Comment by Mistletoe
3 years ago
I like your optimism, but it seems more like a Phillip K. Dick novel to me.
>In 2021, society is driven by a virtual Internet, which has created a degenerate effect called "nerve attenuation syndrome" or NAS. Megacorporations control much of the world, intensifying the class hostility already created by NAS.
from Johnny Mnemonic
What can we do to make it more utopian?
It's an interesting set of tradeoffs - vtubing has made it possible for people to be on-screen personalities who normally would not able to as easily because it can be very hard to overcome problems with your IRL appearance. That stuff really matters if you want to succeed on YouTube or Twitch. In comparison if you want to be a vtuber, there are relatively affordable ways to grab a stock model and customize it. You can also just commission a custom one from an artist and rigger - though I think the cost of that is sadly out of reach of an amateur it's not as high as you might assume.
If you stream without a face camera at all it generally hurts your ability to grow an audience, and unfortunately our society is still pretty focused on appearance so if you don't look great you're going to potentially get a lot of toxicity in your chat. A vtuber avatar acts as an equalizer in this sense and also lets people express their personality and aesthetics visually in a way that might not otherwise be easy - they can pick eye and hair colors they think represent them without having to use colored contacts or hair dyes, etc.
A few different people I know found that having a vtuber avatar made it much easier for them to get into streaming regularly and it did grow their audience, so I'm happy to see the technology catch on and improve.
> It's an interesting set of tradeoffs - vtubing has made it possible for people to be on-screen personalities who normally would not able to as easily because it can be very hard to overcome problems with your IRL appearance.
That's not the reason most of the popular ones do it. (Ironmouse, sure, but not anyone else.)
Most of the bigger ones are corporate characters, so they're actually forced to hide themselves and it's more like they're uncredited actors. Besides that, it gives you privacy, avoids stalkers, means you don't have to do your makeup or get dressed (up or at all), things like that. Appearance still definitely matters though, but now it's your voice carrying you and not your face.
Small nit but I was confused, I think Johnny Mnemonic is Gibbson? And I had to look up NAS, I think that part of the movie not the book. I think we have another couple decades before androids and mood organs of Phillip K dick at least but I could be wrong. But parts of Gibbsonian cyberpunk is already here!
You are so right. Bizarre. I thought that was Phillip K. Dick for all of my life I think. Even worse because Johnny Mnemonic is one of my favorite movies! I’ve got the Black Shakes worse than I thought.
I was shocked to read this comment because I interpreted your original comment as meaning a Philip K Dick novel would be optimistic compared to the cyberpunk dystopia in which we find ourselves now. lol
Anyway it's pretty fair to confuse the two I think, there can't be any way Johnny Mnemonic wasn't influenced by Blade Runner (I'm guessing it's true of both the movies and of the books). Very similar themes and protagonists at a certain level of abstraction.
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> already here
Just unevenly distributed.
Aesthetically it looks like the worlds imagined in a Phillip K. Dick novel, but none of the actual dystopian aspects are present in what GP described (rampant poverty/class disparity, environmental destruction, etc.)
I don't think someone sharing their craft through a virtual avatar is any more responsible for these things than the flying cars from Blade Runner would be.
> I like your optimism, but it seems more like a Phillip K. Dick novel to me.
Is it?
It's basically forums & avatars brought in the medium of audio and video communication.
That's probably what everyone would say if they didn't read books. But some read books so...
OMG CYBERPUNK DYSTOPIA PHILIP K DICK
A polity with an outmost shell of no bs ic spooks in a ratio of twenty to one cybersec defense to offense. There is the problem of sciengineers conceiving in the labs photonic computing but the committee member wage/salary slave cuts cost corners (or not but bloats up on unnecessary complexity) and we get the worsest join on the venn diagram in the industry spec.
I feel like this is insightful but also I do not understand what you are saying. Can you perhaps elucidate?
> What can we do to make it more utopian?
Move to Mars and start over.
Not falling for it! I’ve seen Total Recall! Based on an actual Phillip K. Dick story.
I have no hope that would work or is what Elon wants. I know he wants to set up the world’s most exclusive gated community there.