• Ashelyn
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      1 month ago

      Science fiction usually carries with it a desire to rationalize and explain the technology it’s built upon, to try and paint a world plausible from a scientific standpoint. You see this a lot with the technobabble in Star Trek.

      Cyberpunk has a lot of overlap with science fiction, but usually dives more into the social commentary on society and capitalism, using the technology within as a vehicle to amplify those criticisms. Some cyberpunk works seek to explain their technology and make it seem grounded in the same way sci-fi does, but that is usually secondary to the social and political themes.

      • Donebrach@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Cyberpunk is not separate from Science Fiction. It is literally a genre of science fiction. citing the DEFINITION of it, available from a simple google search: 1. a genre of science fiction set in a lawless subculture of an oppressive society dominated by computer technology.

        • Ashelyn
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          1 month ago

          You’re being prescriptive and not descriptive with the definitions. Superficially it is the case, and people have created a neat little categorical hierarchy you can keep pointing back to, but I’m telling you that a lot of cyberpunk creative work is sci-fi in the same way that people say Star Wars is sci-fi (it’s a space opera, at least the movies are)

          • Donebrach@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            and I am telling you you are wrong because the genre of cyberpunk is literally science fiction. Stories, it turns out, can cross genres. That doesn’t change the definition of said genres.

            • Ashelyn
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              1 month ago

              Cyberpunk is considered a sub genre of sci-fi because a bunch of people got together and said that’s what it is. Doesn’t make it a 100% hard set rule. You just like putting things in boxes. A piece of creative work is what it contains, not whatever categories you shove it into.

              I accept that the intersubjective framework of literary genres exists, but have my disagreements with it. You can do that. It doesn’t make you wrong, just unpopular.