The Cyberpunk Nexus Quotes

“In all this, Androids reveals the potential for transcendence despite suffering. Society will likely not grow, but individuals can, and individuals make up society. Rick chooses to become a promoter of life rather than a destroyer. It’s a decision – to suffer and yet remain empathetic – that every human being can make. This, of course, implies that there’s something morally and psychologically wrong with those who are not empathetic, and the story points a finger at the reader as if to say that we are as underdeveloped as the androids. We, who are emblematic of the modern world, are the real chickenheads and degenerates. We, who may not have had the trials of these characters, and who haven’t even come to extend our circle of compassion to our fellow human beings, let alone the animals, are the destroyers, as we continue to make excuses for our tribalism, racism, exploitation, destruction, and war.”
― Lou Tambone, The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe

“Schweitzer argues is each creature’s inherent right to life without being injured or impeded by us, except in cases of absolute need: “We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace.”
― Lou Tambone, The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe

“If you want to think with integrity,” he writes, “and are willing to bear the pain involved, you will inevitably encounter paradox.”
― Lou Tambone, The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe

“No one can win against kipple… except temporarily and maybe in one spot, like in my apartment I’ve sort of created a stasis between the pressure of kipple and nonkipple, for the time being. But eventually I’ll die or go away, and then the kipple will again take over. It’s a universal principle operating throughout the universe; the entire universe is moving toward a final state of total, absolute kippleization…”
― Lou Tambone, The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe

“She decries the boiling alive of a lobster as “depraved.” In our world, such base depravity is commonplace and considered culturally acceptable by all but a minority. Androids, thus, presents an interesting, if tragic observation. The near annihilation of animal life has finally gotten people to value animals for who they are – not as gratification for taste buds, or as fashion items, decorations, or entertainment – but as living, feeling creatures with their own intrinsic worth. Schweitzer predicted “The time will come when public opinion will no longer tolerate amusements based on the mistreatment and killing of animals. The time will come, but when? When will we reach the point that hunting, the pleasure in killing animals for sport, will be regarded as a mental aberration?”
― Lou Tambone, The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe

“after hearing the sounds of emptiness in their building, Iran decides to program her Penfield Mood Organ to make her feel depressed six hours a day, twice a month, followed by a more uplifting mood setting. She’s not crazy, as some readers might conclude. Rick has heard it too and understands what it portends. Silence is emblematic of death, of loss beyond measure, of the daily encroachment of human extinction. But for Rick, the answer is to use the Mood Organ to feel better, not worse. As earlier noted, the Penfield Mood Organ is a kind of drug that allows users to escape feelings of sorrow and pain. But it’s for this very reason that Iran needs to feel depressed. Depression is the only authentic response to the fact of a dying world that they (the human race) helped create. Everything else is just escapism.”
― Lou Tambone, The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe

“Psychotherapist and author M. Scott Peck noted that “one of the major dilemmas we face both as individuals and as a society is simplistic thinking – or the failure to think at all. It isn’t just a problem, it is the problem.”[11”
― Lou Tambone, The Cyberpunk Nexus: Exploring the Blade Runner Universe