Cyberpunk, as a genre, is defined by “high tech and low life.” It draws heavily from noir novels, with grizzled protagonists narrating their way through one last case in rainy, dreary settings. Everything’s high tech, everything’s broken, and everything sucks, but there’s a job to be done and no time to waste.
The Tesla Cybertruck was initially revealed with enthusiasm for a cyberpunk future, like a perfect real-life Torment Nexus. Yet, the marketing was on point — it’s released into a cyberpunk world, and in a cyberpunk state. Let FriscoFairlane explain:
I do wonder what Elon Musk’s perspective on cyberpunk is. The genre’s definition of “low life” means massive economic disparity; it’s a genre that looks at inequality through the eyes of the folks who aren’t exactly the on-and-off world’s richest person. Case and Bobby Newmark aren’t funding missions to space or purchasing popular means of communication in hopes of bending them to their ideological whims. I guess you could compare Angie Mitchell to Grimes, though.
Congratulations, FriscoFairlane, on your Comment Of The Day win. Here’s a track for the world to come, and the one that’s already here.