Thoughts on living in an IRL cyberpunk dystopia?

Alixie

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brentw

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be the punk in cyberpunk lads, salvage electronics from dumpsters and use it in order to make stuff. Smash CCTV cameras.
Imagine a device that could use an AI trained to identify CCTV cameras and then zap them with a quick shot from very powerful infrared laser, burning out the sensors. This could be built, right now, with off the shelf electronics and laser emitters of questionable legality you can order from china.

Of course I definitely would not recommend anyone ever build such a thing unless it was literally all out war against an evil dystopian regime. Such a device would be absurdly dangerous, as it could easily cause permanent eye damage to anyone unlucky enough to pass in front of the laser or catch an unlucky reflection.

Still, I think it's fun to think about the sort of crazy things a knowledgeable person could build with off the shelf components.
I remember years back thinking it was just a matter of time until some terrorist strapped a pipe-bomb to an off the shelf RC drone. And now, in current year, consumer RC drones dropping grenades is just an every day part of war.

---

Edit:
Speaking of eye damage, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if some totally immoral government organization ... like Chinese Military, the CIA, or IDF ... has built the exact thing I've described, except it targets human eyeballs.
 
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Imagine a device that could use an AI trained to identify CCTV cameras and then zap them with a quick shot from very powerful infrared laser, burning out the sensors. This could be built, right now, with off the shelf electronics and laser emitters of questionable legality you can order from china.

Of course I definitely would not recommend anyone ever build such a thing unless it was literally all out war against an evil dystopian regime. Such a device would be absurdly dangerous, as it could easily cause permanent eye damage to anyone unlucky enough to pass in front of the laser or catch an unlucky reflection.

Still, I think it's fun to think about the sort of crazy things a knowledgeable person could build with off the shelf components.
I remember years back thinking it was just a matter of time until some terrorist strapped a pipe-bomb to an off the shelf RC drone. And now, in current year, consumer RC drones dropping grenades is just an every day part of war.

---

Edit:
Speaking of eye damage, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if some totally immoral government organization ... like Chinese Military, the CIA, or IDF ... has built the exact thing I've described, except it targets human eyeballs.
microwave/infrasound/gamma (%ray) gun
ultrasound too, see TORCHWOOD
 
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mauer

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I think we're in a low grade cyberpunk dystopia, just without the "punk". The pot has been boiling for too long, and people have gotten complacent.
I don't think it's new, though. It's Google today, but 50 years ago it was Ma Bell. (After all, where do you think cyberpunk stuff came from? Ma Bell and Big Blue.)
I think, maybe, at least Bell had a sort of "benevolence" to them if you can call it that - despite their obvious anti-competitive practices (in collaboration with the government), they did provide good service. I don't think modern corpos have the same sort of attitude towards their work as the Bell people did back in the day.
Here's a tangentially related book that informed my opinion on Bell that I think y'all agora people would like:
On an unrelated sidenote, I rarely use y'all. Feels like I'm some Boston asshole transplant living in Asheville pretending to be folksy. Oh well.
1704725589653.png
 
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Alixie

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Guys, I just realized the problem. It's neon. We don't have enough neon lights. It's not the mentality, or the implants or whatever, we need MORE neon lights if we want a cyberpunk dystopia that's not boring. Just look at East Asia. They are still exploitative cyberpunk corporate dystopias, but they have a lot of neon lights! Anything becomes instantly cooler when you add neon. Problem solved.
 
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microbyte

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We don't need neon lights for it to look cyberpunk, we need more ads and for it to be darker and always raining. Neon lights are already in a bunch of places, but you know what isn't? Building sized ads. Compare the Renaissance center (a bunch of neon) to Times Square (a bunch of ads). View attachment IMG_4176.webpView attachment IMG_4178.webp
 

Njordr

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Were just born to late for the replacement arms and bodyparts Elon Musk has got us there
 

Ross_Я

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Guys, I just realized the problem. It's neon. We don't have enough neon lights. It's not the mentality, or the implants or whatever, we need MORE neon lights if we want a cyberpunk dystopia that's not boring. Just look at East Asia. They are still exploitative cyberpunk corporate dystopias, but they have a lot of neon lights! Anything becomes instantly cooler when you add neon. Problem solved.
The fall of neon and it's consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
View attachment 85449
 
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Chuffed

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Most will go along with it. If you behave and do your part, you get the rewards - it won't just be the 1% and corps that win (just like capitalism now, the top 20% or top 50% do ok too).

On one hand I'm glad the metaverse is fizzling a bit, but they're obviously not done or giving up here (AI push, cars going electric, Apple's VR/AR stuff was late to the party but will have all the apps...).

This is a case of where none of the countries getting along is slowing this down quite a bit at least; nobody trusts the other guys' chips or software - it has set cyberpunk back at least a decade (thanks!).
 

saintdinnah

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Guys, I just realized the problem. It's neon. We don't have enough neon lights. It's not the mentality, or the implants or whatever, we need MORE neon lights if we want a cyberpunk dystopia that's not boring. Just look at East Asia. They are still exploitative cyberpunk corporate dystopias, but they have a lot of neon lights! Anything becomes instantly cooler when you add neon. Problem solved.
I've been saying this forever dude. My friends think I'm crazy when I talk about them in detail. The world looked better when neon was dominant.
1970s Katowice, Poland (at night).jpg
 
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Njordr

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I've been saying this forever dude. My friends think I'm crazy when I talk about them in detail. The world looked better when neon was dominant.View attachment 89294
It's not just Neon lighting that is to blame what you are looking at is the budding modern era before plastic was mainstream the advent of people realizing how cheap they could make products if they took what worked and replaced it with plastic
1707691197382.png
 

Deerhunter

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eh? I've been shrugging it off half of the time as of late. its getting stale and dystopian for sure because of the dumbasses we called our government and mega corps but that's given me and many others the reason to know more about it and spread awareness about it and fight on it as well as live my life as best as i can and support those closest to me. i can't know all the things in the world and whats happening and if i do i'll suffer and never the world the same way again. i'm expected to see some sort of uprising in the coming years or decade, what will the results bring? i don't know but what i do know is that i wanna be there to see it and push for it along with my generation and the future ones as well. cause i wanna see liberty in this country godamnit.
 
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WanderingPariah

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what you are looking at is the budding modern era before plastic was mainstream the advent of people realizing how cheap they could make products if they took what worked and replaced it with plastic
I hate living in this Age of Plastic. No coincidence in that sentiment and an album by that same Title being a favorite
 

theshredneckcsr

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It's not quite as exciting as I'd have thought it would be. I thought I was gonna get cool cyborg arms, hot cyber bitches and superhackers taking down corpos but all I got is psyops and people with dyed hair freaking out about linguistics.
 
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It's not quite as exciting as I'd have thought it would be. I thought I was gonna get cool cyborg arms, hot cyber bitches and superhackers taking down corpos but all I got is psyops and people with dyed hair freaking out about linguistics.
i imagined it as infinite debate
or cutting wires in infrastructures...
 
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PraxHeadroom

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Guys, I just realized the problem. It's neon. We don't have enough neon lights
we need more ads and for it to be darker and always raining
The world looked better when neon was dominant.
the advent of people realizing how cheap they could make products if they took what worked and replaced it with plastic
Nah, it's the CRTs that are missing.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATd59_wqSJA
 
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