Hell yeah, this is my cup of tea, let's talk! So many fascinating aspects about cyberpunk appeal to me. If I had to narrow it down, it's probably the philosophical aspects:
What does it mean to be human?
The anthropological questions raised by most cyberpunk settings are probably what are most appealing to me. Cyberpunk tends to blur the lines between technology, humanity and identity. As such it makes you ponder about the boundaries of human nature. By melding man and machine to various degrees, you often find yourself asking "
is that still human?" and it's something that I find that really fascinating. In that sense, it raises many questions pertaining to the
mind-body problem, the dualism between your cognitive immaterial part and your physiological material part.
Are we good enough?
Most cyberpunk stories assume that mere human beings are largely insufficient and faulty. We are
deficient beings, who need technology in order to become better, more efficient. Yes, technology can do that, but not without becoming hopelessly depended on the tools that we are relying on. In a sense, we increase our performance by becoming slaves to technology. Even nowadays, how many people must rely on the internet or their smart phones? It's an interesting dilemma, while technology compensates for our deficiencies we also become less autonomous.
What is reality?
Both, Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell play around with the concept of fake memories. Our memories and experiences are something very intimate, they are what make us individuals, they form our character. By implanting fake memories, you essentially create a whole new identity. Just imagine you would wake up one day and realize that your whole past was merely an illusion, a lie that never actually happened. Yeah, it's pretty horrifying because it would imply that you are not who you think you are and that you never had a real impact on the world. It was all just in your head. There is this one scene in Ghost in the Shell that really exemplifies what I mean:
Are we doomed to be alone?
Cyberpunk is less about the individual but about the way in which we connect to the outside world. I think that's why so much emphasis is put on the identity of space. The single individual is but a tiny particle in an endless sea of interconnected entities. There is really no real way of knowing if the other entities are human, artificial or something in between, hence creating a sense of isolation. In most ways, it's the city space that determines your lifestyle and dictates where you can go, what you can do, who you can be. In a sense, the cyberpunk space is presented as its own identity, like an omnipresent
Leviathan it watches over you and directs your every movement.
Are we free and alive?
By depending so much on technology, there is no way of knowing to what degree your actions are the result of your own free will. Is it technology dictating what you do, or the mega-corporations that control the technology? It's the reason why, cyberpunk often fills you with
existential dread. While your personal identity is slowly being suffocated by an ever growing network of artificial chaos, you become more and more disconnected from your own body. The lines between fantasy and reality become blurred evoking a sense of hollowness. Are you even alive or nothing but a mere product? For me, that's what the replicants in
Blade Runner are all about: