Negative Space: cyberpunk
- Automobile or Bus
- Over six million people; four entrances. What was that saying about Eden and four gates? If you ever need to leave in a hurry, you might try swimming.
- Aztechnology
- Quite a bit of Aztechnology is tested ”here”. And by “here”, they mean “throughout the frontier and everywhere else we can bribe the local security.”
- Aztlan
- The buffer zone? This whole area is a buffer zone, not to mention a staging ground for exporting violence to the gringos of the North.
- Balboa Park
- Balboa Park looks like a South American banana republic… and the security patrols help maintain the illusion.
- Blackout
- A murder mystery and thriller, but the deceased is television, the suspects big business and Middle-Eastern revolutionaries, and the detective a master foley artist.
- Boat
- One of the most surprising aspects of Aztlan’s naked greed is the lack of any mechanism for taking inspection bribes in the busy San Diego port. Why does no one—not even Aztlan—trust people leaving the San Diego Free Trade Zone? Because there are no inspections of vessels coming into the port.
- Chula Vista and National City
- The rest of San Diego calls this the “jungle”. Nothing racist there, right?
- The City
- Anyone who wants to spend money is welcome to come to downtown. Anybody who wants to leave with money, well… you know the song. You can check out any time you like.
- Collegium for Research in Interactive Technologies
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The Internet and computers provide—require—a new way of looking at documents and at the world. Cooperative Computing in the 1990s and Computers, Telecommunications, and Western Culture. From the World Conference on Computers in Education, Birmingham, England, 1995.
- Coronado
- Call it Corp-onado now. Take out Coronado and you’ve taken out the R&D for three very large tech presences.
- Crime and Punishment in the FTZ
- When the guidebook says that those who don’t “fit in” will be made to feel “uncomfortable” by the local chamber of commerce, law enforcement, and organized crime, they usually mean the discomfort of finding inventory stolen, family members dead, and storefronts turned into barbecues.
- Cultural Histories of the Internet
- Influences on the future and the history of cyberspace.
- Dark City
- Kind of a cross between “The Matrix” and “The Truman Show” (but coming out before each of them, in early 1998). There is also a Giger-esque feel to the entire thing, especially apparent in the “Set Design” drawings included on the DVD. One of the executive producers--Andrew Mason--was also a producer on “The Matrix”. How much that influences things, I don’t know. After all, it also has a Detroit Rock City connection. Both producers Brian Written and Michael DeLuca were producers on the KISS fest. Still, Mason also did special effects for both films, which is likely to have more influence.
- Del Mar
- The center of the “Beach Communities” of the north, Del Mar acts like Leucadia’s responsible older brother and La Jolla’s downscale mistress.
- El Cajon and Santee
- Don’t make waves. This is a world of independent locals who will work together for only one reason: to beat the shit out of you when you cause trouble in their town.
- The Frontier
- Most of entertainment San Diego lives in La Jolla and the beaches, or in the malls and middle-class zones. Most of real San Diego lives in the no man’s land of the frontier.
- The Futurological Congress
- Stanislaw Lem is a brilliant author, and “The Futurological Congress” is perhaps his most prophetic work.
- Getting Around the FTZ
- There are four major surface routes into the FTZ. It has one of the most poorly designed airports in the entire world. Its transit system is frustratingly inaccurate. Free trade doesn’t have to include letting people easily move about.
- The Heretic
- A fast-moving cyberpunk tale that is about as realistic as it can be and still be called “cyberpunk”.
- Hunsakker
- Hunsakker holds several patents. Too bad no one pays attention to patents any more.
- Imperial Beach
- To the rest of the world, Imperial Beach is the cool, counter-cultural bohemian heart of San Diego. To the rest of the Frontier, they’re a bunch of Uncle Toms still living by the sufferance of Good San Diego.
- La Jolla
- Very little organized crime here, because this is where organized crime lives. La Jolla exports a good portion of the violence in not just the Free Trade Zone but all the way up into Southern California and the West.
- Lemon Grove and La Mesa
- Spirits of the city don’t kill people. Shamans of the spirits of the city kill people.
- Linda Vista, Clairemont, and University City
- “Unlikely to risk a direct confrontation” but not unwilling to incite one with someone else. The middle-class zones are protected as much by the yakuza and seolpa as by the San Diego Police Department.
- The Matrix
- Wow! People are already talking about this movie as the new Star Wars, and they may not be wrong; the future will decide. It has all the right elements: action, story, mythical heroes, perhaps an overemphasis on the messiah bit, but otherwise a kick-ass movie.
- Mission Bay
- Thousands of acres of beautiful parks and beaches… too bad you can’t swim in the water.
- MUSHing the Electronic Frontier
- What is the state of virtual reality on the text-based net?
- Pi
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If you were God, and you wanted to leave a message for your creation, where would you leave it? This was a very odd movie reminiscent of David Lynch. About a man who is searching for the formula, or number, that underlies all reality, including the stock market. We could certainly use that one today…
- Point Loma and Ocean Beach
- Not to say that the area lacks charm, but that charm costs money and won’t last the warranty.
- Politics in the FTZ
- San Diego is beautiful. Too bad you can’t swim in the water.
- Rail Transit
- Bullet trains, trains, and trolleys all operate on one principle: the best passenger is a docile passenger, and any trouble is met with indiscriminate armed force. As a deterrent, it works well—unless you happen to be in the car when trouble occurs.
- The San Diego Airport
- At one point, the landing gear of the aircraft are less than 100 feet above the roof tops and one commercial building is less than 50 feet below the flight path.
- San Diego at a Glance
- Because that’s the best way to look at it.
- The San Diego Free Trade Zone
- The moment Aztlan military units moved north into Camp Pendleton, Aztlan negotiators were already meeting with local interests to ensure a peaceful change of command. In what must be one of the great economic skin jobs of all time, San Diego was wrested from the CFS and turned into the California Free Trade Zone.
- Solana Beach, Cardiff, Leucadia, Carlsbad, and Oceanside
- Sand in your shoes, bums in the streets and, worst of all, working class tourists from the East.
- The Valley
- No self-respecting runner would be caught dead here… is there such a thing as a self-respecting runner?
- A Virtual Reality Primer
- Dr. Killea Garrity describes the mechanics of virtual reality technology.
