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It might not age well but that has less to do with his lack of technical knowledge and more to do with the genre of cyberpunk as a whole. Compare Snow Crash, another foundational cyberpunk work which was written by someone who did have a lot of technical knowledge -- you read it today and it will feel a little ridiculous.

Cyberpunk is essentially retro-futurism now. That's an inherent problem in something that extrapolates to the very near future. I think the only thing I've seen that comes close and ages well is Serial Experiments Lain, and that's more of a post-cyberpunk work.




But you seem to be defining the genre by its failures (for lack of a better term). I agree that Snow Crash seems ridiculous now, though I would argue that's less about the tech and more about the weird action/tech combo he tries to pull off (think Daemon). Is it possible for there to be cyberpunk that doesn't seem dated? I doubt a lot of people would now argue that Jane Austen seems dated.


I just don't think it's possible.

The genre is rooted in what we as humans believed the scary future would look like. The real scary future just wasn't what we thought.




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