Brave New World has always been one of my favorite examples for Cyberpunk.
That and a little known novel called Jonny Zed.
Both dealt with problems of overpowering governments not corporations.
In a realistic extraction of a posible dark future I think it will be a mixed bag.
Not just corps and not just governments and in fact not just both of them.
We'll have a lot of religious and political extremism going about as well. The situation with the middle east will get worse and spread. Eventually christian militants will get violent again if corps and governments continue to fail to meet their demands and they observe islamic extremist tactics enough.
(we're talking worse case scenerios after all)
The poor and disenfranchised will continue to rise up in some areas where Noam Chomsky-esque media-tactics aren't strong enough to control them like they are in the first world.
If we want worse case scenerios we assume they figure out how on their limited resources to cause trouble outside of their own home domains. Bringing their uprisings into the first world.
But as always the disenfranchised in the first world will sit about complacently and do nothing but drugs, sex, media, and welfare state their lives away.
Japan will not be the power it is in many gaming Cyberpunk and 80's novels. If you look at the problems it is facing right now it's pretty clear it's a fading power that will take a few generations to recover. Somebody else in asia will take it's place. I don't think China just yet as it has too many issues of it's own. Korea? They've got problems right now but none of their issues of the long-term ingrained variety. If they can get past current hurdles and if the north doesn't become an issue they could be a power. But the north becoming an issue is not a reliable thing to base a hypothesis on. None of the powers in south-east asia seem to be getting anywhere. But that could change very rapidly with a change in government. Several of them showed the potential in the 90's before the asian-crash.
In a worse case scenerio we see a war between China and Taiwan that involves a small nuclear exchange. Likewise with India and Pakistan.
So we can place a few 'glass cities' in both regions for our cyberpunk setting. And assume that the resulting devasting has kept those countries from getting anywhere.
The native Taiwanese in fact might find such an exchange just the excuse they need to finally push the Chinese occupation off the island and back to the mainland thus removing any validation for China's claims over the place. But leaving them a 3rd world power in the process if we assume their major economic centers get 'glassed'.
I always thought it was interesting how in 'Islands in the Net' South Africa had managed to become a utopian state of equality and economic prosperity. But I don't see it happening all that quickly.
The current wars in Africa will probably be the current wars in Africa 100 years from now unless some factor steps in and changes it. Presently there is no factor with an actual interest in doing so as the current status quo benifits first world corporations.
But an idea I head mused about NPR provides for a whole new problem: African terrorists striking out as western colonials and their mega corps.
(The guy on NPR was musing that that will be the nature of our next generation of terrorism).
The net:
Won't go neural. I just don't see it.
Cyberware:
Not likely as a fashion statement.
Though some minor enhancements might be if they suit the right kinds of needs.
Toss out cyber-psychosis. It was a silly idea to begin with.
Space:
It will take longer than 80's Cyberpunk mused to colonize this place. Not because we can't, but because we don't have the will yet.
On the other hand if we suddenly find some major resource in space we could end up with a 'gold rush' and colonise the system.
They said it would take 1000 years for the USA to reach the west coast. Obviously the technology advancements of the 18 and 1900's proved that wrong...
So who knows what will happen in the solar system or even beyond if we find a reason for it to be profitable to go there.
I've no idea what I'd do with Latin America. That place seems to have been in stasis for much of the last half century. Will it stay so? Will free trade agreements awaken the region? If that was the cause we could see a lot of 'corporate states' down there.
Take that old movie 'Brazil' and actually run it there.
The EU's made the right choices to keep itself stable for a while, but the UK is likely to be a third world power by the end of the next century unless they start getting with the program.
No good ideas for Russia, west asia, and eastern europe.
I think you're dark future in general would have a lot of governements that get stronger. and a lot of corps that pull more weight with them.
Open corporate control is not something I see though.
