Never having seen it, I find myself agreeing with her.

Could be worse. How about the Colonies from the 2003 Battlestar Galatica reboot. A few years BEFORE the cylons showed up and trashed the place.

(nods)

Oh yeah... And, even if the toasters didn't exist... the Colonies still would've jumped off the rails. Way too much crap was going on in the background for things to remain stable. Caprica anyone? 40 years after the robots left,and the humans still didn't take the hint and spread out away from the Helios system. Idiots...

I know, right? And the rot was never far from the surface, no matter which world you looked at.

And, if you take a certain computer game as canon, BSG Deadlock... the Colonies were only united a for very short time. Can you say Civil War? All you needed was a good push at the right time and place.

Sounds similar to the argument for people who think universes of all-out war, like Warhammer, would be so cool to live in.

Only if you are a hero character who can feel no pain or fear. ;) but you? Your Guardsman #3348291 who was just made an example for taking a step back out of fear.

Pfft, at least you get regular meals usually. Try being a manufactorium worker or the next lucky individual chosen to be a servitor.

At least most 40k fans will agree it’d be horrific to live in that setting.

Not cool, but interesting. My ideal cyberpunk character is that well-dressed fox in a black suit and tie, former Yakuza, very John Wick-inspired, the ultimate ex-assassin who wants to live peacefully, but if someone shoves him back, he'll respond with killer vengeance. I would welcome a friendship with Pi, understanding that she's got her own tragedies and could use a friend who wants the world to just back off and let her live a peaceful life.

She's... she's not wrong. Although I might fall for some urbane fox who promised me "To the stars" too.

Well, yes. I mean, in the novel I've been writing, Huntress pretty much has PTSD. Her world is not a nice place, and she started off in a better position than most do. There's a reason for the 'dancing on the edge' picture... Huntress is well into the state of not entirely caring if she lives or dies anymore. Which is part of what makes her dangerous, as people like that have a tendency to go out in a 'blaze of glory' with large amounts of collateral damage...

"Dehumanized," in this context, is an interesting choice of word.

Thats why I like steampunk or atompunk. They tend to glorify exploration, expansion, and furthering humanity. While cyberpunk tends towards dystopia, and dieselpunk towards war.

Ah yes, the glorious Victorian Society, so clean and heroic until you look closer.
While I have a soft spot for Steampunk, I made the mistake of looking too close into what was going on back then. Since then I hang between the overly romanticized Steampunk and how society was historical.

Every society has its dark spots. Steampunk and Victorian are linked, but not the same. Steampunk is indeed highly romanticized, beautiful, bright, air and wind and clockwork wonders. Exploration, invention, the expansion of humanity and knowledge.

Victorian, on the other hand? Dark gritty london alleyways, coalsmoke choking the skies, barbers who kill you, mass murderers preying on the dregs of humanity. Cthulhu monsters lurking on the edges of reality. Empires crushing native populations on conquests as soldiers are thrown into meatgrinders on the bleeding edges of empires.

One might say it is the same dichotomy that separates Gotham and Metropolis, Batman and Superman. It is the same city, but very different takes.

They are in different universes and do not share location. Gotham is in same universe as Starcity, in state of New Jersy, right? Silver era Metropolis is in Delaware.

Apparently Golden Era Metropolis was near Gotham in NY state and was similar looking. Pretty same cities.

This is the best Pi day so far.

She's telling the truth.

He’s still going to ask for her number.

Oh, he totally is.

Good points!

Like Zombie movies: Fun to watch, hell to actually experience. "Being a starving artist is only romantic from a distance".

"Fun to watch, hell to actually experience" - this is the essence! And we can say absolutely the same thing about many other things.

Hell no, we're living in somethin' close enough to be scary, lol.

Great stuff.

Context is important.

Shadowrun and Whitewolf taught me this.

Welcome to the Modern World.

Here's your crapsack.

