In The Future, Will I Be Me?

The self and it's extension in the Cyberpunk genre.

The western interpretation of the self believes in complete human autonomy, and independence, that the human self exists somewhere, and the ability to rationalize its own existence is proof of such. Rene Descartes famous Cogito Ergo Sum, served as the foundation for the individual self, however I feel that its within Immanuel Kant’s exploration of the epistemological self in which we find the true form of man (at least in western perception). The idea that not only is the self shaped by reflection and implicit thought, but that it is shaped by sensory experience, a priori of concepts that are imperative in shaping the psyche. However modern technology shapes the idea of the self differently. There are now multiple selves, a collection of ideas and personas that are all uniquely you, but have different experiences, and are presented to others as such. In imagining the future, it’s important to consider how the ‘self’ will be shaped by the technology that becomes a part of our body. I want to explore the implications on the metaphysical self that the technological enhancements that body modification provide in the Cyberpunk genre.

In Mike Pondsmiths famous tabletop roleplaying game Cyberpunk 2020, he imagines a future in which corporations have been offered a large tax cut to move to California. Governments are dissolved through small-scale nuclear and biological warfare and these same companies fill the power vacuum left in it’s wake. Eventually the middle class is completely eradicated, and corporations hire private militias to patrol the streets and wage turf warfare throughout the city. The setting is grim to say the least, but small slivers of hope are instilled in the player as they get to experience the narratives of the surrounding characters.

The sad truth is that for many of the characters, there is no other side. The all consuming nature of a city built on corporate greed and anonymity leaves most people dead chasing a dream that has been sold to them in bad faith. Night City is often described as “the perfect place to disappear”, not only in the literal sense, but in the metaphysical sense. In Night City, the individual does not matter, every character that tries to challenge this idea ends up dead. David Martinez, the protagonist of the Edgerunners series believes himself to be special, and strives to achieve a dream of not only escaping Night City, but helping Lucy to realise herself. However David never achieves this dream, the literal personification of corporate power kills him, and in the future, his legacy is a small blurb on his memorial, so far out of Night City that it is nearly impossible to come across without knowing where to go first. David was the embodiment of a true Cyberpunk, prioritising the needs of the individuals of his crew, and rebelling against a system where the definition of success, is being a nameless, faceless and selfless corpo suit.

This crushing of the self and the lack of the individual that is present in Night City is contradictory to the notions of the western self proposed by Kant and Descartes, and not by accident. Night City is designed to be a recognisable California with a much higher East-Asian influence, especially Japanese and Chinese. This can be seen in its architecture, district names, advertisements, food etc … This influence is integral to the Cyberpunk genre and aesthetic, and is likely a result of Japan being so far ahead in technological expertise and production, and being home to some of the largest tech conglomerates in the world. While this melding of east and west is likely a choice that is founded in technology, its also important to consider the implications this would have on the people of Night City, and their relationships to each other and their selves.

In general, the eastern interpretation of the self functions as an antithesis to the wests. Jibunrashii, is written in Japanese as 自分らしい, is the idea of “worthiness of the self” or “ones own self”. Breaking down the word reveals a larger portion of the Japanese idea of self. Jibun, 自分 can mean “myself” or “oneself” where the bun 分 can be translated to “part” or “share”. This etymology is informed by the idea that the Japanese self is a part of multiple wholes, that the understanding of their own identity is formed from their contribution to the spaces and communes that they are a part of. The self, stretched beyond the individual, and is not autonomous like the west, but rather subjugated by it’s own environment.

For example, Japanese psychiatrist Mieko Kamiya, devised the concept of Ikigai 生きがい “Ones authentic self”. Essentially, each person has their own Ikigai that functions as a reason for them to get up in the morning. Kamiya also proposed that the Ikigai was formed of your relationships to your friends and social circle, your family, and your workplace. This further compounds the notion that the self is composed in relation to the others in eastern philosophy, Kamiya going as far to say that one can experience a form of ego death called “the collapsing of the Ikigai” when a loved one or friend close to you dies. That removal of the other constitutes a loss of self under the philosophy of Jibunrashii.

This framework can be applied to Cyberpunk very easily, as there are multiple, very unsubtle metaphors about the self being comprised of the other. Take for example. V, the main character of Cyberpunk 2077. V, after inserting a relic chip from Arasaka tower, V ends up sharing her (female V is the only correct V) body with legendary mercenary and rockerboy Johnny Silverhand. V is told that she would die if the relic were to be removed, on a surface level reflecting the collapse of the Ikigai, but has much greater implications when you consider the various endings present in the game. It’s interesting to note that these endings are not at all affected by your chosen lifepath, the thing supposedly that shapes you as an individual, but are instead dictated by the characters you align yourself with the most heavily.

