The sky above the video was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
This noir opening with vague allusions to technology can only mean one thing; it’s
time for a video on Cyberpunk!
Cyberpunk is all about breaking the mold and going against the mainstream, to rebel against
the contemporary and blaze the trail ahead into the unknown.
And the best way to embrace this message of rebellion is to follow the crowd and do what
every other cyberpunk author is doing!
So boot up your hacking rig and get ready to write a cyberpunk story!
The best way to start a cyberpunk story is by setting the tone.
Cyberpunk always takes place in a dark dsytopian future where giant mega-corporations have
finally defeated ab-block once and for all and are now free to spam their neon color
advertisements everywhere.
Another key feature if cyberpunk is how it explores the deep relationship between technology
and humanity by showing us how technology impacts society in many different ways taking
a nuanced view of humanity’s dependence on technology and… ha ha just kidding.
It’s all about how technology sucks.
While a writer could use a cyberpunk story to explore the modern audience's apprehension
of globalization and obsolescence due to automation an even better idea is to water down our story
with pretentious symbolism and gritty dark themes.
This overwhelming focus on the negative aspects of futuristic technology and society should
in no way be balanced by contrasting positive moments.
If the audience hasn’t walked away from a cyberpunk story feeling both depressed and
that they wasted their time, then the writer isn’t doing their job correctly!
Audiences also love it when a writer shoehorns in pseudo-philosophical ramblings.
I mean, I read Descartes’ Wikipedia entry so that makes me a deep philosopher right?
Now just because our story’s themes, symbolism, and overall message is that technology sucks,
this should in no way make a writer hesitate to give our characters all kinds of awesome
cybernetic implants that turn them into super powered humans.
This most definitely will not undermine our central thesis about how technology makes
everyone miserable.
Be sure to get completely lost in showing off all kinds of awesome, but poorly thought
out cybernetic powers.
A single cybernetic arm will totally allow a person to lift a car without instantly snapping
their spine.
Now some writers might be tempted to give their cybernetic abilities drawbacks in order
to balance them and create interesting obstacles for our cyborg characters to overcome.
Writer’s should resist this urge as it might make our cyborgs less awesome.
A good solution would be to say that overuse of cybernetics eats away at the very humanity
of the characters… somehow.
Not that even this arbitrary and vague limitation will ever come up in the story.
We just need to create the illusion of a limitation and we are done!
We could have our cyborgs be oppressed outcasts.
It’s only natural with their array of amazing and cool powers that cyborgs be shunned by
society.
I mean since when does anyone rush to embrace the latest technology and use it as a way
to elevate their social status?
Clearly these cyborgs will inevitably be forced to live in the shady underbelly of society
probably along with the other dregs like criminals, beggars, and writers obsessed with self promotion.
Now that we have awesome cybernetic powers, we need someone to a turn into a cyborg.
We need characters!
One standard cyberpunk protagonist is the detective.
This character basically wondered in from a 50s noir film by accident, trench-coat and
all.
He should hunt down androids because Harrison Ford made it look really cool.
Our gruff antihero detective will never do any actual detective work because that requires
me to actually look up how that works.
Besides, I’ve watched a lot of Law and Order so that should count.
Don’t stress over characterization either.
Our detective antihero can be as bland as the color palette so long as we distract the
audience with our pretentious symbolism.
We can also have our protagonist be an amoral hacker.
Our hacker will work his magic at his computer spewing technobabble while typing super fast.
Unlike real hacking which mostly involves tricking bored customer service reps or digging
though a company’s garbage bins looking for passwords.
Cyberpunk also has its share of robot, android, and AI characters.
This is an opportunity to explore fascinating questions about the nature of androids like
are they sentient or even sapient?
If they are programmed to feel, does that mean they really experience emotions?
If they are sapient, do they deserve the same rights as a human?
Do androids dream?
Are they alive?
Can I [bleep][bleep] it?
Unlike the human characters, androids should be vaguely sympathetic until they turn upon
their human creators because technology sucks and we can make a Frankenstein reference.
Interesting and thought provoking discussion on how humans relate to AI and robotics should
be avoided.
No need to show how a futuristic society would integrate AI into it’s economy, politics,
military, and social structure.
Having humans and AI grow together and learn to coexist in a symbiotic relationship sounds
lame.
Instead, we should project human emotions onto AI characters even though a super intelligent
AI would likely be completely alien in mindset.
Also make sure to get sapience and sentience mixed up and even use the words interchangeably.
These androids should be indistinguishable from humans even if having a human form would
impede their work.
Let’s give our androids full sapience, super strength, and then treat them like slaves.
What could go wrong!
At no point should their human masters consider making cheaper and simpler robots with basic
programming too simplistic to consider rebelling.
Nor should any human social movement form around giving androids full rights.
I can’t think of a single instance in the modern world were bored people on the internet
champion the rights of minorities.
Now when working on the setting itself, there is only one true cyberpunk setting and that’s
the dystopia megacity.
The stock cyberpunk city is always a dystopia with a huge rift between economic classes.
What lies beyond these massive sprawling cities?
Well if a writer does decide to show us what is going on in the rest of the world, then
be sure to make a complete mess of the geopolitical situation.
Just haphazardly throw borders together.
Not that it matters.
Governments are usually atrophied in cyberpunk stories with their functions long ago superseded
by corrupt mega-corporations.
How this corrupt and painfully inefficient system sustains itself should never be brought
up or explored.
Thankfully, none of this would ever happen in the real life.
It’s not like large corporations are stifling the rights of individuals in the interest
of increasing profits.
Next thing you know, large companies would start trademarking ridiculous things like
the very term cyberpunk.
But that would never happen…