Cyberpunk 101: Cognitive Defense for Natural-Born Cyborgs

Welcome to the Cyberpunk education series! Cyberpunk is not just a genre, its a way of life. The Cyberpunk uses the digital infrastructure around them to resist the forces of command and control, ideally in the name of a better tomorrow. Here, we teach you how to become a Cyberpunk.

Cyberpunk and sorcerers aren’t too different. First things first; control your mind. It’s the new battlefront in global affairs. Cognitive Defense is a hot new term in the world’s militaries as they prepare to contend with coming power changes. But this is not just a military matter… States, Corporations, Trolls, and Influencers alike are looking at the space of human decision making as an important front in the fight for dominance of the future. Are you prepared?

Cognitive Defense for Natural Born Cyborgs gives you the foundational toolkit for understanding what you are, where you are, and how to effectively resist against the influence of Corpo-Fascists, State-Fascists and your own inner demons. We will explore the relevant fundamentals of psychology like situational awareness, cognitive dissonance, the collective unconscious, and intelligence. We’ll look at data leaked by Facebook whistleblowers and Chat-GPT psychosis. We’ll explore how the brain adapts to technology and why this means we should look at ourselves as cyborgs today. The goal of this workshop is to boost your Cognitive Defense and enable you to become an effective Cyberpunk.

You Host:

I am your host, Damian/Darksyn. It is my mission to make sure that we make it through the end of the world in tact. I have a degree in Cognitive Science, a background in activism in the psychedelic scene, an overwhelming love for science science fiction, and hours of cyberpunk electro-metal music that I should really put out. I’ve spoken internationally at conferences on immersive art and psychedelics and I produce immersive events and performances. I’m a firm believer in the idea that the best and worst of all possible worlds exist side by side around us. Our highly connected world has its setbacks and has left a lot of us pretty miserable, but it also provides remarkable opportunity for us. It’s easy to feel lost and dismayed in a cyberworld built on the logic of “taking advantage”. If we do not resist its flow, we have reason to grieve for humanity. But just because Zuckerberg is straight up telling you he’s trying to create the Snowcrash dystopia doesn’t mean he’ll succeed. With this workshop, I hope to provide you some tools for making better worlds a little more likely.

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