Anna Sibilia

David Steiling 

Synthesized

Improving the Imperfect

The plethora of sub-genres within science fiction are innumerable and can either transcend seamlessly into one another or be as stark a contrast as night and day. These little niches of the overarching whole provide areas of concentrated taste, but their purposeful focus can lead the audience to newer themes that may not have been relevant to the original whole. Cyberpunk executes this with a mindful irony; in the beginning of science fiction a common theme was man triumphing over machines. However this often gritty, stylish sub-genre blends the barriers between the organic and mechanical and gives rise to a bastardization of both -which can be crude or sublime depending on the mindset and desires of the author, though a healthy mix of both usually populates a story to show the evolution and ease of the techno-organic merge over periods of time. It is apparent that the nature of man doesn’t make the transition as easily though, for even when the advancements in technology are great, people are constantly seeking to abuse it for a greater evil. Dystopia is such a common construction within this frame that merely saying Cyberpunk will bring to mind the fluid, high technology and seamless synthesis of man and machine, with a dark and brutal underside to the highlighted chrome.  

Such is the conflict in William Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic, a short story placed in a crime controlled society where people and information are the currency; certain individuals like Johnny are used as memory banks for illicit information -portable, living hard drives for data. Yet when the crime lord clients no longer have use for him,  Johnny finds himself in an entirely new situation: go underground, leave the advanced technology behind and never surface. 

This is a striking conflict for the protagonist as he cannot fully dissociate with the machinery, it is literally hardwired into him. Instead, he finds aid in the company of assassin Molly Millions, a cyborg built for executions who in turn introduces Johnny to the society of Lo Teks, a group of beast-like humans whom thrive without the high-grade technology and electricity that he was used to. 

This is an underlying theme in Cyberpunk literature: the less someone uses technology, the more brutish they are portrayed; it lies in keeping with how older generations will stick to the beliefs they were introduced to as they grew up and resist the changes that come with each passing era. ‘The old ways are old and ill-fitting for a reason, progress and society wants you to adapt and conform!’ eHowever this also presents the situation in which Johnny found himself in: once people are wired into the system, it is impossible for them to leave. Everything they do leaves traces and from those small trails, anyone can be found. In a society where information is power and everyone is linked to a single data stream, it can be assumed that those on top are those who can manipulate and regulate that stream with the most ease and influence -be it destructive or constructive. 

Cyberpunk often raises the message of how much technology we as humans will accept into our lives, be it in our own bodies, our society, to fulfill our more base needs or even just do menial tasks we do not want to deal with anymore. After a while the line between flesh, bone, blood, oil, and wires becomes too blurred to dictate what is what, and it is easier for anything to assume an identity. ‘What is human’ is a prevalent question that many authors leave open to speculation for their audience has to decide for themselves based upon the character’s actions and the repercussions of the world around them, much like how we function in the real world today.