this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
301 points (100.0% liked)

Cyberpunk

11 readers
2 users here now

"High tech, low life."

"The street finds its own uses for things."

We all know the quotes and the books. But cyberpunk is more than a neon-soaked, cybernetic aesthetic, or a gritty dystopian science fiction genre. It is a subculture composed of two fundamental ideas: PUNK, and CYBER.

The PUNK: antiauthoritarian, anticapitalist, radical freedom of expression, rejection of tradition, a DIY ethic.

The CYBER: all that, but high-fuckin'-tech, ya feel? From DIYing body mods to using bleeding edge software to subvert corporate interests. It's punk for the 22nd century.

This is a community dedicated to discussing anything cyberpunk, be it books, movies, or other art that falls into the genre, or real life tech, projects, stories, ideas or anything else that adheres to these ideals. It's a place for 'punks from all over the federated Net to hang out and swap stories and meaningful content (not just pictures of city nightscapes).

Welcome in, choom.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

This is the smartwatch I own. True netrunners know that the tech we wear on (or under) our skin is a prime entry vector for ever hungry megacorps to bleed the pulsing data from our digital veins, so having a wearable I have full control over is of paramount importance. I can flash it with new firmware whenever I want, the multiple open source options available are all an open book to any hacker worth their cyberlinguistic salt, and I can know for a fact that it won't phone home with my location or other data to any corporation behind the scenes. If we are all going to be cyborgs integrating technology onto and eventually into our bodies, better to control that tech ourselves!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] CyberBear@dataterm.digital 50 points 1 year ago (18 children)

I'd be down for something that was more designed around all the fun bio data smart watches can collect. I'd even be down for a slightly invasive implant that would collect data about my health so I can better keep track of it all. Apple seems the most interested in the health stuff from what I've seen and I have no interest in the apple ecosystem. Open source health stuff seems like an opportunity to latch on to before the corpos make the stuff and sell the data.

[–] Widget@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Yeah the Apple Watch was kinda the final straw that got me to switch over from Android. The amount of effort required to root a phone hard enough to where apps couldn't stalk me wasn't helping.

Apple's made privacy a fairly large part of their value offering recently. The main issue remains integrating with other local services.

[–] edgerunneralexis@dataterm.digital 13 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Apple's made privacy a fairly large part of their value offering recently.

The problem is that that's mostly marketing smoke and mirrors. They define privacy as not giving your data to third parties (who aren't subcontracted with them), not actually refusing to collect in-depth data or link it to your personal identity. There have been a number of pieces of evidence released recently that show that they actually collect as much if not more data about you then Google does, and tend to ignore your privacy settings.

The amount of effort required to root a phone hard enough to where apps couldn't stalk me wasn't helping.

Depending on your phone, you could use GrapheneOS (which is super easy to set up compared to rooting and basically the best security and privacy you can get in any smartphone) or CalyxOS. Both easier (and more effective) than rooting, and certainly better than Apple.

[–] lezgineer@dataterm.digital 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How is graphene day to day? Is it basically just android sans google or are there major compromises?

[–] dorkian-gray@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Graphene user here. I rooted my devices and flashed cousin ROMs for years, but stopped because I got tired of the compromises. A couple of months ago I took the plunge while upgrading and got a pixel 7a (so it's got the longest support) to put Graphene on. I have found it to be, basically, Android. Googless at first, but you can add Goog to taste. Play Services runs sandboxed, if you want to run it.

Most apps work just fine, but in my setup Google Wallet does not. I can't remember exactly why but I think it's related to Play Services. Banking and "pay me" apps like Venmo seen to work fine though!

[–] edgerunneralexis@dataterm.digital 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's basically just Android sans (or with sandboxed) Google, I really don't miss anything. It's honestly a pleasure to live with.

[–] lezgineer@dataterm.digital 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well now you make me want to switch, but I still have a perfectly good iphone and replacing it just seems wasteful. sigh, maybe in a few years.

Haha, that's the same position my gf is in, yeah.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (13 replies)