Something taken for granted about the nature of what makes a technology cyberpunk (at least in our relationship to it) is it’s banality. I remember when the fist iPhone came out, there was nothing banal about its use, smartphones were still magical in the 00’s. Nobody could conceive of using an old one as something like a paperweight, or how casually smartphones would appear in other media [where they were effectively background objects,](https://old.reddit.com/r/Cyberpunk/comments/gc30hf/nyc_2020/fpacdzl/) their technological novelty having worn off and no longer the center of attention whenever they made an appearance.
Was inspired to make this post by [Bruce Sterling’s most recent interview,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTVd9Ib2Pys) in which there was a segment where he went into the cyberpunk nature of his AI designed 3D printed Nike shoes, and the level of technological development necessary for their construction that was only made possible in recent years.
So what consumer products do you own that make you feel like you’re living in the future? Could be something as basic as the conductive fingertips on a lot of winter gloves these days for smartphone use, or even something as advanced as recent graphics cards. But what are some of the technological signifiers of 21st century life that have just sort of blended into the background for you?
For me personally what comes to mind are things like nicotine & cannabis vaping tech (which were only sci-fi fantasies as an adolescent), the plethora of available smart drugs available from greymarket nootropic vendors (r/nootropics has to be one of the most casually cyberpunk subreddits in existence), my Oofos flip flops (previously unthinkably comfortable footwear, developed by a team of orthopedists in the late 00’s and came to market in the early 10’s), and my anxiolytic wearable the [Apollo Neuro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQSbRuEjTiA) that [I’ve recently made a post about](https://old.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/comments/15oo6zu/i_left_rnootropics_because_theres_nothing_ever/).
So yea, what does it for you? What are the little things in daily life that make you feel like you’re living in the future?
Also not directly related, but this gem is almost a decade old and despite my efforts has never received any attention on this sub, [so thought I’d share.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsnqHhR92ts)