This is a good discussion and relevant to my interests. I'm more inclined towards some of the points Aaron raised, which is that techno-optimism was largely fueled by the very real life-changing technological progress that Americans were witnessing from the start of the Industrial Revolution until ~1970, and techno-pessimism has been fueled by that progress coming to an end. I.e. the Great Stagnation, wtfhappenedin1971.com, the Henry Adams Curve, etc.
While Askonas doesn't directly disagree with Aaron, he seems to see social trends as primary and doesn't really acknowledge the Great Stagnation, or at least that it has its roots in scientific and engineering problems, not social ones. If the world is less excited about SpaceX's achievements than it was about the 1960s Space Race, maybe this is partly because of the culture itself, but it's primarily because the promise of the Space Race failed. We all know that building a settlement on Mars, or even the moon, isn't economically feasible without revolutionary advances in propulsion that apparently just aren't coming, so it's hard to suspend disbelief and get all that excited. But in the 1960s, interplanetary colonization seemed to be within reach by simply extrapolating the Henry Adams Curve forward.
I can tell that Shadowrun is on Aaron's mind lately, I think that's two mentions in a week!
I played the video games in the 1990s but never read the novels. The rise of cyberpunk could only happen after the post-1970 technological stagnation. Though the ur-example, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (i.e., "Blade Runner") was written in 1968, before the Space Race had failed. It features a mass exodus of people towards off-world colonies in the near future -- an optimism about energy technology that feels out of place in the context of later cyberpunk. Even dystopian writers in the 1960s couldn't help but take for granted man's inexorable progress towards the stars.
This is a good discussion and relevant to my interests. I'm more inclined towards some of the points Aaron raised, which is that techno-optimism was largely fueled by the very real life-changing technological progress that Americans were witnessing from the start of the Industrial Revolution until ~1970, and techno-pessimism has been fueled by that progress coming to an end. I.e. the Great Stagnation, wtfhappenedin1971.com, the Henry Adams Curve, etc.
While Askonas doesn't directly disagree with Aaron, he seems to see social trends as primary and doesn't really acknowledge the Great Stagnation, or at least that it has its roots in scientific and engineering problems, not social ones. If the world is less excited about SpaceX's achievements than it was about the 1960s Space Race, maybe this is partly because of the culture itself, but it's primarily because the promise of the Space Race failed. We all know that building a settlement on Mars, or even the moon, isn't economically feasible without revolutionary advances in propulsion that apparently just aren't coming, so it's hard to suspend disbelief and get all that excited. But in the 1960s, interplanetary colonization seemed to be within reach by simply extrapolating the Henry Adams Curve forward.
I can tell that Shadowrun is on Aaron's mind lately, I think that's two mentions in a week!
I played the video games in the 1990s but never read the novels. The rise of cyberpunk could only happen after the post-1970 technological stagnation. Though the ur-example, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (i.e., "Blade Runner") was written in 1968, before the Space Race had failed. It features a mass exodus of people towards off-world colonies in the near future -- an optimism about energy technology that feels out of place in the context of later cyberpunk. Even dystopian writers in the 1960s couldn't help but take for granted man's inexorable progress towards the stars.