I'm currently re-reading Neuromancer by William Gibson. I Love how he describes the different cities in the book and I was wondering which city in our current time best fits the archetype. (Shanghai comes to mind but I'm curious to know your opinion)
Okay, tbh, I'm going to vote against all map points on the de rigeur "tech metropolis" list.
TOKYO, HK, SHANGHAI, SHENZHEN, SEOUL, or <insert yet-another East-Asian megacity here.>
No to all of them. Why? They're really more capitalist mega-aggregations of labour and value...tech, either consumer-side or industry-side and any, cyber-punk under-side to these places is really, despite their (arguably somewhat faded) romance, these days is a side effect ( okay, maybe 1990s-era Harajuku FRUiTS style aside ).
I'm going to vote for someplace in Africa as actually the most cyberpunk.
I've never been there, but bear with me. High mobile phone usage but lots of shanty towns, mobile finance but still open air barter markets. And they do a lot of destroy/recycle/resell of tech ( old computers, old tvs, old batteries, old ships ). It's technologically advanced, but it's also still animist and voodoo. The internet didn't just "get adopted", it got "inhaled" and started changing everything, because things were still flexible enough to be changed.
Look maybe I'm just TOOMA, and someone who actually knows and has lived there can set this perspective straight. But for sake of freshness of updating the conception of "cyperpunk" I'm going against the grain of passing the crown around the clique of Asian megacities, to someplace maybe a little more grungy, maybe a little more deserving of the mantle of "cyberpunk".
A place where you could still imagine, perhaps, an organic "phreaking" culture existing even today, accompanied by reverse engineering and zines, distributed by bicycle couriers to people cool enough to be included in such secrets.
I know Africa is not glittering spires of glass and steel, but is that really so cyberpunk in our current time? Isn't the essence of cyberpunk something a little more bustling but raw-and-real, and digital but down-to-earth?
Cyberpunk connotes overcrowded cities where human life is commoditized and tech is widespread. Huge cities in Africa or India are much closer to unevenly distributed technological dystopias than the tech hubs other folks have suggested.
Under this definition Luanda would make a great candidate. The most expensive city in the world, ahead of Hong Kong, Zurich, and Singapore on Mercer's Cost of Living ranking. A two bedroom apartment will cost on average $6,800 per month, while the GDP per head is just $7,700 per year. It is also on track to become a megacity by 2030, full of glittering spires of glass and steel.
That's totally true as well. I didn't even think of that last night. People often think Asian megacities or US megacities as the most expensive. But that's not true. It's actually cities in Africa.
I guess another valid point is the problems African cities are dealing with are sort of indicative of what's projected that most mega cities will deal with in future. A huge income gap, lots of overcrowding and some kind of constant security and resource problems.
I've been following the author for some years but I believe he has yet to complete a full manuscript. In general I agree with most of what you have said. The Sprawl Trilogy is almost 30 years old, a completely different era. A re-evaluation of what "cyberpunk" means in this day and age is necessary in my book.
Asian cities get closest to the visual aesthetic associated with the word, which is why they are cited often, but I think you are right when talking about everything else. South America might have some candidates as well?
I even think the visual aesthetic needs revising. It was written about in an age before it existed, in an aspirational sense. Now we've achieve the forms of the aspirations, but we've missed out on the substance that was supposed to come with them. Our cities are marvels, but they lack richness in many ways. A richness that the infinite nets of cyberpunk promised us we'd be able to plug into. So I think a return to something more organic, to pick up some things we might have left behind in our headlong rush, might be needed, to actually get to where we were going.
Never been there, but Johannesburg looked pretty cyberpunk in District 9. Accordim to Neill Blomkamp, during the winter season, Johannesburg "actually looks like Chernobyl", a "nuclear apocalyptic wasteland".
In townships in South Africa you can see high tech low life everywhere: abject poverty but people still find ways to get old flip phones working or running a TV in a home with no electricity: just directly plugging it into a generator.
Nearby, there can be mansions with well-educated folks who hold the typical lawyer/consulting/banking/software set.
I didn't necessarily have anywhere specifically in Africa in mind but I was not thinking about South Africa. Tho if SA is included, definitely something like what Neil Blomkamp made SA look like in District 9, Chappie, et al, is sort-of cyberpunk to me. Love his aesthetic in those movies. Tho that's not exactly what I was going for here.
I've never been to India nor had an interest, I'm somewhat sorry to tell you. But I think I probably ought to check it out at some point hearing your comment and other things. Thanks!
Watching this documentary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY) about Shenzhen I got a very strong cyberpunk vibe, especially the last 1/3 of it. People at the streets fixing electronics, cheap/pirated circuit boards being sold at the curb, etc.
I was in Shenzhen not long ago. Good shout, but the city is actually very new. It's very clean and the subway is near spotless, so it doesn't give off a dark, dystopian cyberpunk kinda feel to it. Hong Kong is another good shout, specifically Kowloon region. Many Asian cities like these have lots of old neon signs, architecture, and technology that definitely gives off the Cyberpunk vibe
HK is a really good example of cyberpunk, you have both the kowloon side which is... it's hard to say "dark" but I would say it's more "real", "intense", and "chaotic" than the island, whereas the island itself has the shadowrun-esque clique of the mega-rich business conglomerates.
the only issue I see with HK being the perfect example of cyberpunk is victoria harbor keeps these two sides separate, whereas to fit the genre more I think they should be jammed up uncomfortably next to each other.
some HK films make use of the separation of kowloon / island, by placing the immaculate police headquarters on the island, but requiring the policeman/hero to go to the other side to get their hands dirty / get shit done / rescue the uncle/wife/child from the triad or whatever. when they go over to kowloon you know shit's going to go down.
