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New Worlds: We are living in the future of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson

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Re: New Worlds: We are living in the future of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson

#111

Post by simonebrunozzi »

MomsAVoxell wrote: post #92

I was young, and needed the money. A week-long contract in San Francisco, to do some contract work. Instead of a vacation. Well, so I flew to the Embarcadero center, some late fall. The task was to work on some audio code, and maybe networking, for a popular multiplayer cyber- tank battle game. It was a great gig. I onboarded with another dev, who sat with me for the first 30 minutes after a few rounds, while we watc…

I've read your comment, almost waiting for the line that was going to finally disappoint me... and it wasn't there :)

Somehow you recount a memory in an imperfect way, but it is so... apt, so in sync with Snow Crash.

Good reminder that I want to re-read it again now.

Oh, forgot to ask: can you tell us more about that experience? More details?

Re: New Worlds: We are living in the future of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson

#112

Post by pixelready »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #78
pixelready wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of this is the cultural force of the US being the gravitational center of world politics and finance for several decades. It’s always had a strong anti-intellectual faction, and now as we enter it’s “decaying Roman Empire” phase, it will behave increasingly erratically as it’s elite strip it for parts and the citizenry watch in shock. As China rises to become the new gravitational center, it will be int…

> As China rises to become the new gravitational center I don't think you can just state something like that as some sort of axiom without providing any rationale. Obviously China has become much more powerful and important over the past 4 decades, but I highly doubt they will be the new "gravitational center", for two primary reasons. First, their demographics are horrible - their population peaked 5 years ago and w…

Fair points all around. I am perhaps unduly extrapolating from a lifetime of there always being a “superpower” and assuming that the power vacuum left by US decay will be inevitably and directly filled by China.

In truth, I don’t think anyone can predict how things will play out at this point. China may well settle for regional control and having a globe full of trading partners with whom they work to build trust, they may double down on their “loan shark” leverage strategy with other developing nations, or they may build up their military and go full colonizer, which may or may not erupt into a hot war. The US might go long slow decline, or may erupt into civil war or widespread civil disobedience, or unlikely as it seems get its act together and course correct. The EU might fall to infighting and dissolve or rally and lead. Rogue nations might pull a truly batshit move with nukes or bioweapons. Who knows how India and SEA will play out at this point? Climate change acceleration will likely put incredible strain on all systems, and the jury is out on the ultimate trajectory/timeline of AI and robotics.

We have been blessed and cursed to live in interesting times if nothing else.

Re: New Worlds: We are living in the future of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson

#113

Post by Eric_WVGG »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #111
MomsAVoxell wrote: post #92

I was young, and needed the money. A week-long contract in San Francisco, to do some contract work. Instead of a vacation. Well, so I flew to the Embarcadero center, some late fall. The task was to work on some audio code, and maybe networking, for a popular multiplayer cyber- tank battle game. It was a great gig. I onboarded with another dev, who sat with me for the first 30 minutes after a few rounds, while we watc…

I've read your comment, almost waiting for the line that was going to finally disappoint me... and it wasn't there :) Somehow you recount a memory in an imperfect way, but it is so... apt, so in sync with Snow Crash. Good reminder that I want to re-read it again now. Oh, forgot to ask: can you tell us more about that experience? More details?

I bet a nickel he worked on Spectre — a copy of Snow Crash shipped with certain editions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(1991_video_game)

Re: New Worlds: We are living in the future of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson

#114

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

pixelready wrote: post #112
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As China rises to become the new gravitational center I don't think you can just state something like that as some sort of axiom without providing any rationale. Obviously China has become much more powerful and important over the past 4 decades, but I highly doubt they will be the new "gravitational center", for two primary reasons. First, their demographics are horrible - their population peaked 5 years ago and w…

Fair points all around. I am perhaps unduly extrapolating from a lifetime of there always being a “superpower” and assuming that the power vacuum left by US decay will be inevitably and directly filled by China. In truth, I don’t think anyone can predict how things will play out at this point. China may well settle for regional control and having a globe full of trading partners with whom they work to build trust, th…

Really great take. Can't emphasize enough how much I agree with your "I don’t think anyone can predict how things will play out at this point" and "We have been blessed and cursed to live in interesting times if nothing else" statements.

