Our Cyberpunk Before ft. James McGirk

In 1966, we find two distinct visions which become foundational for cyberpunk a decade and a half later. In Robert Stone's novel A Hall of Mirrors, a man gets taken on as a radio host, forming conspiratorial patterns in the news to guide public opinion. Then as predecessor to the sort of console cowboys who would later roam cyberspace, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly shows us a different set of opportunists. Are these figures immoral or amoral? What models are we offered here for imagining information exchanges? With my guest, James McGirk of Our Cyberpunk Now, we explore what we inherit from this double vision.