Future Corp
Musk and the new corporate elite are bringing us closer to that cyberpunk dystopia you’ve always wanted
Hey Chooms!
Musk et al are bad, like seriously bad. You didn’t need to see the obvious Nazi salute not the evidence is all over the place. We should have probably stopped the pop culture references to him in places like Star Trek Discovery until after he’d died and we got the true scope of him but hey-ho, hindsight is 20/20.
To be clear he didn’t invent anything. SpaceX, Tesla etc was and is other people, just like his Diablo account. He’s the face of things and what a face. I say he didn’t invent anything but maybe the Cybertruck. It’s such a bad design maybe he did it with a gallon of Monster energy and the Windows98 version of MS paint. I’ll give him that it certainly does look to a degree like something cruising round Night City but early on, before the patch fixed things. Oh man, now I want to go back and play Cyberpunk. I don’t have time to lose on that right now.
Fascism or Nah?
So, I know people are saying fascism rules America right now, and I can certainly see the argument for it, but I don’t think that’s true. I’d go with an oligarchy more than fascism. Fascism seems to be more in-tune with the state, and from what I can see with Trump et al (stop that now) they appear not to care about the country they are running. For them it’s about what power and wealth they can hoard not just now but in the future. It’s no mistake that Trump’s inauguration was both indoors and full of the richest people in the world. They want a piece of the pie.
That’s where the cyberpunk dystopianism, comes in. Cyberpunk is often shown to be the playground of big business. Corporate Zaibatsu like Arasaka or Tesser-Ashpool rule things from behind a gossamer curtain, and the likes us don’t get an ounce of power or wealth. You think Saburo Arasaka cares about the United States of America? You think Musk does? You think Trump does?
You want more of the aesthetic? Musk’s Neuralink is implanting computers into people’s brains. Right now. I mean they are actually doing it, not talking about it. Meta (c’mon Facebook were not going to start calling you Meta) has been trying to push an Oasis-like virtual reality internet for ages and though it hasn’t really taken off, this could be the start of another push. I’m not entirely sure if we’re going to end up jacking into the net ala Neuromancer or being used for fuel like The Matrix. What I do know, is that a lot of people will flock to the power plants like they flock for the newest iPhone.
Ignorance is Bliss
We are, after all, a race of Cyphers. Again, that’s a Matrix reference and since that film is over two decades old (I know) I’ll explain.
Cypher is a free human who betrays the protagonists because he just wants to go back to licking in ignorance. Joe Pantoliano explains while eating a very rare steak that after years of living in abject poverty, eating gunk that may or may not taste of chicken and under the threat of death almost every day, he has concluded that ignorance is bliss.
It’s that wilful ignorance that allows the Arasaka’s and Tesser-Ashpool’s and Amazon’s of this world to flourish and dominate and then take over. You think Bezos will worry about labour laws under Trump? Amazon quadrupled in value in his last presidency. QUADRUPLED.
Let’s take this comparison. At the beginning of the corpo lifepath in Cyberpunk 2077, the player is fired from Arasaka and left for dead with the corporate cyberwear removed. It isn’t telegraphed more than you know your bosses’ boss is unhappy with something they did. You’re left adrift, and frozen from your assets and life’s work. Eight days after acquiring Twitter, Musk laid off half the employees without warning. They didn’t have cyberwear to take but imagine if you worked at Neuralink and had an implant with work related info on it and were fired without warning. How would they get that info or tech back?
Whats Changed?
So, what’s the difference between now and the past? What makes this more cyberpunk dystopia other than the aesthetics? I’d say the very fact they’re now doing it openly is the key. In Night City it’s no secret that Militech or Arasaka or whoever care about themselves more and have their hands in any number of pies. In the past it was all old white men in board rooms being old and white and vaguely mysterious.
Now we have hundreds of YouTube or TikTok accounts with millions of views of people telling us how much of a genius Musk or Bezos is and how wanting things like workers rights is for wimps. At least Nixon was circumspect about being corrupt, now he’d just call Mark Zuckerberg and get him to shadowban Democratic party accounts. It’s so out in the open, that I feel like I’m watching one of those smart bomb cameras, zooming towards the target, only the target is democracy and decency.
Yeah, the rich have always donated money and lobbied politicians but here they’re on the stage showing us who they are and what they want. How often did you see Rupert Murdoch (his first name’s really Keith lol) on Fox news?
Aesthetically Pleasing
For the record I like the aesthetic too. It draws you in with promises of excitement fighting corporate ninjas and such. I’ve played Cyberpunk and thought,
“Wouldn’t it be cool to live here.”
But that’s me thinking that I’d be a Molly Millions or Johnny Silverhand or Rick Deckard. I wouldn’t though. I’d be me, and me in that place would be dead. Musk looks at Night City and he’d be in one of those high-rises emblazoned with the SpaceX logo or something. He’d be him but with a compliable workforce with even more power.
The fools who want it but aren’t in that tax bracket forget the downsides to Night City. Remember that cyberpsycho? They were ok until they filled their heads and bodies with enough chrome to open a Cadillac dealership. Remember those gang members you shot up? Chances are they were forced into it by a corrupt and useless police force and systemic oppression and poverty. That’s more you’re style. You’re not V, you’re the guy who V takes to hospital because a sex toy ripped his dick off.
The only way we’ll get that type of aesthetically pleasing yet dangerous dystopia is if someone who is a fan of it makes it. It’s like the future of Pacific Rim. The least likely (or effective real-life response to giant monsters would be to build giant robots, but if some tech billionaire was a fan of the movie, you’d best bet the Tesla Maximus would be punching kaiju.
Musk is definitely a fan of Cyberpunk or so he says, claiming the cybertruck is something “Blade Runner would drive.” But then again there’s no-one called Blade Runner and Deckard has a flying car and the only way the cybertruck could fly is if you pushed it off a cliff.
Why can’t billionaires watch Star Trek and decide to dedicate their money to bringing humanity together...unless that is the plan, and they reckon we need that WW3 before Zefram Cochrane builds his rocket.
Now What?
So, what do we need? Definitely not a Johnny Silverhand type to rock us to rebellion despite his charisma and guitar. Who would even be these days? You know what Johnny never speaks about? What happens after the revolution. Not that I think it’s because he has some sinister plan to take over but because he doesn’t care. He’s also a rich rockstar so I doubt he’s in with the working classes.
I don’t know who the saviour of 2025 and beyond should be (though the ACLU appear to be fighting the good fight)
, but it shouldn’t be anyone rich. It should be a new-age John Henry or Jack the Giant Killer who fights against the corruption of our future and cuts those billionaires down to size. Now’s the time to rise whomever you are. Now’s the time.
