Post-Cyberpunk picks up where
Cyberpunk left off. Whereas cyberpunk is/was a
Darker and Edgier riposte to older
Science Fiction, intended to portray what might happen if we don't
all destroy ourselves, Post-Cyberpunk is intended to present a more optimistic and more realistic vision. Where Cyberpunk is anti-corporate and anti-government, Post-Cyberpunk is willing to give both parties redeeming features. Where Cyberpunk portrays the future as a
Crapsack World, Post-Cyberpunk posits society will probably be about the same, just with cooler gadgets. Where Cyberpunk is futuristic, forward thinking and on the cutting edge... so is Post-Cyberpunk. Post-Cyberpunk is the
reaction to the
Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy of Cyberpunk. Of course, Postcyberpunk involves
reconstruction of concepts Cyberpunk deconstructed, or deconstruction of
Cyberpunk Tropes (such as
the Dystopia). The Cyberpunk genre itself was meant as a reaction to utopian fiction popular in the
1940s and
1950s while exploring technology's possibility for abuse
Twenty Minutes into the Future (tech from
Star Trek will just result in
Brave New World), but as the genre itself got so
Darker and Edgier to the point of being just as
unrealistic, it was predictable that Cyberpunk itself would get a deconstruction.
