Where is the president in Blade Runner?

May 6, 2020 10:04 PM

Government, as experienced for much of the 20th century, is largely absent from the lives of characters in cyberpunk stories. Police are a durable feature, but government services and functions beyond the security state are absent. ¶ Yet for all the aggressive visibility of politics in our daily lives, we’re not that far off from the powerlessness of a cyberpunk future. Cyberpunk speaks to the present because the conditions that inspired cyberpunk remain largely unchanged. We’re on the Brink of Cyberpunk -- It’s not just the technology, surveillance, and dystopian vibes—it’s the culmination of decades of deliberate governmental erosion. (Kelsey D. Atherton for Slate's Future-Tense)
posted by filthy light thief (19 comments total)

If you want to delve into this bleak future-present, io9 has The Essential Cyberpunk Reading List.

If it's all too dark, try some post-cyberpunk, as summarized by TV Tropes, with plenty of examples.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:06 PM on May 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

I'd also suggest this 2018 AskMe question, "Help Me Fill Out My Cyberpunk Reading List," in which "works by POC and women are particularly welcome."
posted by Wobbuffet at 10:12 PM on May 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

Well, depends what you mean by government. (don tinfoil hat before reading further)

Back in the mid-1980's I clipped a newspaper piece (since lost) about what the then opposition National Party hoped for. Their proposal was to reduce government to police, judiciary and army and make every resident and citizen a private independent contractor. From time to time thru the 80's the weirdest things would get printed and this was one.

It's a neoliberal wet-dream to divide everyone, but that level of enforced lack of societal structure would give you the appearance of a lack of visible government.
posted by unearthed at 10:59 PM on May 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

Can I get an abortion and easy access to contraception in this new land without government?
posted by benzenedream at 11:50 PM on May 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

My favorite treatment of government is probably still that in Snow Crash; although many aspects of the book haven't aged well (its reliance on neurolinguistic programming and just general jankiness of plot), its depiction of a federal government that remains convinced of its own credibility and importance, despite having outsourced or sold off virtually every useful function not connected to simply maintaining its own existence, becomes more relevant every day.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:29 AM on May 7, 2020 [16 favorites]

Funnily enough, I read a brief, tantalizing crossover fanfic between Blade Runner and Battlestar Galactica - "Dreams Of Electric Sheep" by thedeadparrot that refers to such a leader, as ignominious as you'd imagine:

Laura meets with the president of the Untied States five days after the Fleet reaches Earth. He's a figurehead really, of little use to them, but she is a politician, and she knows these sorts of meetings must be held.

The man is small and oily, balding. Laura wonders why she's even bothering.

They talk about the future of the Fleet, and they both agree that it can't stay on Earth. Earth is far too crowded as it is. No, it would be best if the Colonials formed another colony, like many of the others Earth has set up in the surrounding solar system.

The irony is not lost on her.

Sounds about right.
posted by Apocryphon at 12:59 AM on May 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Honestly, I actually think Jennifer Government has a more apt depiction of how government will function in the near future, at least in the US.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:18 AM on May 7, 2020 [5 favorites]

The government is for the rich and cyberpunk is about the poor, usually. So, The Government is this big, faceless entity that, at best, ignores our protagonist (s). There may be a more informal, small-g government, but it only has standing because it was created by localized people.
posted by drivingmenuts at 5:30 AM on May 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

The man is small and oily, balding.
Infallible signs of uselessness, it's true. Competence is the preserve of the tall and silver haired.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:31 AM on May 7, 2020 [14 favorites]

I'm not even going to touch the history of "oily" as applied to human beings.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:49 AM on May 7, 2020 [5 favorites]

I like the president in the 5th Element. Idk if that's strictly dystopian, but...
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 7:08 AM on May 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's cool to look at the growth of cyber-punk mentality in politics. Tony Blair was in a punk band. Dominic Cummings is a living, breathing exemplar of cyber-punk. Then there is Pussy Riot. All quite fascinating.
posted by No Robots at 7:52 AM on May 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

One day Cummings is going to write his autobiography (or he'll outsource it to Mechanical Turk) and the first sentences will be, "I understood my true destiny when I read an obscure sf story called Accelerando. There and then I decided I would become Manfred Max!"
And cstross will cry.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 7:59 AM on May 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

My favorite treatment of government is probably still that in Snow Crash

One of my favourite scenes in the entire book is when the President actually shows up in person and nobody recognises him.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:19 AM on May 7, 2020 [7 favorites]

Where Cyberpunk was predictive was in showing that in the future corporations would begin to have more influence than government.

Where it failed was in predicting that corporations would take over any of the duties of the government instead of just fucking off with the money.
posted by lumpenprole at 9:59 AM on May 7, 2020 [8 favorites]

It's Jack Womack's world. We just live in it.
posted by doctornemo at 10:07 AM on May 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

Cyberpunk is Che Guevara Tshirts
posted by I-Write-Essays at 2:38 PM on May 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

What we need is a post-cyberpunk esthetic that concentrates on the building of community and establishment of norms out of a cyberpunk dystopia.

Think Lark Rise To Candleford with black-clad hackers and Cyberdecks. Let this be your prompt for Nanowripandemic, and thank you for attending my TED Talk.
posted by ocschwar at 4:49 PM on May 9, 2020

I always thought (and think) cyberpunk was just the return to medievalism, with faster technology.
posted by Harry Caul at 3:54 AM on May 13, 2020 [1 favorite]