Retro Cyberpunk

A cigarette...?  That's so last century...
Where's you're vape rig, man?

Out of all the subgenres that compose science fiction, the one that is most clairvoyant when it comes to predicting the future has to be cyberpunk.  Granted, we don't have flying cars or computer jacks going directly into our brains, but we're surprisingly close.  How many drones have you seen in the last couple years?  How many people do you see everyday completely absorbed by their smartphones?  They're not actually in cyberspace but considering how oblivious they can be to what's going on around them, they might as well be.  Cyberpunk isn't always on-point though..."where are all the wireless devices?" is a question lots of younger people might ask after reading William Gibson's "Neuromancer" or watching the original "Bladerunner."

So, what are societies going to look like a few decades from now?  As much as I like SOMA, I highly doubt we're going to be uploading our minds into computers anytime soon.  Neurology just isn't anywhere near mapping, let alone recreating, the fiendishly complex wiring that comprises a human brain.  Nanorobotics are another area that I doubt we'll be seeming much in the way of advancement.  Sci-fi writers love to use armies of these little guys as a universal solution or, on the flipside, the instigators of a grey-goo apocalypse.  Both scenarios are rather nonsensical considering the way physics work on a quantum level...not to mention there are a variety of organic examples of nanomachine-like life that should multiply exponentially, but can't because of a variety of limiting factors.

So, if we're not going to transcend and we're not going to go extinct, what happens to humanity?  Good question...I don't really have an answer except to say, humans have faced (and will face) a vast array of challenges both internal and external.  How effectively these challenges are overcome dictates our future as a species.  The important takeaway is these challenges aren't necessarily the same from one generation to the next.  When you make a movie entitled "Bladerunner 2049" or a game called Cyberpunk 2077, it's not about our future as of now, but rather the future we thought we would get back in the 1980s.  Is it regressive or nostalgic?  Yes...Yes, it is.