For an awful lot of people, the past few years have sucked eggs. It’s not been the worst era in history. We’ve not had any world wars, major nuclear incidents or asteroid impacts. And the Coronavirus outbreak with which the world has been wrestling since January doesn’t compare to the 1918 flu pandemic or the black death.
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Congratulations! You’ve made it. After years of grifting, grafting and flawlessly executed, unscrupulous cyberpunk shenanigans, you’re indescribably wealthy and can slip the surly bonds of earth to join us on board our fortress in the sky.
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Sex robots are the future, so David Rutland has a fireside chat with an up-and-coming bedroom developer. Why bother with Tindering, Grindr-ing and dating when it’s easier (and potentially cheaper) to order a willing and compliant non-sentient silicone alternative?
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You can’t call yourself a cyberpunk if you accept that your every virtual and physical move is being watched, but you don’t take any steps to change that fact. Actually, you can call yourself what you like. I’m not the word police. I’m just some guy on the internet.
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There are a fistful of archiving solutions out there. All are of of varying degrees of quality and usefulness. Today we’re focusing on ArchiveBox due to its ease of use, focus on web media and compatibility with a variety of systems. Yes, archive box was built for Linux and be installed via apt, but it will also run on macOS and Windows as it can be run on docker or as a python script. Neato. We, and the creators, recommend running it as a docker image.
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Welcome to CyberPunks.com, where we sold your data for cold hard cash and performed behavioral experiments on you to increase our earnings. Just kidding. We’re not technical enough to get up to those kind of underhanded shenanigans; we left that to our internet advertising partners.
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It is a fundamental premise that, even in the grittiest of cyberpunk futures, there’s always a way of keeping poor people alive and docile. Preventing starvation effectively wards off riots, bloodshed and people shouting ‘Eat the Rich’ as more than just a tongue-in-cheek, anarchist catchphrase. Flavored protein paste is the answer.
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Seraphine, a new “virtual influencer” and League of Legends character, seems like it could be based on someone else’s likeness. Imagine waking up one morning and finding a cartoonified version of yourself splashed all over the internet. It’s not a photograph, but it’s close enough that even your mother would take another glance and ask if you’ve taken a second job as a model.
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Build your own Alexa using Raspberry Pi. Their Echo series of speakers are straight out of science fiction. Ask one a question and it will find the answer for you. It can make jokes, play music, book dentist appointments, or score cinema tickets.
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Hacking is to the cyberpunk genre what axes are to movies set in isolated hotels nestled among the majestic Colorado Rockies. It’s an essential aspect of the plot, a much loved blade in the Swiss Army knife skill set of the protagonist, and provides a handy Deus Ex Machina get out clause when faced with an impossible situation.