SInce the timing of this post coincides with the release of Arcane Season 2, I thought it would be appropriate to show the dichotomy of Zaun and Piltover. Although set in a steampunk era, the themes and ideas of Arcane can resonate with every audience and it can especially be tied with Cyberpunk. As a brief summary, the picture on top in the underground city of Zaun. Zaun has a funky green haze to its atmosphere due to all the toxic chemicals the above Piltover wastes. The people of Zaun are dying if chemical poisoning, shimmer (a drug) addiction, starvation, poverty, and gang violence. Piltover on the other hand it a white and gold empire that prides itself on its innovation as the nation of progress. Piltover has the best innovations in science, health, and weaponry while also lookinf down on Zaun for its “animal-like” behaviors. The two cities have never seen eye to eye and the innocent are always the ones who bear the cost of war.
The reason why I brought up Arcane is the first place is that its technology and ground-breaking ideas come from hard working and innocent scientists at the start of the story. The science studies are kept under strict rules to keep the people safe, but during times of high stress the counsel of authority can overturn these rules. Arcane proves that progress itself is not evil. There will always be powerful figures and leaders who want to abuse such powers and progress, but can only do so when the is public distress.
If we take a look at Neuromancer, we see that edgerunners and civilians all live in the slums of the city similar to the conditions in Zaun. The elite and the rich, on the other hand, are able to live in comfort and with good health/ safety in both Piltover and the Towers. I think that corporate greed and political greed in both Arcane and Neuromancer are very similar as they both choose to exploit the working minds of genius scientists for the sake of progress. I do not think that corporations have the best interest at heart since many large businesses only care about money and not their consumers. It seems very cynical to say, but I think that many corporations willingly put out low quality goods into the market because they know that they can get away with it. It’s a world where everyone wants the newest model of any item they can get their hands on, so companies no they can skimp on quality.
The example I choose to focus on is the Tesla Cybertruck, which just a few weeks ago had its first recorded accident with another vehicle. The driver in the regular vehicle had no fatal injuries, but his car was severely squishes from the head on collision. The cyber truck, on the other hand, was not deformed in the slightest; but the driver had severe internal damages. I wanted to talk about this case because cars were made to be compressed on collision in order to decrease the energy that the driver will receive. In other words, cars are meant to die to save our lives. I find it interesting how the Cybertruck is built in order to withstand damages at the cost of its owner’s safety. But maybe I am reading too much into things. I also wanted to pick this topic since it would be much quicker than if I made my discussion about Big Pharma.
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