________  ________  ________
   2018-04-25                                   /        \/        \/    /   \
                                               /       __/         /_       _/
   So I've  been  thinking  about  cyberpunk  /        _/         /         /
cars. I  mean,  I  was kinda thinking  about  \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
cars in general because my father-in-law  is    /        \/        \/    /   \
a car guy and also I could really  use a car   /        _/         /_       _/
to get  around Washington but  anyway; I was  /-        /        _/         /
thinking about  cyberpunk cars and  now  I'm  \________/\________/\___/____/
going to write about cyberpunk cars.

   I had a search around and put out  an open question on the Fediverse  as to
what  they'd consider  a cyberpunk car and the results  are  pretty  polarized
between  the  futuristic  cyberpunk  aesthetic  and  the  function  over  form
cyberpunk mindset, it was quite  interesting and I feel like what I  want kind
of straddles the line between the two.

   As a base I'm kind of torn,  one one hand you want something that's hidden-
in-plain-sight, something like a late 90s Chevrolet Caprice or  Buick Century,
something so uninteresting as to be invisible to anyone who wasn't looking for
it.

   A little  while back I was reading a  bunch and watching  videos on  people
living in "stealth" vans; vans either specifically designed to  look like they
belonged where they  were or vans designed to look  so nondescript that no one
would even  notice they  were there. It  was really quite  interesting  and  I
learned a lot about how to be invisible in a Walmart parking lot hahaha.

   A quick aside:  This  is something I'd like to try at least once in my life
hahaha, living out of a van for a few weeks,  I think it'd  be challenging and
pretty eye-opening, although obviously less so knowing I can just pack up  and
go home any time I like.

   On  the  other  hand,  the  flip-side of  the  aforementioned  deliberately
uninteresting is something, obviously, interesting.

   Personally I  don't really feel the "futuristic" look, the sleek and clean.
Although it does have a place in the cyberpunk aesthetic it's stuff that to me
belongs to  the  high class,  the corporates and the non-combatants,  not  the
street-level  low life.  There's  two ideas  that I  find  fit  my daydream of
"interesting",  that sit in that  middle ground between aesthetic and mindset;
something post-luxury or something commonplace but out-of-place.

   Post-luxury is pretty self-explanatory, a luxury vehicle being used by less
than luxury types, a  really  good example of this is the stylish '60s Lincoln
Continental  in The Matrix, out-of-place is  taking something  that  you'd see
everywhere somewhere and putting it somewhere  else, for example transplanting
a  Toyota Crown Comfort,  a common Chinese red  taxi,  into the United  States
where they're far less common. It's not an especially interesting car but out-
of-place it'll raise some eyebrows.

   Ok now you've got a ride, what are you going to cram into it?

   Here's  where I'm going to embarrass myself, because a lesson I just refuse
to learn is function over form, I just don't give a fuck  hahaha. Back  in the
early naughties I was deep into RantRadio and Sean Kennedy's various shows and
stuff and he really beat function over form into you but, I dunno, I just love
the shape  of  things  and I  love things that serve  a purpose no  one really
needs.

   I should do a post about RantRadio one time, hold me to that.

   So anyway, I'm gonna want some ridiculous shit in there.

   In-car fax? Check. In-car video phone? Check. This is shit I've wanted in a
car since the 90s,  hardly relevant now  but I've gotta have them. Re-purposed
in-car terminal, like a Motorola D-1118 or Motorola  MDT-9100 - doing what,  I
don't care,  they  just  look fucking  cool. If not  that  then a nice mounted
laptop.

   Battery power to  run it all when the  engine is off, discreet solar panels
on the roof or something I can fold out when I need a bump.

   CB radio, radio scanner, ham rig, all that cool shit. Some kind of internet
connectivity, an LTE device and a handful of anonymous SIMs  to juggle, plus a
wireless adaptor and a couple  antennas, one for wardriving and a  directional
one to hit those known open networks from far away.

   What have I missed? Tool kit in the trunk, space license plates? Hahaha.



EOF