Today marks the 4th birthday of the Fediverse instance I call my home, https://corteximplant.com (Happy Birthday, CI!!!) and with it came some very minor changes that caused some level of consternation with a few of the fedizens that I wanted to address from my own personal perspective as a community member (and not as a moderator). I want to clear the air, provide additional context as I understand it, and hopefully put all my cyberpunk chooms and chummers at ease in an unofficial capacity as a CortexImplant resident and not as a representative of the CI admin or mod teams. This is just me talking here, people — not on behalf of some collective entity.
[takes off moderator hat]
Corteximplant was, is, and ever shall be a “cyberpunk(ish)” instance in the Fediverse. CI is not making “cyberpunk” a dirty word or distancing ourselves from celebrating and participating in all things cyberpunk. If you’re a cyberpunk, or you’re looking for other like-minded individuals, you will still find a good concentration of same on CI, same as it ever was. We celebrate the ethos of cyberpunk, moreso than the aesthetics (although we sure do like the aesthetics too). Like many of my community neighbors, it’s the reason we requested entry in the first place.
Over time, the mainstream cultural definition of what “cyberpunk” means has changed. To that end, all the moderators wanted to do was distance our public face from one specific definition of what “cyberpunk” is that also happens to be based on a corporately registered property and has (perhaps unintentionally) largely changed the public perception of what “cyberpunk” is and is about (and not in a good way). Cyberpunk 2077 has, unfortunately, opened the floodgates for entitlement and misappropriation of what the culture is really about and sadly opened the door to a lot of gatekeeping and other toxic behavior that is diametrically opposed to the basic ethos of cyberpunk itself. The “punk” part has been neutered and turned into product for profit, and that’s never good for anybody except the profiteers.
While I personally still love Cyberpunk 2077 (warts and all), this particular video game is probably the main personal motivating reason that I wrote here a few days ago that I think “Cyberpunk” Is Dead (or at least the popular usage of the term that the mainstream culture has appropriated and re-defined). I recognize that those may be some strong opinions that don’t resonate with everybody, and they are (most notably) my own opinions and not those of Cortex Implant, but it also seems that a fair number of people do resonate with them to one degree or another. However, they are solely my opinions and mine alone, which is why I wrote them here instead of there because they only really effect how I carry my own self online.
SO — all that to say this: the point of the (very minor) changes that accompanied CI’s 4th birthday wasn’t to divest ourselves or our community from all things cyberpunk or the ethos and tenets of same but rather to change our public persona just a little bit and distance ourselves from one very specific interpretation of the cyberpunk culture that has become problematic for a variety of reasons. We want to celebrate our own community’s expression of what cyberpunk is to us rather than what the current mainstream, watered-down (and dare I say appropriated and monetized) definition is in the minds of the general public.
That’s why the @lucy admin account was replaced with @ivy, a cyberpunk character that Revengeday created and perfected during a community holocall on our Discord channel. That’s why we’ve removed the “cyberpunk(ish)” term from our instance About page and instead opted to call ourselves a “cyber community” of which “real” cyberpunks are a crucial and welcome part. That’s why we have our John Cyberdon gifs and emojis as our instance mascot — a character created by a community member artist melding a Fediverse meme with our cyberpunk aesthetics and proclivities, our own spin on cyberpunk culture.
We’re not abandoning cyberpunk, folks. What we’re attempting to do is jettison the misguided perception that we define ourselves based on a corporatized, co-opted, toothless, and monetized version of that culture that prioritizes the aesthetics over the ethos and actions. What could be more cyberpunk than that, choomba?
Look, if you’re a fan of Cyberpunk 2077 or the Cyberpunk properties in general, that’s awesome — me too! A lot of the CI fedizens are also, and that’s 100% okay! I love the game, the music, the characters (Team Judy 4 EVA!!!), AND the aesthetics. Nobody’s saying you can’t be a fan, or use the iconography or slang from the game, or have debates on whether Johnny Silverhand was right or wrong. If you consider yourself a cyberpunk, let your punk flag fly! Post those techwear sites or dreams of which cyberware you’d have if that were a thing. Like to break systems that break people? Come join us! Just trying to survive daily life in the ongoing tech dystopia in this “high tech, low life” world? We’ve got a community for you!
We’re just trying to say that CI isn’t only a fan instance for one narrowly-defined vision of what “cyberpunk” is or isn’t from some corpo registered property; CI is a place for people who see themselves as hackers, cyberpunks, makers, builders, artists, philosophers, techies, and even a fair amount of people that don’t consider themselves to fall into any of those subculture definitions but just like using tech in general. That’s because cyberpunk, just like the original incarnation of what was called “punk” from which cyberpunk draws a large part of its primary ethos, is a lot more inclusive and non-specific than a lot of people now seem to think it is. That’s an important thing to call out, I think.
All that being said, if your expression of “cyberpunk” stops at how you dress or decorate your space, then maybe CI is not the right instance for you. If you think what passes for “AI” today is a good thing and you use it enthusiastically and without qualms to “create” or “vibe with”, or don’t have the self-awareness to know that this isn’t a good thing, perhaps you should give CI a miss. And for the love of [insert deity here], if your entire view of “cyberpunk” is based on one single source and you fail to realize that cyberpunk is the very definition of “woke” and “inclusive” such that you feel entitled to gatekeep who can and can’t be a “real” cyberpunk, and you also can’t see the inherent warnings for the holographic trees, then please do us ALL a favor and pass on by CortexImplant. We ain’t got time for that.
Cyberpunk on CI is alive and well, same as it ever was, but that’s not the only thing that CI is about: we’re about a cyber community first and foremost that also welcomes and celebrates cyberpunks, hackers, LGBTQIA+ people, freaks, geeks, nerds, dweebs, chooms, chummers, netizens, retros, mods, punks, artists, readers, writers, old-school, new-school, edgerunners, deckers, riggers, cyclists, solarpunks, media pirates, homebrewers, self-hosters, and everything in between. Above all, however, participation and engagement are most prized because that’s how communities flourish and grow. I want to hear about whatever you’re into! You might inspire someone else to get into something new or get better at something they’re already doing, or they might inspire you — that’s the beautiful thing about community.
That’s why I’ve stayed on CI all these years and why I’m proud to consider it my home instance for the 4th year running.
