AUGUST 20, 2023

This is the day (in Cyberpunk lore) that the Arasaka Tower was bombed by Johnny Silverhand, Morgan Blackhand and their motley crew of mercenaries.

I bought Cyberpunk 2077 three years ago and it still influences much of the culture around what I do.  My son has successfully gotten his own residence and I am very proud of him - we celebrated this year by all going to the Bahamas together.  It was grand and something I hope they cherish and appreciate.  My son looks like Keanu in the role of Johnny Silverhand - enough we joked around with a Comicon outfit that was just my son, sunglasses, and a shiny cover over his arm.

It is also my birthday for what that is worth.  I was celebrated warmly by the people dearest to me and loved being who I am for a day.  It is what birthdays are all about.

I live in the present that sounds like the Cyberpunk future I've been reading about since the 80s. My doctor offered me my first piece of "cyberware", a continuous glucose monitor that sends bluetooth data to my cellular device.  It is covered by the insurance that the giant megacorporation I work for provides.  I work in their IT department in a logistics center with hundreds of robots going all the time, 24/7 sending packages all the way to doorsteps.  My house has voice controlled cameras.  My house has a vacuuming robot.  My medical equipment has a built in cellular connection that uploads my medical data to some server in the cloud.  The same megacorporation that sells batteries and toilet paper also sells AI programs and Compute services "in the cloud" to help companies make sense of their data.  My VR headset is now a not only a common item, but a few generations behind what is out there.

California is being hit with an earthquake and a hurricane at the same time.  My city is under a week of heat safety warnings.  The Navy is helping rescued American in Hawaii.  Ukraine is bragging about a military drone strike.  A cryptocurrency exchange executive was found dismembered in a barrel.  The weather, crime and politics are all unrecognizable from a few decades ago. 

It isn't all dystopia of course.  The labor market is VERY strong.  Life expectancies will (hopefully) be up in 2023 after 3 years of declines.  Supply chain issues that exploded during The Pandemic have been mostly resolved.  Yet again we are in a world where a few buttons on your phone can book a trip to most any destination you can legally travel to.

I  am blessed to live in this world at the time that I do.  My mother - bless her heart - thinks these are the end times.   I don't share her convictions but I can imagine us surrendering Florida to the sea, gators and giant mosquitos.