Philosophy

The following is my opinion. Read it with that in mind, and don't immediately take it for granted.

Cyberpunk Life in 2014 and Beyond

Cyberpunk, for its popularity in games, movies, books, and media general, is surprisingly undefined. There are a few catchphrases that are often thrown around to describe it, like "high-tech, low-life", but with any given piece of media, people are still highly subjective about if they consider it "cyberpunk".

That said, the cyberpunk present in 2014 didn't exactly evolve like we thought it would as recently as 5 years ago, so here are some of my thoughts on modern cyberpunk.


It's better to blend in than to stand out. Drop the edgy punk clothing, you'll just draw attention. Unless you feel the need to go high-tech in public (like wearing an AR system), there's no purpose whatsoever.

There's also no point in going high-tech in public unless you have a serious advantage to gain from doing so. Stop and think: What do you immediately gain from AR?

Don't throw niche tech into your life where it doesn't belong. You're not more cyberpunk because you embedded LEDs along the seams of your trenchcoat.

Know the genre. Know your lit. Learn from it. Gibson has a gift for identifying nodal points, as he calls them - bits of the future mixed in with the present.

Protect your privacy. Duh.

Protect your freedoms. If you're in a country that allows firearm ownership, you have no excuse to not own at least one firearm.

Don't call yourself a cyberpunk. Don't believe anyone who calls themselves a cyberpunk. Actually using the label on yourself brands you as a poser. If anything, you live a cyberpunk lifestyle - but you probably don't if you feel the urge to call yourself cyberpunk.