Russian journalists Dmitriy Ryder and Svetlana Popova believe we are headed towards a dystopian future similar to the fictional worlds depicted in cyber-punk classics such as Blade Runner and Neuromancer. Do you?
”It is [certainly] not an exaggeration to say that we are rapidly moving toward a world a la cyberpunk – and not just because of the spread of computer technology and genetic engineering,” Ryder and Popova opined in NewsLand.
“Just look at recent news stories: local wars, environmental disasters, corruption scandals, poverty side by side with tourist flights to space and technological innovations.
”And when [we] read or watch reports about Dubai, [we] think it is truly [a] cyberpunk Metropolis Persian Gulf city of Super Tower, which is a consumer paradise for wealthy tourists – and a sweatshop labor hell for the disenfranchised guest workers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.”
According to the two journalists, capitalist-style globalization – led by the West – has utterly failed to unite people of the world or erase hostile borders.
“Neoliberal capitalism exploits the ‘third world’ and creates a ‘third world’ in the ‘first,’ [with] the bourgeoisie seeking refuge in the ‘outer worlds’ of protected communities. At the same time, the idea that ‘another world is possible,’ is under the tacit ideological prohibition and seems utopian.
“As a movement, cyberpunk denies progress towards a better society – there is only technological progress, which repeals utopia and threatens to undo the man himself.”
