HOME | DD
Vortsukoto — Cyberpunk Flowchart
Published: 2012-07-08 07:37:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 1542; Favourites: 7; Downloads: 35
Redirect to original
Description
A flowchart to the various paths of a Cyberpunk citizens life.Related content
Comments: 17
question: I assume this would be the system if it were a one world government, or would this also be the case if there were multiple systems? I remember in 1984, they said although technically it was different countries, they were actually very little different from one another.:3
Also, I really got to love the digital colors on here.^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Answer: Really it can apply to any controlling and closed system, though this is geared more toward corporate dominance of the society.
The concept that brings the whole chart together is that every aspect of the society is shaped and directed by a set of powers to manipulate the masses. A company covertly controls it's own union so that is can pay minimum wage and siphon of Union dues, luxury goods are priced so that everyone has an incentive to work harder for what's just out of reach, news media accepts "bribes" to make a drought seem worse than it is so that people won't realize the food prices are higher than they should be. None of this requires a single government, it actually works better when corporations can scapegoat the government and blame things on it.
It's interesting that you mention 1984 as that has come up before with other commenters. I don't tend to think of 1984 as cyberpunk, rather I think of it as dystopian. The reason being is that the ruling power is painfully obvious in in it's controls, is entirely unsubtle in its activities, and is still fundamentally a government not a society. Also because it lacks the glittering high-tech vision of the future that distinguishes Cyberpunk from similar themes like the Industrial Revolution's Robber Barons.
Well whoever did the colors would be sure to thank you as it certainly wasn't me. ^_^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
What exactly makes a book proto-cyberpunk? And what's a book called if it were written after the death of the genre?
I remember wanting to check out Jennifer Government, although it being labelled halarious makes me reconsider. (Prefers tragedy over comedy.)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Now you're getting outside of my knowledge base. I'm fairly canny when it comes to setting analysis or writing traits, but not when it comes to things like literary classification. One man's abusive novel is another man's romance.
If I had to put a setting/story to the name proto-cyberpunk it would be something modern about some like a member of Anonymous or a computer expert in a big city. Modern day contains many elements of Cyberpunk themes of corruption, corporate governance, ubiquity of computing devices, and dehumanizing urban environments. It wouldn't be to much to alter the scope of any book set in a modern environment to play up those aspects.
As for Jennifer Government, I wouldn't know. I haven't read it.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is actually extremely helpful.8D What would a military centric cyberpunk flowchart by like? Similar to this?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you. 
Could you please be specific as to what you mean by "Military centric"? I think of cyberpunk as being beyond such disruptions as independent military forces could provide so I' not quite sure I understand what you could mean by that term.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
What the hell? I'm screwed no matter what I do.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Exactly. Pure Cyberpunk is a setting where the light at the end of the tunnel is carefully maintained to ensure maximum productivity from the citizenry and rebellion is carefully cultivated and pruned to ensure minimum effect on the system as a whole.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
So, it's Mexico combined with Communism and Fascism?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
More like urban Korea crossed with WalMart and the Illuminati.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm pretty sure the Illuminati is not such a great example, unless you're speaking about the one from the Da Vinci Code series. And WalMart, really? There have to be better examples than that.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
A glittering and tightly packed high tech urban setting run by by secretive an all powerful interests who are bound by no morality but greed and who provide jobs to slowly suck the life and happiness from their workers.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Protest groups and political organizations have more success than this in modern times, as do scandals and the like. This is a much more immoral and organized system than any that currently exist. About the closest you could find nowadays would be a very tight Fascist or Communist single party and media controlled state and even then they don't control their public to quite the extent of this.
Societies by and large however, do tend to move slower than any single person's actions as represented by the chart. Revolutions occur only when tides of power leave the current power centers without any true power.
Feelings of slow change in most modern settings though are mostly an artifact of youth, most societies and countries look nothing like they did 50 years ago (even if their borders do). Modern Democracies offer short term instability but in exchange that instability provides almost always enough responsiveness to avoid revolt, keep people happy, and keep up their own morality beyond something like this.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
True, though I was mostly attempting to be humorous.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yeah, I understood that a lot of what I did for the chart was fairly ambiguous to any system so I was trying to clarify.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1