Cyberpunk predictions

On a wake of rise of personal computers in 80s a new kind of fiction was introduced - cyberpunk. It was pretty much created (or at least popularized, there were novels with similar themes and environments before) by the Willian Gibson, specifically with his novel Neuromancer. Although (so I've been told) Gibson himself didn't even use computers at all, he still pretty much lanched it as major literary genre. Not a small feat.

For those not familiar with genre, typical setting is somewhat dystopian/film noir-type future where megacorporations essentially run the world, cities are polluted and dark, and a human life is pretty much worthless. People can jack in the cyberspace (essentially direct brain link to virtual reality internet), and for many this is escape from bleak life - or, for some, a way to fight corrupted world. Or to fight for corrupted world. Our concepts of "white hat" and "black hat" don't exist there - there's just shades of grey, and shades change depending on one's point of view.

As a prediction of future a local computer magazine wrote (to paraphrase from my memory, this also being in mid-to-late 80s if my memory serves); "..Maybe in future someone reading this will be worth keeping alive no matter what; even with [extremely expensive, injected] nanomachines that would keep you alive by repairing cellular damage...". This stuck to me, guess I was hoping to be one of these very best hackers later.

As it turns out, the future didn't turn out as predicted - at least not completely. So far world hasn't become noir-ish polluted, dark hellhole (which is good) but power the global corporations hold seems to be way too large for comfort relative to us mortals (which is bad). But at least they hold puppets - often called politicians (fully bought and paid for, bad again) as a facade so far so it isn't as explicit as in cyberpunk novels (but I wouldn't call it good anyway). So far separation on black and white hats also stands (good again), but sometimes that seems to be starting to slip - there's been news on corporations wanting to start essentially cyberwarfare against hackers that are attacking them - that are possibly employed by some other corporations. So who is "good" and "bad" there, really? (shouldn't need to be said, but I do consider that bad)

For us who actually do the work building the systems, even the best of us are little more than cogs in the machine in the eyes of these corporations. There is no appreciation, or even ability to appreciate or even properly evaluate a programmers in companies these days, as evident from numerous articles about interview and work practices - and results of those practices. This isn't just limited to large ones, this applies to just about every company these days, some smaller ones possibly excepted (where everyone knows everyone and everyone reads everyones code - bad programmers tend to stand out then). While companies are looking for - and hoping to find - a rock star (read: insanely great) programmer, they rarely if ever find one, and even less often allow their newly found stars to work as they do best.

These days the committee sets the coding standards, and every cog in the machine has to meet these standards without deviation or that cog will be forcefully be made to meet them or be thrown out. As it happens, that standard very often happens to be the bare minimum - i.e. not very much. In our current, standards-seeking future there is no place for master hackers of cyberpunk nor the rock stars of reality. Everyone has to be a cog in the machine -- nothing more, nothing less. No deviations allowed.

And those health-providing nanomachines? At this poins I'm absolutely certain that those will be reserved for those that bring the most value to the company -- CEOs, boards and other highest executive staff, the people that get benefits and bonuses no matter how badly they screw up. Not the lowly cogs that do (and suffer) the actual work, they just get laid off for their mistakes. No, not "they" the workers, I mean "they" the highest bosses. Cogs can be discarded and replaced at will, no point wasting money on them. What do they know, anyway?

Now I'm only waiting for the cyberspace. With devices like Oculus that might be getting nearer. Direct brain link (as typically described for cyberspace) doesn't sound too compelling to me, however, even with very, although there are some very, very temping arguments for it.

See, cyberpunk predicted also black ICE, essentially a firewall around company network that could actually attack your brain (direct link, rememer). In literature those reacted only if you got too near, but in the internet of today of a bit too accessible as it is. I'd rather not have some random goon try to take over my wetware just because they just stumbled on my WIP by chance (wetware IP, I just made that term up), or if I tried to search for more information about some obscure yet restricted topic, thank you very much ...