Re: New Worlds: We are living in the future of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson

#115

Post by thwarted »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #98
thwarted wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. My point is that there's the perception of the characters and corporations as having some meaningful/cool aesthetics in these stories and in the genre, but you'd be hard-pressed to identify what they are or how they are different than what we have today. And that's part of what makes good stories timeless. 320GB progressed from amazing, to reality, to mundane, to trivial today, but it would take on different…

> but you'd be hard-pressed to identify what they are or how Oh, that's easy! They are cool! NB in ~50 years cool would change it meaning and things would be no longer cool for a contemporary reader but some other word designating an awesomeness and delight.

Heh, and cool hunting is the setting in Pattern Recognition.

That they are cool is the only thing that needs to be said. The reader fills that in with their own perception, which is how we're ending up with the Torment Nexus, because some people think the Torment Nexus is cool.

Re: New Worlds: We are living in the future of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson

#116

Post by bsenftner »

martythemaniak wrote: post #69
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% I know that "Idiocracy" gets thrown around all the time, but the reason I think it does is that they do have advanced tech but at the same time everyone is a blathering idiot. That's what gets me about our present reality - on one hand we supposedly have all the world's information at our fingertips, but the absolute dumbest, most bullshit theories get real traction and cause real damage. When they had the UFC f…

I have to post my rant every time Idiocracy gets mentioned, so feel free to downvote (it is the best way to spend my karma!) What we're seeing is fundamentally nothing like idiocracy - the similarities are only surface deep, but the structures are vastly different. In Idiocracy, the nation is led by a person who cares about the well-being of all his constituents and seeks out the most capable person in order to impro…

Astute take on current events.

Re: New Worlds: We are living in the future of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson

#117

Post by sporadicism »

o-mo-ka-saaaay wrote: post #99
Animats wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we are getting the cyberpunk dystopia with none of the aesthetics that have made it a household word. Sure we are. The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed. Here's a nighttime walk through Shenzhen.[1] Shenzhen is cyberpunk made real. Giant display screens everywhere. Light shows on major buildings, synchronized between the buildings. Robots on the streets. Drones in the sky. Cameras everywhere. Night m…

I think what is confusing some people is that those novels and authors are all American and they can’t seem to believe another country beat us to it. It’s like they expected God had made it so that America would be the leader in techno culture evolution. It would be endearing if it weren’t for their impotent rage response to enable fascism for their own ends.

Asian superpowers feature so heavily in the genre that it's a cliche. Also Ballard was British.

Re: New Worlds: We are living in the future of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson

#118

Post by asnelt »

Animats wrote: post #91
keiferski wrote: post #10

I am a big fan of both, but I think what's missing in reality, but in their fiction (and cyberpunk fiction in general) is a sense of coolness and caring about aesthetics. For all the evil that the mega corporations do in a Gibson novel, they still have an aesthetic appeal. Real-world corporations aren't that interesting. Amazon, Facebook, or Google have nothing "culturally" or aesthetically on Hosaka, Arasaka or Sens…

> we are getting the cyberpunk dystopia with none of the aesthetics that have made it a household word. Sure we are. The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed. Here's a nighttime walk through Shenzhen.[1] Shenzhen is cyberpunk made real. Giant display screens everywhere. Light shows on major buildings, synchronized between the buildings. Robots on the streets. Drones in the sky. Cameras everywhere. Night m…

That's an interesting video. If the skyscrapers were flickering just a little faster, the sky would be the color of a television tuned to a dead channel.

Re: New Worlds: We are living in the future of J.G. Ballard or William Gibson

#120

Post by nfnfjfjdj »

Animats wrote: post #91
keiferski wrote: post #10

I am a big fan of both, but I think what's missing in reality, but in their fiction (and cyberpunk fiction in general) is a sense of coolness and caring about aesthetics. For all the evil that the mega corporations do in a Gibson novel, they still have an aesthetic appeal. Real-world corporations aren't that interesting. Amazon, Facebook, or Google have nothing "culturally" or aesthetically on Hosaka, Arasaka or Sens…

> we are getting the cyberpunk dystopia with none of the aesthetics that have made it a household word. Sure we are. The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed. Here's a nighttime walk through Shenzhen.[1] Shenzhen is cyberpunk made real. Giant display screens everywhere. Light shows on major buildings, synchronized between the buildings. Robots on the streets. Drones in the sky. Cameras everywhere. Night m…

it just looks like a normal city. If we're declaring things cyberpunk based on LED displays Las Vegas probably wins but China is a horrifying totalitarian dictatorship with a market economy and by that measure sure, guess they beat us to the dystopia! go communism! go China! weeeeee
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