cyberpunk timeline

1995

Movies – The Net, Hackers, Strange Days, Johnny Mnemonic, Tank Girl, The Fifth Element, 12 Monkeys, Ghost in the Shell, Toy Story was the first full computer animated movie, Judge Dredd

Book – Diamond Age was published, Cyberpunk handbook was published

Technology – MP3 files began to spread on internet, Napster created, Viaweb became the first online store

Games – Sega Saturn

1996

Movie - Escape from LA, Eraser

Technology – Dolly the sheep cloned, the Tamagachi was created and became popular, Fossil bacteria found in meteorite on mars

Games – Nintendo 64, new controller style

Other – Netrunner collectable card game

Mibracc Attack

The men in the back of the country club by Rudy Rucker was a very different cyberpunk story from the others that I’ve read. It seemed as if this story wasn’t too far off from the present day future because of some of the technology they were still using. Normally when brought a cyberpunk book or video, I would think of the usual futuristic theme, with integrated cultures, metropolitan areas that are the size of the planet itself, and futuristic technology that surpasses anything we could think to make in our lifetime. This story did generate some new technology advancements which are pretty impressive. This story had a nice mixture of what life could be probably a decade from now, excluding the ending of course. The ending of the story produces the reason to which this story is classified as an apocalyptic cyberpunk.

The Mibraccs (Men in the Back of the Country Club) of course are the most technically advanced part of this story. I can’t say exactly what they are but I would guess they are somewhat like a T-1000 from Terminator 2, only without the shape-shifting. Instead they have skin and is composed of some kind of a liquid substance known as smeel. These men aren’t really harmful until about the end of the story where they go haywire and start killing people. The idea behind these men is actually a bit scary. Something that is not killable to be frank is pretty scary.

One of the technologies that was in the story was, I’m guessing a type of nicorette gum, but for marijuana. “Danny tightened down the cover of the quilted chrome wagon and unwrapped a stick of marijuana gum, the pricey brand called Winnipeg Wheelchair.” I could honestly see, Winnipeg Wheelchair, being something invented in the future. Only because there are a lot of people wanting the drug to be legalized, and that could be a possible form of getting around the law. I’m also assuming that this gum does not help you quit marijuana, just a better way to consume it without getting caught. I think it’s fairly possible to create a substance while chewing the gum, a lot like nicotine, that could secrete a substance that produces a relaxing and hallucinogen drug. Now that I think about it, that doesn’t seem that far away at all.

A couple reasons why I think this story could be close to the time we’re living in, is the technology other than the mibraccs and a particular event that describes one character. For one, they still use motorized vehicles to travel around and they use the same parts we use today; “Tonel popped the hood and set to work extracting the battery while Jack began pumping gas from Ragland's tank. It felt stupid to be making such a complicated thing out of getting a car.” The main characters were trying to steal pieces of their neighbor’s car to put in their own. Tonel’s Father, Vincente, “learned electronics in the Navy during the second war on Iraq” was another event thought filled event that doesn’t seem too far either. Other things like the use of recliners, cell phones, and beat up old bicycles make this story seem more down to earth than a lot of the other cyberpunk stories I’ve read.

This story does share a common cyberpunk theme through some sci-fi films and books, which is the apocalypse to come. The ending has an unruly twist to the realism that was shown through most of the story. It breaks into its science-fiction roots and brings about chaos and destruction, after the plot had thickened with the main characters. Technology shows its true face and coordinates a hostile takeover. So I guess we all must be fearful of the technology that we conjure because it may not be that we end ourselves but something else that ends us. Taking this all in, I think that Rudy Rucker comes up with some ideas about the future that seem not too far from our time, and the possibility of some of them coming true, couldn’t be doubtful.

Battle of the Androids and Replicants

It’s hard to predict the future many years ahead of your own time. In 1968, Philip K. Dick had written Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? with a riveting complex futuristic plot that would grasp a group of people and change the way they viewed their upcoming years. The novel was then released into a movie produced by Ridley Scott; known as Blade Runner, in 1982. There were a vast amount of differences between the movie and the book. The only reason I could think of to why the many changes is because times change and so does people interests through many generations. Even though this book is published and not an orally based story, still Ridley Scott felt the need to put his own ideas into an already built artistic masterpiece, to make it seem more appealing to the public.


In the book, Deckard is married. He wakes up to his wife in a bad mood due to a device called a mood organ, which is not in the film. She disapproves of his job as bounty hunter, killing androids, because of this religion known as Mercerism, which is also not in the film. Nevertheless, he is not married in the film so you throw all of that away. Deckard, played by Harrison Ford in the film, is attracted to the replicant Rachael in the film, which makes the story a bit different. These changes does not necessarily change the theme of the movie, it just makes it more appealing to the average movie viewer. Having the main character attracted to the very things that he is supposed to destroy, makes the movie an interesting twist. In the book, Rachael the character is different. She is used for company gain only, to sniff out information regarding the Nexus-6 android’s flaws though bounty hunters and their use of the Voight-Kampff test.


