A Qualitative Inquiry into Cyberpunk Media: Ethical, Philosophical, and Socio-Technological Reflections
| International Journal of Humanities and Social Science |
| © 2026 by SSRG - IJHSS Journal |
| Volume 12 Issue 6 |
| Year of Publication : 2026 |
| Authors : Pooja Dahiya, Sneha Sharma, Omdev Dahiya |
10.14445/23942703/IJHSS-V12I6P108
How to Cite?
Pooja Dahiya, Sneha Sharma, Omdev Dahiya, "A Qualitative Inquiry into Cyberpunk Media: Ethical, Philosophical, and Socio-Technological Reflections," SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 81-94, 2026. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23942703/IJHSS-V12I6P108
Abstract:
Cyberpunk has become an important cultural practice that explores the current fears about technology, identity, and power in a creative way. This paper aims to conduct a qualitative analysis of cyberpunk in various forms of media, such as novels, films, and video games, in an attempt to explore the ethical, philosophical, and social-technological issues that lie behind the genre. The paper employs descriptive, interpretive, and comparative approaches to analysis, drawing on existing Western cyberpunk texts, as well as selected Indian texts, which leads to a discussion of the global aspect of the genre that has been studied insufficiently. Based on postmodern theory and criticism of the arts of speculative fiction, the analysis explores how the portrayal of Artificial Intelligence, the space of cybernetics, and posthuman subjectivity indicate the current anxiety over surveillance and power, as well as the fragmentation of culture. The results indicate that cyberpunk is not only a futuristic and speculative fiction genre but also a critical tool that can be used to analyze the current technological changes and their meaningful implications for human agency and social order.
Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence, Cyberpunk, Comparative Media, Ethical Representation, Hyperreality, Postmodern Theory, Qualitative Analysis, Speculative Fiction.
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