sci-fi & cyberpunk social activity?

Are there any sci-fi or cyberpunk groups or clubs or locations where there is active socializing?

I was at a dance club once that was full of droids, spacemen, and the occasional odd ninja warrior. So the answer is, yes. Unfortunately, I didn't landmark the place and can't recall the name. I suggest a Quest!

Isn't the whole of SL the epitome of cyberpunk?

Pep (Or is a recursive experience required?)

Except without the punk. And with a unique definition of cyber.

SL is William Gibson's world brought to life; atleast, in a rather limited and immature manner it is. People don't use VR goggles. SL isn't the defacto interface method connecting every device and person across the planet together. We don't have sentient A.I. agents either. Though, if you ever read Idoru, you will see many parallels with SL and other virtual world environments.

Actually, it's more like the world envisioned by Vernor Vinge in the contemporary novella "True Names" than Gibson's abstract digital landscape in Neuromancer.

Plenty of punks here.

Pep (Even more cyber)

Or even more actually, it's supposed to be based on Neal Stephenson's "Snowcrash" though I honestly couldn't find that many similarities. I think there are some really old sims named after the novel.

There are lots of cyberpunk/sci fi sims but not many that are highly populated. And often the scene is role play rather than purely social.

Some examples that come to mind: Midian City, Doomed Ship, the Wastelands sims, the Dune sims. I'm sure others can offer many more suggestions.

For some reason, steampunk has really taken off as a genre in SL (Caledon sims) while hard core dystopian sci/fi has not so much. Or maybe it's just my personal preference.

It may be consciously based on "Snow Crash", but it feels more like "True Names".

Given that "True Names" was about the second cyberspace story ever published, and the first to really envision a realistic human-scale environment for cyberspace, I would be astnished if Stephenson wasn't familiar with it when he write "Snow Crash" a decade later.

I figured it was because he had an accident while driving one wintery day and hit his head on the steering wheel.

Stephenson clearly built on previous cyberpunk works, including True Names (one of my favorite SF books). That's doesn't diminish his original contributions, including the use of "avatar" in this context and the idea of virtual real estate.

If you think SL is more like True Names, that may because its RL is more like ours (regulated, civilized) than the mafia and warlord-led nations of Snowcrash. In 1981, Vinge imagined that an immersive virtual world would require direct neural inputs, while Stephenson had seen enough video games by 1992 to understand that a computer screen would do the trick.

Otherwise, the two virtual realities are remarkably similar: universal worldwide database networks, virtual crime, AI bots, customizable avatars, clueless newbies. SL isn't quite there yet, but give it a few years....

I think it's more that the cyberspace is less slick, more amateur, with more ad-hoc conventions and less central control. That is, Stephenson's *cyberspace* is more civilized and regulated than Vinge's.

I'll add the Gibson sim to Galena's list.... it goes through cycles of use, probably prompted by the cycles of rebuilding

If you don't mind adult themes I would suggest my own place (obviously) Necronom VI http://necronom.ning.com/ and also a place called Doomed ship, which is located just on the same sim.
If you do, hmm, how about Insilico? That's always worth a visit I'd say.

I don't see it that way at all - the Coven in True Names are a few rogues, operating between the cracks of what is basically a paternalistic police state. Hiro and his buddies are like cowboys in the Old West - with technical wizardry taking the place of the "fastest gun".

[Sorry for getting off-topic, Zhenya - ask a simple question in this board and you may start a 500-post argument ]

I'm not talking about the coven, I'm talking about the ad-hoc inconsistent environment where a couple of newbie wannabe hackers on overblown motorbikes blow by Mr Slippery and Ery... and their scripted vehicles don't properly touch the ground and leave inconsistent tracks. This is a world like SL where the content is under the (often poor) control of the users, not the government, and the coven's superior skill in finding bugs and holes in the Other Plane are what keep them safe.

As opposed to the Metaverse. No matter how anarchic things are outside the metaverse is civilized. In the Black Sun your avatar is subject to the Sun's rules... there's no Isle of Wyrms dragons or griefers, showing up there... the whole idea that anything in the metaverse could be an exploit is alien, which is why the Snow Crash virus was such a surprise.

The Metaverse reminds me of Playstation Home. It doesn't have the feel of a world full of user-created content. There's only one swordfighting script, one motorbike script (Hiro and his opponent both travel at the same speed around the Metaverse), etcetera... whereas the Other Plane is uncontrolled, wild, messy like the SL Mainland.

I see your point. I assume LL took the potential for anarchy on a grid-wide scale into account when designing SL. Maybe we should be thankful that griefers have limited themselves to minor annoyances and crashing individual sims.

Back to the OP question...I should ask the buyers of my products where they hang out If I do that I'll let you know.