Naught but two of the endings can even be remotely considered positive for V, as is generally the case for Cyberpunks, a happy ending is never guaranteed. The ending “The path of least resistance” is probably the second most grim, in which V kills herself, and is met with the harrowed phone calls of all her former friends. Deciding to have this be a feature of every ending really illustrates the fact that V was indeed a culmination of her relationships, most of which were founded through work. “The Devil” and “The Star” are probably the best two, seeing V decline to merge her consciousness with Mikoshi and instead live out her remaining six months with Johnny, and either Takermura or Panam and the Aldecaldos. In doing such, V is granted a chance to stay with the people she is most important to, before dying a death that we have been told would be far beyond excruciating. In this ending, Johnny and V both die, essentially echoing the point I made earlier. The only other compounding evidence is that Alt Cunningham believes that the best choice for V, is assimilating herself into Mikoshi. The other two endings are not particularly salient, as one leads back into these two, and the other let’s Johnny take over V’s body, not adding anything particular to V’s sense of self.

However the ending present in Phantom Liberty completely changes how the self is valued in the world of cyberpunk by calling into question the place of cybernetic enhancements in the formation of identity. The ending “The Tower” is the only ending that I believe completely kills V in her entirety. Not just her body, but her self and her identity as well. In the ending, V is given the opportunity to undergo drastic surgery to remove the relic, and therefore Johnny, in their entirety. This surgery takes two years, and upon waking up, she finds out everyone in her life has moved on, started new relationships, moved out of night city or died. Everyone except Misty, the girlfriend of V’s (now deceased) best friend Jackie Wells. Misty invited V over, and they chat for a bit before V leaves, only to be mugged in the alleyway.

At the point you would reach the ending, V is a walking arsenal, a one woman army, and her reputation reflects that. However this confrontation seals the deal that not only has V lost her friends, she has also lost herself, illustrating how much of V’s identity was rooted in being a Cyberpunk, and also in Johnny. Even Solomon Reed, the man that gave V the cure, pushes her to remove herself from Night City, but it’s clear she cant. When V is mugged in the alley, it’s clear the people mugging her are low level thugs, something that V could dispatch of easily in her prime, but with no cyberware, she has basically no means of fighting them off. V’s reputation as a merc is further diminished if you chose the Streetkid lifepath, as it gives you the option to mention Padre Ibaras. V name drops him, in hopes to dissuade the perps but to no avail, as Padre has lost Heywood, and disappeared. Padre in a sense acts as a foil to V, both of whom are mercs who had pride in their hometown of Heywood, and were once powers not to be toyed with, but are now, washed up.

The final shot of the ending is particularly powerful. It depicts V, with no friends, no family, no reputation, no hometown, and most importantly, no cyberware, as she fades into the crowd. V, in this ending, achieves a full loss of self, and becomes completely anonymous, and the focal point of this is her inability to use cyberware. Cyberware is the lifeblood of Night City, and without it V is defenceless against the crime ridden city, but more importantly, cyberware is uniquely tied to the experiences of the merc who wears them.

This is apparent in two different ways, in the literal and metaphorical sense. A mercs cyberware let’s them complete more dangerous jobs and compete is larger amounts of Night City. If we are to take the philosophy of Jibunrashii literally, the more parts of Night City available to you, the more developed your self. Since cyberware is a direct reflection of these experiences and spaces, it makes sense that they would be contributing to the self. In the literal sense, cyberware replaces physical parts of your body, allowing them to function better than ever. When V loses her access to cyberware, it essentially regresses her to a previous state.

To fully explore the idea of regression, I find it pertinent to use the concept of Tabula Rasa, specifically Ibn Sina’s interpretation of the phrase. Sina proposed that a human being at birth is that of a blank tablet, and is developed and shaped through familiar interaction with objects in the world. That interaction is then used to draw upon greater abstract thoughts about the universe and the self. V is reverted to a child-like state upon removal of her cyberware, a prime Tabula Rasa. However due to the surgery she does not have any more room to grow, loosing that ability to interact in a familiar way with the objects around her, that being cyberware. This in essence stops her growth, leaving her without the chance for ideas of abstraction, the Cyberpunk equivalent being that of “becoming a legend”, something shown to be V’s dream throughout the game.

This, along with the loss of her friends and family can essentially be seen as the death of V, leading to an ending where V dies completely. In some endings, V still remains with her friends and cyberware, the fundamental parts that make up herself, so while her physical body may die, her self and her legacy would remain. In others, she is absorbed into Mikoshi, achieving a greater purpose and becoming part of a greater whole, relinquishing her identity and her physical body, but still attaching to the idea of “self”. However it is in this ending, where V relinquishes her lifeblood, her cyberware, that she looses her self completely, symbolised by her anonymous face at the end, lost in the crowd of Night City.

"There are no happy endings in Night City, you either die in a blaze or glory or fade away."