As a corporate executive it could be quite nice.
Nice, not cool.
Though it's nearly part of the job description that you should be an egotistical asshole that does not care about other people, seeing them only as superiors to be toppled, rivals, potential rivals and tools.

Though as so often, the tech would be interesting to play with.

As I touched on in "The Puppet Warriors", the corporates may have better stuff, but life is far from easy for them either.

I am going to go find my archive and re-read this.

I mean we are technically already living a dystopian hellscape where society is dehumanized with constantly increasing moral degeneracy.

As I get on towards half a century on this rockball, I'm not exactly sure if I see an increase in moral degeneracy, but lately I've damn sure seen an increase in morally degenerate ideas of what constitutes moral degeneracy.

So How much more is it a Dystopian Hellscape for the disabled? I switch between a Prosthetic leg and a wheelchair in real life. How much worse would I be off in Pi's world? (I am not sure Unicorns would be allowed, perhaps as genetic constructs) and yes, thank you for showing Pi on Pi-day.

If you got the money, sure.
If you don't have the money you better have a skill someone with money needs so you can work off your debt. And make sure it's a skill that is needed at last long enough for you to pay off your prosthetics. Not to mention to pay for the maintenance and when you finally have paid it off, you still have to pay for that.
Though if your skill is suddenly no longer needed you might get fired and left with the rest of the debt. Better come up with the money quickly before they repossess your prosthetics.

There was a little short story in a Shadowrun rulebook about a guy who made the handcrafted grips for a gun. The moment his company benefits were more expensive than the loss for training a new employee he got fired. The day he was let go and the message that informed him of that was programmed the day they hired him.

In Cyberpunk 2020 a guy turned into a corporate mercenary in some South American hellhole because the money was good. A mine took his legs away. They offered him a choice. Being let go with the contractual penalities for the breach of contract or get new legs and agree to another tour of duty. Of course most of the money he would make would go into paying off his new legs. When he told his tale, he was walking around on his prosthetic legs, so you can see how his decision went.

In both cases your boss might smoke ten packs a day because he can easily afford a new lung.

Under such conditions, you might be better off in their version of a motorized wheelchair.

Oh, today's Pi-day! Dammit, I keep forgetting that every year (I've always wanted to draw something themed around that).

I've never read Zaibatsu Tears (I wish I had dammit), but I do know the basic synopsis. Yeah, living in that world would be hell (because let's face it...I ain't gonna be no corpo-bigwig).

It's available online: my first Google hit is https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Zaibatsu-Tears. (The site sucks but at least the comic is readable.)

Great Scott!

Cue the flying custard pies...

"Here, let me show you! Go stand against that wall There are no consequences for this, because the average citizen's life is less than worthless!"

*pulls 3 ball bearings from pocket*

I loved this character so much!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYoAO6avDQY

Dick, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to pull a Neil Degrasse Tyson on you here, because to be fair, Pi just described everything that's happening in the real world as we speak.

At least her world sucks in an exciting, new way , because it's got robots and flying cars.

Us? Bored Apes and Facebook.

Pi in face!

The tech level would be cool, the style maybe (that tends to change with the wind). I'd like to say the social fubar would be sucktastik, but we might be there already if not bloody close.

I still have those comics. They are cool. I would not want to live in a world where I was a slave that can be called at 3am in the morning to move a fridge.

...and this is why I prefer light and fluffy stories. Already seen too much grimdark in the real world, and it's not a hot chick on a Harley.

"Dehumanized society"
I dunno, considering that there is extreme poverty, injustice, bigotry, violence, and suffering it seems pretty human to me.

"In the Dark Future of Cyberpunk, it is in fact not cool, because Domaiyoshi's combat-chassis prosthetic cyberbodies don't come with stock PVU (Pi Vulpine Undercarriage) cooling loops."

"That upgrade requires the extension of a saibogyu's indentured corporate service and component parts warranties likewise."

-2Paw.