The High Tech Low Life Podcast: A Cyberpunk Media Retrospective

Imagine a movie where a tanned and muscled man with a European accent and a robotic personality has to protect a young woman from an unstoppable killing machine from another time.  They travel across the American Southwest and engage in a series of gun fights and brawls, killing cops and civilians along the way.  No, it isn't that movie... it's Universal Soldier!  We talk about it.  For a long tim...

For our big tenth episode, we are watching an absolutely key piece of cyberpunk media: Ghost In The Shell.   Cyborg smoke show Major Kusanagi Motoko struggles with her humanity after witnessing a man's life be erased before his eyes.  Thankfully, the architect of that erasure is there to guide her down a new path that's not quite human, but not quite machine either. We are excited to be joined thi...

This week we continue our discussion on the second half of William Gibson's Count Zero.  Introductions of the main characters have been made, now it's time to dive deep into the sprawl, learn it's secrets, and hear our thoughts on how it all shakes out.  Obvious spoiler alert. The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fiction across all forms of media. Film, Television, Litera...

Count Zero is the second book in William Gibson's sprawl trilogy, and it is our second attempt to cover a book on this podcast.  Turns out, it takes a little longer than a 2 hour movie, so we split this one in half.  This week, after some current events talk, we Introduce you to Turner, Marly, and the titular Count Zero, and recap their adventures in the first half of the novel. The High Tech Low...

A Disney classic on High Tech Low Life? In the near... past?  A video arcade owner hacks into the mainframe of his ex-employer, looking for the paydata that proves he is the rightful creator of the world's most popular video game.  Unfortunately the artificial intelligence running security for the mega corp has other ideas, and transports our hero into the machine, where he discovers a world of pr...

In the near future, a technophobe and his wife find themselves the victims of a brutal attack that leaves him paralyzed, and his wife dead.  Soon, however, he is able to seek revenge after the gift of an incredible spinal implant that seems to have a mind of its own.  In this episode we break down the film Upgrade, and give our opinions on the choices, and lack of choices, made by the filmmaker. T...

The thrilling conclusion of our dive into the 80's dystopia that was Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future has your hosts cramming two seasons of bonkers-insane television into 5 days, then attempting to record their thoughts amidst the worst technical difficulties of their 7 year podcasting careers.  Don't worry though, we powered through and delivered on a subject that we both went into fairl...

This week we watch Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into The Future, originally airing on the UK's Channel 4.  Hotshot reporter Edison Carter is pursuing a story that could get his own bosses in trouble.  However, an accident while on location renders him temporarily comatose, which gives the 14 year old mad scientist at his network a chance to upload his consciousness to a computer, and Max Headroom is b...

This week we dive into the 1995's version of 1999 in the movie Strange Days directed by Kathryn Bigelow.  The movie follows an ex-cop turned memory-dealer, Lenny, who is sucked into a murder cover-up when a friend gives him the recording of a high-profile black musician being executed by a cop. Lenny attempts to get to the bottom of the situation while dealing with his own demons, all while the ci...

The second half of our deep dive into the world of Neuromancer talks about the origins of the author, how the book would go on to influence science fiction, and how the dystopia of Gibson's sprawl compares to our modern dystopia.  We also give the book a rating as if we have any authority to do so.  The audacity. The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fiction across all for...

In this inaugural episode of High Tech Low Life, we begin with one of the most seminal works of cyberpunk fiction: Neuromancer.  In Part 1 we introduce ourselves before recapping the plot and characters of the book. The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fiction across all forms of media.  Film, Television, Literature, Games, and Music are all on the table.  In each episode...