Resisting the World of Cyberpunk By James Reed

The sci fi dystopian film, Blade Runner (1982), starring Harrison ford, was an early vision of the cyberpunk fiction.  The word "cyberpunk" was coined by writer Bruce Bethke, who in 1980 wrote a story with that title, combining "cybernetics," computer culture  and "punk," the  nihilistic punk music of  the 1970s and '80s. Dr Malone argues that the world view of the technocratic elites, embodied in those of the World Economic Forum, have the main elements of cyberpunk, with the use of AI to produce rigid social control in “smart cities,” as in Blade Runner, but where life for most people is no more than slum-dwelling, with the Metaverse giving some exit from the real world via virtual reality. As the real world is so miserable, there needs to be AI solutions, especially to loneliness and relationships, which too, are replaced by on-line virtual reality experiences.

As Dr Malone argues, this must all be resisted and defeated, since it means the end of the human essence, reducing human beings to empty shells of what they should be. And resistance involves staking out wholesome alternatives to what the technocratic elites are proposing, in parallel societies, where relationship live, and family values prevail, over the values of cyber-alienation.

https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/heaven-on-earth-workers-paradise

“The cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk, dystopian future laid out for us by science fiction writers, peer reviewed “science” op-eds and the lay press is not one I particularly wish to live in. Where open borders have created over-crowded conditions. Where arid lands cover most of the world, where the unrelentingly hot climate has burned up our most beautiful natural resources and agricultural lands, and where the numbers of people have crept up beyond the earth’s capacity. Their solution, the solution of the WEFers and the EU is to cram everyone into “smart” cities - to save the world. This is basically the penultimate solution that they offer. Smart cities… Cities where a permit is needed to cross into the next “smart” zone. Where there is no escape.

Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body.

Lawrence Person, (October 8, 1999). "Notes Toward a Postcyberpunk Manifesto". Slashdot.

These “smart” cities are in fact, nightmares. Crumbling infrastructure, crime, theft, disintegrating apartment buildings where individuals share tiny apartments or rooms in shifts. Where people live no better than rats on a sinking ship, waiting for the next natural disaster or food shortage to take them out.

Build it and they will come.

Where the only solution, the only way out is better internet services, so that they can escape the meager existence of their lives. Who needs God or religion? The Metaverse is being sold as the new heaven. The Metaverse is nirvana. The Metaverse will fulfill every need and desire. Soon, people won’t need to worry about that crappy apartment, the filthy subway, the rubbish lined streets or the lack of heat or air. Because the Metaverse will take care of them. The new patriarch, the new religion is an AI system designed to appease the masses.

Even the ideas behind having a physical partner and a family are becoming obsolete! Our youth are now being trained to accept cybersex as the new normal. Yeh, way better than physical sex, an AI will be shaped to become their every desire. They believe that they can “be” anything they wish in the Metaverse. Even their sexual needs will be fulfilled by Meta. Food will be delivered, they can sit back, relax and… no matter how kinky, dark, devoid of reality or personal connection, the Metaverse will have an AI to suit!

This is the future that is being offered up to our youth on a platter, and they often indulge in this fantasy of the good life, like children waiting to enter a candy shop. So the need for the opposite sex, for intimacy with other humans will be vastly decreased. Young men will literally not be able to interact normally with young women, who unlike AIs, will have their own self-determination, thoughts and desires. What happens to the family then?

Because reality doesn’t have to enter into this new equation of life and sex.

Sex has and will increasingly replace love making. The nobility of being part of a family, a culture and being part of something more important than one’s own narcissistic self is being swept away in the remaking of modern society.

This new society based on a sick idea that reality can be whatever we want it to be… in the Metaverse.

We cannot allow this to happen.

We must get back to envisioning a healthy, viable future for humanity that will pass down through the ages. We must return back to fundamental values.

A future where society and governments value families. Where a life lived in the physical, a life of creating, being creative, of understanding that wellbeing involves being able to be outside, to be free. Where wellbeing includes having a strong and connected family and even faith. Where it is understood that wellbeing includes a connection to the land.

We need vibrant alternatives to the dingy cities being promoted as the only viable future for most of humanity. We need a way to live in the country, in small towns, intentional communities and even the suburbs - where we can be allowed to live in relative privacy. Where “truck” farms, co-ops, victory gardens, cow pastures, free ranging chickens and fruit orchards are a central part and parcel of life. One that recognizes that life is messy and living requires production.

Human beings have and will terraform this earth. It is what we do. We once had small farms across America. These small farms were the backbone of America. For generations, they flourished. Now we have millions of acres of wheat, corn and soy - all “managed” by transnational corporations, along with factory farms on that same land. Unfortunately, this new model of agriculture which requires little labor is not sustainable. The run-off from the required fertilizers has many downstream consequences, such as dead zones in the oceans. The fertilizer production is not sustainable. There is no question that this is one of the biggest issues facing the world and our ability to create quality lives for everyone. How to feed the planet?

What happens when we re-image farm life and re-imagine community? Where people have the tools they need to work small farms, to sell locally, to use green house technologies, and to create organic, locally made fertilizers using a combination of new methods and traditional techniques. What happens when we return the ability to work the land back to people? The ability to work from home anywhere? The ownership of the land back to small farmers? What happens when living in the country means good internet AND sustainable housing AND strong communities AND real food AND good healthcare? What happens is that this will be a threat to our corporations and to our international industries. This is not a future where the WEFers get to pile up the excess profit of our labor instead of their own.

Traditionally, the extended family and by extension, strong religious communities are a threat to industrialized societies. Industry requires that people be able to move where needed, to place work over family, educational goals over living in the community that they grew up in.

Many believe that the Industrial Revolution weakened extended families, communities and traditional values. When people moved to cities for jobs, it separated generational families. Families members used to work side-by-side on farms. This changed when people moved to the cities for jobs. In the city, men took jobs and women were left to tend to children - alone and lonely. Now, this pattern still exists, except that instead of raising children, women work also. The family units are broken. We know this just from analyzing divorce rates, mental illness, childhood development issues - ADHD, autism, etc. The world is not a healthy place for families or children.

When we look to strong communities of faith, what emerges is a pattern that is very different than this. Families do not move for work as often. They stay in the communities that raised them. I like to use the Amish as an example of this, because at one time in my life, I had many Amish friends. But over the past three years, I have discovered many communities of faith, with multi-generational families that have remained close and strong. Of course, there are divorces, abuse and terrible things everywhere - we are human and many cannot control their base impulses, but on the whole, I believe that people are happier when they have long term relationships, where marriage and family matter. Where traditional values matter.

Creating such an intentional community is hard. It takes commitment from many, many people. I live in such a community - a community based on a way of life of many generations. A few move here, like me. Others trace back to the late 1700s. But commitment to a locality, to community and family are paramount to us all. Where honesty matters. Where people matter.

The nuclear and the extended family must become the center of our spiritual communities again. We must celebrate marriage and the family.

Marriage and the union of two people is sacred. Love making is the expression of the bond of marriage. This is part of the joy of being an adult, of choosing to commit to another person. And if lucky, having a family.

I believe we have all the elements of what we need to re-imagine life on earth now.

What we don’t have is the marketing power to compete with the dystopian visions being planted in our brains from the likes of our government, international corporations, the media, “Hollywood” and the United Nations.

We live in a society that teaches people that they need to leave their family, their communities and their way of life in order to “get ahead.” This is not healthy for families, people, or children. It is no wonder that the sacred is no longer valued.”