The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
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Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
#2Strange place. I was amazed how many homeless there are - which will be denied, when mentioned.
I guess the people sleeping on the walkway to Louis Vuitton island were not homeless? The sleeping people in the underpasses, sleeping under signs saying not to sleep there also?
Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
#3My biggest disappointment about Singapore is the censorship.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Singapo...
My biggest boast about Singapore are the privacy laws and technology infrastructure.
Singapore could be great, if only a few things were to change.
Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
#4Strange place. I was amazed how many homeless there are - which will be denied, when mentioned. I guess the people sleeping on the walkway to Louis Vuitton island were not homeless? The sleeping people in the underpasses, sleeping under signs saying not to sleep there also?
It is the same in Japan, isn't it? Hikikomori, NEETs, those hiding in net cafes, etc. The culture will hide them from tourists and society at large.
Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
#5"Cyberpunk dystopia" seems very inaccurate to me. Nothing whatsoever about Singapore is "punk" in any sense of the word. "Cyber-utopian" is a better descriptor, with the emphasis on the traditional connotations of the word utopian, that being an aim for perfection at significant cost to principals that don't fit the vision.
Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
#6Singapore is a weird place. During the flight, the stewardesses walked around and handed everybody something - I was expecting a wet towel, but in fact it was a card in multiple languages which says "If you are about to bring any amount of drugs into the country, you are going to be executed." Lovely first impression to set the tone.
Other than the omnipresent paranoia, the thing that struck me as the most bizarre is that almost nothing in the country is oriented around children. The fertility rate is basically the lowest in the world, as the way of maintaining the population seems to be simply skimming the top few percent of qualified workers from India, China, and other southeast Asian countries, people who will essentially live at the office until they have made enough money to return home, or simply retire and die alone in the country.
Another strange thing was the way the city is planned - everything is concentrated to a district. For instance, rather than having record shops peppered around the city, there is a the "record shop area", where there are a dozen record shops in a single place. It's like this for lots of things - books, refrigerators, etc.
The food was great though. I'm craving laksa just thinking about it..
Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
#7Singapore is a weird place. During the flight, the stewardesses walked around and handed everybody something - I was expecting a wet towel, but in fact it was a card in multiple languages which says "If you are about to bring any amount of drugs into the country, you are going to be executed." Lovely first impression to set the tone. Other than the omnipresent paranoia, the thing that struck me as the most bizarre is…
>almost nothing in the country is oriented around children.
Spoken truly like someone who never left the airport.
Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
#8"Cyberpunk dystopia" seems very inaccurate to me. Nothing whatsoever about Singapore is "punk" in any sense of the word. "Cyber-utopian" is a better descriptor, with the emphasis on the traditional connotations of the word utopian, that being an aim for perfection at significant cost to principals that don't fit the vision.
Yes, there is a lot more drive to conform just culturally, much less along the sense of "punk" or "rebellion" even in the cliche sense.
Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
#9Strange place. I was amazed how many homeless there are - which will be denied, when mentioned. I guess the people sleeping on the walkway to Louis Vuitton island were not homeless? The sleeping people in the underpasses, sleeping under signs saying not to sleep there also?
My impression actually is there are far fewer homeless, compared to say portland or LA.
Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore
#10Singapore is a weird place. During the flight, the stewardesses walked around and handed everybody something - I was expecting a wet towel, but in fact it was a card in multiple languages which says "If you are about to bring any amount of drugs into the country, you are going to be executed." Lovely first impression to set the tone. Other than the omnipresent paranoia, the thing that struck me as the most bizarre is…
>almost nothing in the country is oriented around children. Spoken truly like someone who never left the airport.
I was there for nearly two weeks and explored as much as I could. That was my impression.
I just checked, and Singapore actually does have the lowest fertility rate in the world, by a large margin: 0.83. The notorious infertile Japan is at 1.41. I think makes a difference to the culture.