#why is our Cyberpunk campaign spiraling

[mitigatedchaos]

I’m going with fake ‘60s for my quasi-immortality scenario

it seems like many people can handle the internet well, but I’m not one of them. I wasted a lot of years of my life scrolling for the dopamine and going down spirals of neuroticism.

my father, who has very similar conditions, is quite successful.

my theory is that we represent marginal persons who’d be quite successful free of that temptation, but just aren’t quite enough over the line to lock in and succeed despite it.

[ in reference to this poll ]

Yeah, I personally find the Internet to be a double-edged sword. Of course, it's easier to find interesting outlier people to talk to, and coordinate to talk to them, here on the Internet.

So partly, the poll is an evaluation of society - if we didn't have to worry about short lifespans and a lack of experts, how would people choose to live? I covered some of this in the reblogs. (We might get there with the creation of intentional spaces even without life extension.)

But I admit, I'm also thinking about murder.

Suppose there is a world in which everyone can have a cybernetic implant that remotely reports their health status and position, and they also have another cybernetic implant with an encrypted video life log.

Under such circumstances, most murders would be (1) impulsive, with the perp not even thinking about jail time, (2) premeditated with an expectation of being caught, or (3) politically or socially legitimized.

Every premeditated murder (without an expectation of being caught) would also either be a highly sophisticated cybercrime ("wait, what do you mean the implant 'glitched'? implants don't 'glitch'"), or a highly sophisticated social maneuver ("what? you care that he died?").

In that case, there's not much call for cool cyborg detectives, mostly just computer forensics guys sitting in the lab.

One approach would be the one used by Cyberpunk 2077 - reduce the average level of morality and scramble computer systems, making both enforcement and surveillance unreliable.

Another approach would be extremely strict privacy laws. This seems politically questionable, however - wouldn't families of victims campaign to overturn the privacy laws, and wouldn't victims have most of the footage needed even if the perpetrator doesn't cooperate?

Well, what if they're going for something other than ultra-strict privacy, and as a consequence, it just so happens to be easier to get away with murdering people?

One reason that people might choose to live in the Fake 1990s or Fake 1960s is that it's a lower-stimulation environment. Someone who lives for a long time has a different relation to time, space, and stimulus, so there's less reason to reject doing things in a more time-consuming way (e.g. going to an actual karaoke bar vs doing online e-karaoke).

In that case, reduced surveillance would be a natural consequence, and the measures required to increase surveillance would have second-order opponents.

Another reason is if they could use it to work less. Normally, we would expect people to work more at a 1960s tech level, but if we propose that the high-tech society's economy, with cyborgs, supercomputers, cognition-boosting technology, and fusion power, is ludicrously productive, then the dependency ratio could be quite high without causing much slowdown.

Okay, but in that case, what are the high-tech people buying from them?

And why are the guys who are choosing to work less and receive transfer payments living in low-surveillance areas, rather than using cheaper versions of regular surveillance technology?

Well, it would make sense if there's a rentable political limit on something like CPU cycles, energy consumption, and/or land, and the welfare-enjoyers have willfully rented out their share to the high-tech workers and companies. (This introduces other potential issues, however.)

This gets us our second-order defenders of low surveillance, though I see issues in that transfer recipients would be tempted to rent out e.g. the right to own an iPhone to someone else, and then sneakily buy an iPhone anyway.

[kimarisgundam]

Rockerboy hates my Netrunner's dad cos dad tortured him, flatlined his chooms, and is currently threatening to call a hit on more of his friends

Exec doesn't hate dad, but is really salty over having his pride wounded. He has to occasionally work for dad now as a corp backed fixer cos dad let him walk from Arasaka

My Netrunner is super frigging pissed at her family cos

^ pissed at myself for being a coward and helping dad zero Rockerboy's friends + following orders and backstabbing my party

Big bro found out years ago that our sponsor helped facilitate the internal hit on our mom and his dad but didn't tell me

Big bro knew I was our sponsor's bio kid but chose not to tell me anything. No wonder he never called dad "dad" >:U

Dad is threatening tell MaxTac Solo has cyber psychosis if I reveal his affair to Arasaka (I retaliated cos he threatened Rockerboy)

And wtf dad! You told me the code I wrote was being used for therapeutic/medical purposes. Medical my butt! You used it to torture people >:U

The 3 of us are basically seething right now. And for the first time in this entire campaign...

My/my Netrunner's salt > my sense of honour/duty towards serving Arasaka/dad

Salt > my respect and fear of dad

Salt > not wanting to be a disappointment to my big bro

I basically just want to tell my family to go frig themselves now cos I've had enough of being lied to and manipulated >:T

Dad wants to take everything back from me cos I'm disobedient?

FINE. I'll borrow clothing from Solo2. I'll go from dressing in Jinguji to looking like Hatsune Miku with a gun >:T

I get why dad wanted to hide my Netrunner's existence cos it's not a good look having an affair with a traitor. But like, why didn't he tell the truth to my Netrunner? Is he that ashamed that she's his kid? Am I such a disappointment?

My current plan is to become dad's worst nightmare as a metaphorical middle finger to him. Like literally be a total disgrace as his bio kid. I'll even lie and say Rockerboy is my input

Exec is fully on board with this cos he wants to see my Netrunner's dad freak out, plus he gets to suck up to dad and play the good guy by saying he'll "look out" for me cos I'm with Rockerboy

Rockerboy just wants to stir crap so he's eager to do this

But our DM and Nomad are giving us the ಠ_ಠ look now cos we're hitting a hornet's nest

[kimarisgundam]

Ok, wtf ಠ_ಠ... I have new info...

There's a 80% chance my Netrunner's adoptive dad KNEW Arasaka planned a hit on her bio parents and either stood by and did nothing (despite saying he was best friends with her parents)...

Or actively helped to facilitate the hit ಠ_ಠ

I understand not doing anything... I was raised in Arasaka too. Traitors who bite the hand that feeds them have it coming... I don't know what I would do if the same thing happened to me

But to like actively help carry out a hit on your friends??? Ok... actually, I'm not any better... that's what I did to Rockerboy...

But at least at that point in time was pretending to be his friend, so I'm not as bad..?

Actually, I don't even know if this is true... I shouldn't speculate

And our DM said my Netrunner doesn't even remember her bio parents... Tanaka-san is effectively her only father figure...

Do I really want to nuke my relationship with living father for 2 dead people I don't even remember..? Should I tell my big bro???

He's way older than my Netrunner. He definitely remembers their parents 😣

I confided in my friend/her Exec... and he's making things worse...

I previously refused to help him sabotage his boss. I know he can't forgive his boss for betraying his best friend and getting him killed...

But his boss is part of Arasaka. Hitting his boss is the same as hitting Arasaka... I can't do that cos that goes against my duty

He said he has security clearance to certain files I may want to snoop in though...

If I help him, he will return the favour. And he said this hit against his boss is a paid job... it pays well and I really need the eddies...

But...

HAS MY FRIEND LEARNT NOTHING FROM 2077 ಠ_ಠ??? Her Exec works for Arasaka, if he wants to kill himself, there's much less painful ways to do it. Betraying Arasaka is the fastest way to a painful death ಠ_ಠ