Cyberpunk Is Already Here. And Its Boring.

Cyberpunk has been leaking slowly into reality since almost 30 years. And humans have been Cyberpunk for almost 2 decades now, just not the way its shown in movies or books.

First was the internet / computer combo and the first wave of "cyberworld natives". Then came the smartphone. It was the true transition point where humans are now "addicted" to phones. I think its not merely addiction, its evolution. A human with an internet connected phone is fundamentally a different (for both better and worse) species than one without it.

In the beginning, the interface between a human and computer was whatever was easier for the computer. Think about command line, batch processed computers, punch cards, mainframes etc. The human had to adapt to learn the ways of the computer.

But, as time progressed, the computer has moved towards the interface which is more convenient humans. Its a phone in your pocket, a watch on your wrist, a pair of glasses on your face, a ring on your finger, a monitor on your arm.

A computer is now a virtual being which talks in a human language. A computer now hallucinates and is fundamentally unpredictable.

Soon, all of it will be a device in or on your head, directly wired into your brain.

All of it is already "boring" in the sense that there is no wonder that these things exist. If you took yourself from 2022 and show the current AI tooling being used across the world as of 2024, you would not believe it.

Yet, here we are. As Louis CK said - "Everything is amazing and nobody is happy".

The line between humans and computers is blurring as of 2024. And it will blur further. And this trend is not going to stop.

We as a species haven't batted an eye and only have hastened this trend. Sure, there is Terminator and The Matrix in popular culture that serve as cautionary tales. But nobody thinks we are remotely close to this reality.

For what its worth, I do not believe that digital beings will completely wipe out humanity as soon as we hit the point of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). We will see AGI coming, especially the ones working at the forefront of this technology. AGI is not just in software, but also equal acceleration in hardware.

And since we can see it coming, for me, the future of this trend ends only in one place. The merging of computers and humans. There will come a point at which we will not be able to discern where the human begins and the computer ends. We will finally evolve beyond Homo Sapiens.

Thanks to Paulami Sen, Mansi Gandhi and Neehar Cherabuddi for reading drafts and giving feedback.