Prophetic Scifi (part 2)

Scifi is often written about dystopian societies of the future. Entire genres are sometimes born from the imaginations of scifi writers, such as the ”cyberpunk” genre that was the result of novelist William Gibson's Neuromancer. RPG games such as Shadowrun were successful and reflected the popularity of the new genre, with movies such as ”Johnny Mnemonic” and ”Ghost in the Shell” also set in a cyberpunk universe. The genre continues in popularity today, with the highly anticipated ”Cyberpunk 2077” video game releasing in 2020. Yet is cyberpunk a world that will remain imaginary? Today, successful experiments have already been conducted, linking human neural activity to robotics and computers. Prosthetic arms can now be manipulated by thoughts alone, surface thoughts can be scanned and converted into text messages, and the motor activity of one person can even be hijacked by another person linked through a few wires and electrodes. While the technology of today is slowly beginning to reflect the cyberpunk stories, it's easy to wonder if the society of the fictional world will follow and someday be reflected in our own, with controlling mega-corporations essentially governing everything, unaffected by the laws of country and state. Considering what we're seeing with Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. these days, it's not a stretch to imagine this future.