A Chromed Poser: Impressions of Cyberpunk 2077
("Cyber Dreams" - created by StarryAI and named by ChatGPT. How cyberpunk is that!) Sci-fi novelist Jack Womack referred to the term 'cyberpunk' as "a facile adjective for the working vocabulary of lazy journalists and unimaginative blurb-writers" and I couldn't agree more. I love cyberpunk not because it is some sub-genre of sci-fi, but simply because it is just another face of the "hard-boiled" or "noir" genre of literature and film. Don't believe me? Okay, here's proof: go watch the classic noir, "The Asphalt Jungle. " The plot of that classic 1950 film noir has everything that most cyberpunk stories have, specifically, a cadre of criminals hired by a shady "fixer" to pull off a heist that, inevitably, goes wrong. Heck, I just described Act I of CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077 ! Sure, hacking and transhumanism are missing from that movie due to the, er, limited nature of that decade's tec...