In all the years I've been playing Cyberpunk there have always been a few things that I couldn't understand. The game's attitude towards home computers and their uses is one of them.
If you look at life in 1999 you see that computers are everywhere. They allowed you to reach this site and view the information stored there. You probably played a game or wrote a letter or did your taxes with it. If you're anything like me you probably have a multi-media archive of sorts set up on it, pictures and sound files. The computer may not be the center of your life but it may sometimes seems that way. Email and programs like ICQ make communications so much easier, they connect the world in ways no one could have forseen even a few years ago. The world does indeed seem like a smaller place these days. So far on the Net there are no long distance charges so we can go anywhere at anytime to be with anyone. How much more so is this going to be 21 years from now?
This section is but the first of a series of articles that will be my attempt to explain what I think, and hope home computer use in 2020 might be like. Its going to be an odd set of articles because I'm not sure how many players actually care about what software is on their character's computer. But if it adds to the atmosphere of CP2020 its worthwhile. As before everything that follows is my opinion and as such is not ment to be blindly followed.
In the modern era of information and automation the concept of a personal computer becomes a great deal more important. A trend that is already starting to accelerate in 1999. In order to control, coordinate and manage your life the computer has to expand its role while maintaining simplicity of use. The easiest way to do this is to enlist consumer pressure to make manufacturers design efficient and controllable appliances. Ones your computer can control easily. In the modern era a vast store of information is made available to the common user, libraries and archives are common across the net, personal user sites provide a vast array of options. Commercial products and many of the more common activities of life are available online via your handy cyberdeck peripheral. TV and radio are sent as digital media with a large selection of embedded features. Nearly everything is available in digital media, from books to music to video tapes. The computer was designed to deal with such a digital glut.
As a result in the home of 2020 the computer will be the center of your home, the heart and brains that make life managable.
If you look at computers today you probably find that they are generally bought for one of three reasons. Business, education and games. Entertainment is increasingly becoming a major requirement of home computer systems. 2020 with its much more jaded population is no exception. The computer is capable of acting as the heart of any owner's home entertainment set up.
1. TV: Starting near the end of the 20th century most television product was converted to HDTV format with a digital based carrier. The amount of data that could be transfered was staggering, much higher than the needs of simple TV. So why not fill the excess with information similar to that of the net. By embedding information in a backup channel the TV show could provide users with a much more informative version at their request. The potential seemed unlimited though at first only News and Documentary channels made real use of it. But once all original video material was stored on archive the ability to sort and organize vast amounts of digital data became important. Viewers can now gain access to any TV show or movie produced in the last 40 years or so. In real time at their own discression.
2. Radio: Almost all broadcasts in 2020 are digital media, and as such they are capable of transmitting more than the user normally uses. Secondary channels on news broadcasts or sports might allow text or limited visual data to be sent, altough in 2020 the idea of limiting your self to one media seems a bit pointless when advanced VR peripherals make superb home entrainment an easily acquire item.
3. Components: In today's world buying a top of the line entertainment system might involve buying a large screen TV, a full digital AC-3 surround sound system, a DVD player and the other assorted components needed to use such equipment. To make it truely impressive then you need to custom design a suitable environment. This requires room, money and means that a punk in 2020 can't run as fast cause he has a few hundred pounds of obvious high tech entertainment gear. So why bother?
By buying a computer, pretty much manditiory in the digital age anyway, and a good VR peripheral such as an off the shelf cyberdeck you can buy a few simple pieces of software and bang you have the ability to simulate the best listening and viewing environments. Cheap, easy, and light.
4. Pirate Broadcasts and Home Production: With a sufficently powerful computer in 2020 it is possible for nearly anyone to produce and market their own entertainment product. Although highly frowned upon by the large Media Corps, pirate broadcasting and home production units are very very common in 2020. They can use unclaimed channels, override existing product, alter existing product or use alternative means of broadcast such as old UHF and VHF frequencies. Many people market their product, some use the home production method to sell their ideas to the Media Corps.
In 2020 it is possible to produce shows entirely without living actors, VR simulants and AI personality models can play nearly any role, and of course there are the vast lines of purchasable "Legends", anyone and anything can show up in today's bargain basement indie production. There are entire clubs devoted to the work of such rebel producers, in much the same way that mix artists came to dominate much of the dance music circuit. As a result of this VR production system sets and special effects have become entirely digital. The finished product can fall into many formats, it can be a full VR experience in three dimensions along with sensory effects, it can be interactive, or 2-D, the actors can seem real or cartoonish. The possibilities are endless.
In theory I'll be adding to this page over time. Reformatted on December 16th, 2000