, and we’re getting closer to live targeted marketing.
Big brother is watching, ostensibly for our own safety. Corporations hold much more information on each of us than we’d like to admit (and yet we continue to give it to them.)
Robots work on our production lines and patrol our malls (and our fountains). Scientists are warning of future job losses as robots become capable of filling more and more roles, likely leading to a larger divide between the rich and the poor.
We’re already cybernetically enhancing ourselves: 3d printing has made artificial limbs cheaper and easier to produce, while bionic eyes have been around for years. We’re even close to being able to move mechanical limbs with our thoughts. Heck, digital tattoos are closer to becoming a real thing, too.
The only tropes we’re missing are neural interfaces, though if Elon Musk and some of the crew in Silicon Valley get their way it’ll be sooner than we think, and the shadowy corporations (there’s plenty of people who’d argue we’ve already got them, too.)
Technology is constantly evolving and, as it does, it expands the possibilities for our future. The far-flung ideas of the 1980s are now reality, and we’re witnessing the first truly global technological generation. Given the technological leaps and bounds of the last 30 years, who knows where the children of today will lead us?
Cyberpunk is big right now because while we were distracted, the days were lost to time like tears in rain, and tomorrow became today. At the risk of massive cliché — the future is now.
Cyberpunk in the design world
If you’re looking to tap into the look and feel of an evolving technological present, try some of these.
Connect Opener by Taiga2
More cyberpunk-inspired designs:
Originally published at envato.com on September 3, 2017.