Definitely Hong Kong. I just came back from a holiday there and the bus ride from the airport to Kowloon amidst towering brutalist apartments made me feel like I'm entering a dystopian metropolis.
Seconding this. Hong Kong all the way, no contest. I also went there a year or 2 ago and (besides being reminded everywhere about what inspired the styles in the cyberpunk game Deus Ex that take place there) it just felt very cyberpunk. Also, I LOVED IT, and sadly only spent 24 hours there (yet a VERY memorable 24 hours!). I want to go back!
Oakland, CA is a strong contender if you step back. Especially for one of a Stephensonian-styled second-wave cyberpunk. It even plays a part in Neuromancer.
It has its dark parts along with strong facets of common cyberpunk themes: drastic social stratification, the social acceptance of regular drug usage, urban decay meets technocratic renewal, a renewed definition of suburbia, and a greater acceptance of non-binary genders.
I like it, especially because there's a strong artist population there, and a common theme in cyberpunk is showing what the non-techies' life is like (to contrast it to the main characters' lives), and it's quite often artists.
There are pockets of it everywhere. There's a filthy bodega in uptown Manhattan with expired produce on the shelves, but there's a Bitcoin ATM and young kids hang out there and barter stolen Uber accounts for Bitcoin.
For those not familiar with the term cyberpunk (like me), this is what Wikipedia has to say
> Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a future setting that tends to focus on society as "high tech low life" featuring advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as information technology and cybernetics, juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.
the now-demolished Walled City of Kowloon was a great example of the dereliction/"street culture" side of cyberpunk fiction, very reminiscent of the "underbelly" image of cities like Midgar from FF7 or Hengsha in DX:HR. Also places like Lagos with a high rate of internet technology paired with scrap pickers and DIY recycling.
For the economic side of cyberpunk (the capitalist dystopia side), I'd say Hong Kong. A city with a booming economy and ample opportunity for international corporations but where the poorest citizens live in literal cages: http://all-that-is-interesting.com/cage-homes-hong-kong
For the neon/e-billboard aesthetic, you can't really beat Tokyo or Times Square, NY.
Dubai! The tallest building in the world, 2 of the tallest residential buildings, fringed by uninhabitable desert. Built on credit, on the backs of south Asian and Filipino indentured servants. An Instagram paradise for the global elite.
Not a city, but close to Barcelona there is an old factory which has been occupied and had a strong cyberpunk vibe when I visited https://greenhousingwelfare.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/ca-la-f... (they self describe as an eco-industrial post-capitalist community)
Tallinn is a very small city. When I travel, I love to walk alone in the city during the night, and despite a few big buildings (mainly hotels), Tallinn does not look that much futuristic.
Maybe an unlikely choice, but I actually think Boston, especially chinatown in Boston is incredibly cyberpunk. Yes, I might be biased since I went to school in Boston and a huge fan of the Fallout series.
If I had to give a structure / area outside chinatown, the trench that the commuter lines and orange-line run through are incredibly cyberpunk.
I don't see how Berlin could be considered Cyberpunk at all. Sure there are some modern buildings, but most of it is at least 50 years old. And there's no real high-tech.
Taipei. I was only there for a couple of days but where I stayed had that Kowloon walled City feel to it and I went to a rave in the lush, jungle like mountains.
Seoul definitely has the cyber but is a bit light on the punk. Same goes for Japanese cities, IMO. Old Kowloon had the right vibe. If you could put Akihabara on Gunkanjima, that would be a new contender.
TOKYO, HK, SHANGHAI, SHENZHEN, SEOUL, or <insert yet-another East-Asian megacity here.>
No to all of them. Why? They're really more capitalist mega-aggregations of labour and value...tech, either consumer-side or industry-side and any, cyber-punk under-side to these places is really, despite their (arguably somewhat faded) romance, these days is a side effect ( okay, maybe 1990s-era Harajuku FRUiTS style aside ).
I'm going to vote for someplace in Africa as actually the most cyberpunk.
I've never been there, but bear with me. High mobile phone usage but lots of shanty towns, mobile finance but still open air barter markets. And they do a lot of destroy/recycle/resell of tech ( old computers, old tvs, old batteries, old ships ). It's technologically advanced, but it's also still animist and voodoo. The internet didn't just "get adopted", it got "inhaled" and started changing everything, because things were still flexible enough to be changed.
Look maybe I'm just TOOMA, and someone who actually knows and has lived there can set this perspective straight. But for sake of freshness of updating the conception of "cyperpunk" I'm going against the grain of passing the crown around the clique of Asian megacities, to someplace maybe a little more grungy, maybe a little more deserving of the mantle of "cyberpunk".
A place where you could still imagine, perhaps, an organic "phreaking" culture existing even today, accompanied by reverse engineering and zines, distributed by bicycle couriers to people cool enough to be included in such secrets.
I know Africa is not glittering spires of glass and steel, but is that really so cyberpunk in our current time? Isn't the essence of cyberpunk something a little more bustling but raw-and-real, and digital but down-to-earth?