Topic 9- Cyberpunk

Lecture

This weeks lecture was on the history of cyberpunk and how the movement first began, and its different themes. There are five themes of cyberpunk: Technology and Mythology, Utopia and Dystopia, Cities as Machines, Modernism to Post Modernism and Technological Change. Cyberpunk can be defined as " a science fiction genre based in the possibilities inherent in computers, genetics, body modifications and corporate developments in the near future". We went into the background of cyberpunk and how it has progressed in time, we then went on to watch a French film called "Lajate`" (i cant spell). The film was about the threat of nuclear war and the aftermath that could occur from a nuclear attack, by using a serious of black and white pictures to a French voice over the movie told the story of the survivors who lived underground. Some survivors who were not scientists were used as tests subjects and subjected to different forms of mind alterations in the hope of traveling through time to alter the past and the present. The movie itself had a good storyline and general background to the nuclear war but was slightly confusing as the voice over was both dialogue, movement, gestures and expression. Apart from these facts the movie showed a great insight into what effects nuclear war could have on the world and how it may destroy civilization as we know it.

Tutorial
Draft work.

Reading
This weeks readings were "Allegory Of Plato's Cave" and "Burning Chrome", we read a chapter from a cyberpunk novel by William Gibson. The book was set in the future and was based on a world were computers were the main form of control. It focuses its story on two hackers who are trying to gain profits by hacking in computers systems and stealing whatever they can find. The story in general seems to portray a vision of how dangerous the computer world can be and the we should rely on there use so much. It reminds us that on computers there is always a chance someone is watching and waiting for you to type your personal details for them to steal. The second reading Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the reading was based on how we as a species are conditioned to certain things and that we are in some ways unable to see the negative in things as we are conditioned to believe it its right. This shows how we are too well adjusted to things that aren't normally accepted in society just because they are what they are.