Returned to the game, and honestly? This post is still absolutely true.
@LukeAlmighty Thing is... as bad as things are today, someone from medieval time would think living anywhere in Europe today would be epic.
We've lost perspective of how much life has improved because of technology, and I'd wager it makes sense in universe that people in Cyberpunk consider it a dystopia, because they also lost perspective on things and focus only on their present day issues.
I had a sobering though a year ago. Back during the days of Mozart or Beethoven, these people weren't composing music for the wider audience. Entertainment was a thing solely for the rich. But today, a homeless person in America can listen to any music he wants on a pocket sized computer.
Or Tim Pool likes to make the argument that the original oil baron had worse dental care than an average american has today.
People are free to complain about wealth inequalities, but they should also take a second and appreciate that they probably have access to the same, if not more, life amenities than the richest of the rich from not that long ago. That is bonkers to me.
So yeah, any realistic fiction set in a much more technologically advanced future, is gonna have some of the things we care about solved thanks to technology, while also introducing new unique problems that make it a dystopia.
I haven't played the game, but my understanding was that the dystopic element was some kind of augmentation psychosis and people losing their humanity.
@beardalaxy @alyx
I really do get your roommate, and I kind of agree with him.
Obviously I get, that for instance, their lower back had to be dying in their 30s, but my issue is, that even with a so called 100x potential, you cannot choose to use only part of it.
You cannot possibly get a house, small garden and food for family on 2 part time jobs. So, the potential isn't there, if 60% goes to the state, 20% on rent, and you are left with 20%, that you must use on lawfare. You cannot even go most places on foot these days. Cities are not built for people walking from A to B.
But yes, the lost purpose and family expectations are a tragedy, that I cannot get over either.
@beardalaxy @alyx
I was just thinking about it, and I do not believe, that it's so much forgetting as it's all about the focus.
I have seen both corpo psychopaths and the street thugs in my life, so I do know, that they are depicted quite accurately in the game. I also do know that nothing can stop that kind of a person, and that if you get into the middle class lifestyle, you can avoid both of them literally 99.99% of your life. But, most people who were born in the middle class safety bubble do not know that. On contrary, when you play the game, you cannot live middle class safe zone character (for obvious reasons), and you get to interact only with the two kinds of psychos.
So, imagine never seeing these kind of creatures, and then having both classes in the game. It would in fact look like a total distopia.
@beardalaxy @LukeAlmighty
My grandmother (when she was alive and somewhat healthy) used to take care of a small garden + a few farm animals (in the city of all things, cause we be like that sometimes). Anyway, when I was little, I stayed with her for a while, and I'm well familiar with how hard she worked to grow some vegetables, a pig and some chickens. It was basically a 6am to 9pm workday. For a tiny plot of land.
Also, there's no such thing as "doesn't have to do anything for half a year". At best you have the months of winter. Because you still have to till the land, and fertilize it, and whatnot. There's plenty of preparation to be done before and after you have your crop.
So yeah... your roommate was clueless. It might be a bit easier these days to be a farmer, with things like tractors and all that, but in the middle ages?... Your roommate had no idea.
>our potential is at least 100x higher.
If you transplanted a craftsman or something from the middle ages to here he would wipe the floor with every one of us. His whole family dying of leprosy and then him going to two wars were 9311 of his comrades died of gangrene infected wounds was like NOTHING to him. It was just TUESDAY. They were so powerful back then.
People today are weak.
You cannot even conceive the potential of someone like a Yamnaya from the Ice Age. We have all this tech because we simply have NOT gotten any more potential. We are petered out, we domesticated ourselves. THE SPARK IS ALMOST EXTINGUISHED
schizo post sorry but true
dies of 21st century 600th gen ultra evolved "common" cold
>be China
>be petri dish of the planet
Not the own you think it is.
Look. Listen. I'm not in the mood for an ethnic hellthread.
My garage is dirty and filled with crap.
TUESDAY FOR HIM
THEY HAD FLESH EATING BACTERIA IN THE SWAMPS OF EUROPE.
THEY DRAINED ALL THE DEMONS OUT BY HAND
Not to fight chineseman however the Tocharian and the guys with the 200 km long blade of the full moon from chinese mythology got along quite good I reckon
however if you bring anyone from then back here, its gonna be like the small pox blankets X1000
You cannot bring someone from then back to here so it's obviously a metaphor. If you gave him the same chances that we have today, he'd probably have a better chance at a good immune response than us.
The joke was their mental fortitude btw, that humans today are weak and coddled so much that they have forgotten how much potential we once had.
SN: The common cold has not mutated in a way that makes it more aggressive and deadly. It's just different now. That's counterproductive for a virus.
its what your ancestors fought off, reproduced and passed on.
this is not true beyond a very very generalized cursory first sentence of an introduction
Two obvious points:
There is a sweet spot for a virus' infectiousness and deadliness that it does not cross most of the time because it will hamper it's ability to survive.
You forgot dysgenics and selection prevention via medicine.
Many other things missing too.
Say your piece but let's not fight over it it wasn't my point anyway.
@alyx
> some kind of augmentation psychosis
That only happens to people, who replace more of their body, then they are capable of. It is a rare condition even in lore, and could be compared to organ failure from steroids. (although, you are the one killing others)
@alyx @LukeAlmighty my roommate was pining for the middle ages where a peasant would just work at his farm and then have a wife and a child he goes back to and doesn't have to do anything for like half the year.
i had to explain to him that, although we spend more time working than an average peasant did, our potential is at least 100x higher. you just have to utilize that potential because if you don't, then you're just a shitty peasant. our time is not the same as any other time so it's best to think about what you can do now rather than what you can't.