Sad when dystopian fiction paints a brighter picture than real life
It’s wild that Pondsmith wrote the Cyberpunk timeline as “Gorbachev’s plan worked instead of being peak dumb guy shit, so the Soviets are still around as social democrats and pretty much the only remaining actually functioning state.” It’s still that special liberal superimposition of cynicism and idealism, but it’s also very funny.
Cyberpunk Red but for real, and it’s about how cyberpunk USSR is cool as shit with a really high standard of living and everyone is happy and fulfilled and stuff.
I read that as cybertruck ttrpg like 4 times. Deeply cursed moment for my imagination.
it’s a hardscrabble life in the badlands of cedar rapids in 2047, but you’ve managed to scrape together enough for a used cybertruck mk iv. the smell of freedom and self-sufficiency is in the air as you stand in the aldi’s parking lot and prepare to transfer a small fortune in bitcoin and bored ape nft’s to the cybertruck dealer. you hear a chime emit from the pocket of his cargo shorts, and he smiles curtly. select your upgrade:
(a) cybertent (b) “self-driving” © recon drone (d) amphibious
Space X does have a Tesla Roadster in orbit that they could drop onto Colorado Springs
I would personally consign humanity to 10,000 years of darkness and not feel even a moment’s regret if it meant a world without Focus on The Family
Cyberpunk is like; “Cool space people nuked Colorado Springs, the Airforce Academy, and Norad in to a glowing radioactive crater and it was totall cool and there was no general nuclear exchange or retaliatory strike and it broke America’s military strength for a generation” and people call it a dystopia!