Can genies be cyberpunk? High-tech, cyber-augemented, and still magic? Or is that too silly?
Maybe a cyberpunk genie would be an AI cyberspace construct with a neon, shimmering holographic extension.
@Phorm I mean, the overlap between "genie" and "AI assistant" is pretty substantial.
In fact... this is giving me some worldbuilding ideas. Before I get into them, have you read the Bruce Sterling story "Maneki Neko" by any chance? I can reduce the length of my babble by about 80% if so. :D
@Phorm Very briefly, Maneki Neko is about a mobile network that assigns people with tiny favors to be done for other network users, without any particular context or explanation-- you just get a message like "Would the closest person to the Nakamura flower shop in Chome 2-7 please pick up the lunchbox there and deliver it to the secretary at the elementary school." It's all very benign and positive except when it isn't.
That's both a fascinating concept, and also the basis for a cyber djinnspiracy that I would be delighted to put my digitized weight behind. A clandestine interconnected network of happy genies granting wishes to gently steer the course of humanity sounds like the cyberpunk future I WANT to live in!
You are inspired and inspiring as always 💕 I appreciate your sharing.
sudo make me a sandwich
@Phorm Short version is that I'm imagining a similar network that's entirely mediated and accessed via genie-like entities... all of whom are curiously identical and discreetly have the same hive-mind back-end... and all of whom are discreetly and subversively working to the same greater goal of benevolent world domination, created through fostering genie-dependent populations...