Works within the cyberpunk genre integrate corporations in their plots to criticize the concentration of wealth in their dystopian societies. Cyberpunk works such as Blade Runner, Neuromancer, and Machinehood describe how corporations with unchecked power can determine the fate of society. The power that these corporations have over the people as it is depicted in these works is terrifying and leads us to consider if our world is heading in this direction. Pondering on this idea, I hypothesize that our world will head in this direction and is a very possible future for us.
In Blade Runner, the Tyrell Corporation had a strong grip on society with the implementation of its replicants technology which were similar to humans but instead had a limited life span. Its control over the replicants went way beyond the control of a piece of technology; it turned into controlling life vs. death since they determined when the replicants had to die. Similarly, Neuromancer depicted the Tessier-Ashpool family which acted as royalty over the technological advancements in their society. Their control over AI affected the ideas of humanity and autonomy. These same ideas were also seen in Machinehood in which the pill funders exerted control over society by making people dependent on pills to survive. All three of these works are excellent examples of what society is like when corporations take over not just the items commonly used in society but also the fundamental rights that make humans human.
Beyond the fictional works examined in this course, these beginnings of these same ideas can be seen in our society today. The major tech companies today like Meta, Amazon, and Apple have major influences on our society. For example, Meta is able to collect personal data from its users and use this data to display advertisements that appeal to the users. This can be scary since we have no idea the full scope of what they do with our data.
Although these examples are scary and concerning in regards to the future of our society, I believe our society is pretty far from this being our reality. Our current governments have some control over these corporations, even though the corporations in some cases work in conjunction with the government. However, as corporations continue to become more and more powerful, this concern may become our reality because the issues of the corporations who have the concentrated power will be made the issues of society. This means that the issues of the general public will be disregarded for the wishes of the people in power.
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