Whereas previous economic shocks such as the oil crisis of 1973 caused a temporary dip in fertility, the 2007-2008 banking meltdown was different because birth rates continued to decline even after the economy started growing again, says to Daniele Vignoli, professor of demography at the University of Florence in Italy. He believes the turbulence a decade and a half ago marks the point at which people’s uncertainty about the future began to take hold.
All of thr dystopia, none of the cool tech or aesthetics. Where’s the bands of cyborg augmented jacked-in cyberpunks on hoverbikes? Where’s the holograms and cyberdecks and the Net? Where’s the robotic power armor and edgy neon and sleek titanium and carbon fiber? If we’re gonna go full dystopia at least give us the aestherics for crying out loud!
Dude, think about it for a moment. Even if they come up with all that cool stuff, are you sure you wanna plug that shit into your body?
It’s hilarious how I grew up loving cyberpunk like Ghost in the Shell. Thought I’d want to be a cool cyborg. Nope, I’m like Togusa, the dude with no cybernetics and refusing to get any.
B-but holograms though.
Nah I get it, I wouldn’t plug corpo augs and decks into myself either. But you’ll recall that in the stories, the punks also just made their own, 3d printed or cracked and rooted, running self-made FOSS they downloaded from the Net. We’re kinda living that future with Linux, F-droid, 3d printers and all the rest, but still, none of the aesthetics. No holograms or hoverbikes makes me sad.
running self-made FOSS they downloaded from the Net.
That’s just a different flavour of yolo. All fun and games until you break the firmware for your bowel functions.
I love the aesthetics and all too, but I wouldn‘t do it. Imagine the ads and shit they would download into you, then you probably need a subscription for every little thing and all of it’s going to be focused at making people better work tools. I‘m good. Though I fear when everyone else has it, others might need to have it too to keep up in the labour market or be seen as Luddites, like how everyone has a smartphone now. I can only hope I‘m dead by then.
