[Andrews54757]

Great article. I've always thought that pessimistic sci-fi dystopias were on the rise, but it turns out most still have positive endings. The observation about walking out of the theatre, and seeing the worst ahead of us is quite interesting.

It would be cool to compare with other, non sci-fi stories. EG: I have been noticing the rise of escapist fantasy narratives in popular media — wish fulfillment stories where a Mary Sue like main character rises above all challenges without struggle. You can see this particularly in light novels, manga, and anime in the now popularized "isekai", "cultivation", or "system progression" genres. It would be interesting to find out how the public's fascination with these types of stories correlate with economic, social, or political undulations in the real world.

[devjab]

Cyberpunk was always the “real sci-fi” in terms of what was actually going to happen wasn’t it? Murder drones, corporations having more power than nation states, the EU block becoming regulatory, climate havoc, the gig economy and a continuous restructuring of centralised society.

It also didn’t have a lot of happy endings. Because the world didn’t end, it just got continuesly shittier.

[bytehowl]

Some would argue we are already living Cyberpunk, just without all the cool stuff.

BTW, why single out "the EU block becoming regulatory" as something negative prophesied by Cyberpunk? I have recently watched a video about the timeline of Cyberpunk 2020/2077 (which is just one universe, granted), and the EU sounded like the only ones who had their shit together, even though they were facing sabotage from all directions.

[p_l]

The world of Cyberpunk RPG essentially has EU be a lot nicer NUSA, with considerable economical domination (thus the use of eurodollar, which was one of the names floated for what became Euro currency), Soviet Union as this really schizo place but which on basic human decency scores miles above post-USA America, and an alliance of African nations as the unexpected black horse who made huge resurgence in space (which also contains probably the only really "free" nations - the old ESA space habitats and their allies).

This is also reflected (and probably heavily influenced CP2077) in Ghost in the Shell, where European Union, in somewhat fluctuating alliance with Soviet Union, is probably among the best locations to live.

[devjab]

I didn’t mean the EU being regulatory as negative, I was just giving examples of how the cyberpunk I read in the 90ies is basically reality now.