Though the movie does make certain remarks about animals being robotic and their outrageous quality, it does not obsess about it as much as the book. Deckard is using his low pay bounty hunting money that he gains in the book to buy a real sheep instead of the electric ones. But why are animals this rare commodity in the book? User 1318 from the kuro5hin.org diaries explains “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is structured around the fake religion of Mercerism, that doesn’t exist in Blade Runner. Mercerism is a strange cult that seems to exist for the sole purpose of affirming the “empathetic union” of life forms.” So, Deckard and his wife, owning a real sheep would further symbolize their humanistic expressions.


Another crashing moment that is in the film that leaves the viewer thinking was the question “Is Deckard an android?” The movie explains the role of memory implants and how replicants can have memories to make them feel more realistic. This is the same plot that also surrounds Rachael throughout most of the film. She finds out that she is a replicant through Deckard, and has a mental breakdown because she thought she had been human her whole life. Deckard has some arguable moments that he is a replicant as well. How does one come to dream of a unicorn when one has never had the actual experience to see one? In his world, unicorns do not exist. He dreams that moment, and later there is a origami unicorn, made by one of the other blade runners and placed on his doorstep. This event lets the viewer believe that he knows what kind of memories or dreams Deckard has. Others insist there is no definitive answer, and that the clues merely "suggest" Deckard might be a replicant. I think this post from David Caldwell’s site, http://www.brmovie.com/, has some great insight when they answer with this statement, “Some accept Deckard as a replicant because of the clues, but feel he shouldn't be, because they feel the movie works just as well if not better if he's human or if the question is left "unanswered.” I really agree with this statement, because people viewing it and people reading about it will come up with different answers and this argument would just go on forever, and it is the best choice to leave it an unsolved mystery. It would just make perfect since to leave most of the questions unanswered since the end of the movie was really left open ended. Collectively vast differences come from different minds in different times.



Work Cited



Cowie, Johnathan. "Blade Runner vs. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"

last update: 4/15/08, http://www.concatenation.org/contact.html

User 1318. "Blade Runner vs. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"

7/9/05, http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/7/9/45918/48434

Carreon, Maria. "Blade Runner vs. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"

Copyright 2006, http://www.phildick.com/Blade_Runner

McGrievy, Matt. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner)"

August of 1998, http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~palmquis/courses/reviews/matt.htm

Caldwell, David. "The Blade Runner FAQ: Is Deckar a Replicant"

Last update June 26, 2008, http://www.brmovie.com/FAQs/BR_FAQ_Deck-a-Rep.htm

Cyborgs - Survival through Technology

Cybernetic Organisms is the full name for cyborgs. These are organisms that are altered or enhanced by technology. A cyborg does not necessarily have to be human. Bunnie Rabbot for example, is a cybernetic bunny from the cartoon Sonic the Hedgehog animated series and comic books whose body was altered by Dr. Robotnik before being saved by Sonic. Cyborgs maintain some of their biological functioning unless it is replaced. Cyborgs can be change in numerous and various ways. Some could go as far as the whole body like Alex Murphy, who had his brain and face implanted into a robot after being killed and became Robocop. Other cyborgs you can’t really even tell if they are cyborg or not, like Luke Skywalker after getting his hand severed off by Darth Vadar’s light saber or Tony Starks after having a fatal injury required to have a magnet built into his chest to keep the shrapnel from getting to his heart and ultimately killing him.

Not to be mixed up with the term android or robot, cyborgs are different do to the fact that mixed within their makings is actual living cells, muscle or tissue, making them actually living beings. Androids and robots are artificially constructed and do not have the same biological construction as cyborgs. Although android are made to mimic the appearance of a human or animals, cyborgs can actually be human or animals, just altered. For example, we could look at some films and classify the difference between cyborgs, android, and robots. One movie, that you can easily notice all three as different is Star Wars. C3PO is an android, while R2D2 is a robot, and Darth Vadar is a cyborg. See the difference?

I could not be extremely frightened by the future of Cyborgs, because for the most part, some things that are artificially made could help the future survive, and some of them are completely useless of the sort. The world already conducts surgery now, from breasts to replacement joints. How much more artificial can we get? The only the man-kind would do is embrace the new technology and find ways to reverse their creation inevitably making more capital both ways.

Many People have already embraced the age of technology including me. I utilize various technology everyday without noticing half of it. Soon enough we all accept it, because we have to conform to the time that we live in today. Technology is the future and utilizing technology to your advantage would make you unseemly rich. Thus the invention upgrades from house phones to cell phone, headsets to blue-tooth, from analog to digital cable, candles to light bulbs. Some people do not realize how much technology they have been conformed to using, due to the state that some of this technology could possibly save your life and that it has been normalized in today’s society. Most importantly, this is a quote from my favorite movie The Island, “Many People will do anything to survive.” So give a man the option of having artificial mechanical legs to run again, and even faster than before, or be paralyzed for the rest of his life. I’m fairly certain that he would take the artificial mechanical legs or at least I would.

I would like to think as mankind is just nearing the era of cyborgs. We want to survive, make life easier, and still be of the norm. So I could say that if we are not there, we are extremely close. Cyborg humans are not too different from humans, in the same sense that we all have that same will to survive, and will do anything to accomplish that common goal.