All I want for Christmas is cyberpunk implants

and less body mod shaming

The first time I ever read the book Neuromancer by William Gibson, I was shaken. The book has everything. Cyberpunk. Biopunk. AIs. Hackers. I was in love. It was such a good book it traumatized me in that way only a really amazing book can. Where you were so enraptured and drawn into the world that when it ends, you feel alone and lost. I couldn't let go. I changed my online handle/nickname to Case, the main character of the story and the woman that I was cyber-dating and almost ran away to live with in Canada, she changed her handle to Molly, the main female protagonist. I think I was more in love with the idea of the character than I was this person and so when it came time to board the plane, I just never went. Sorry, Molly.

In the book, Molly Millions is a razor girl. She has mirror lenses covering her eyes, providing enhanced visuals requiring her tear ducts to be rerouted to her mouth so she spits when she cries. Retractable razor-blades under her fingernails. Body mods to increase her reflexes. I don’t know if I want to marry her or be her.

This idea of changing our body is not a new idea. Since the beginning of time, humans have done sometimes superficial, sometimes invasive things to modify themselves. The better our ability to modify ourselves, the more we do it. Nowadays, it’s probably more common to find somebody who has piercings, tattoos, dyed hair, cosmetic surgery or medical implants, than someone who doesn't. While some people frown at these unnatural manifestations, there really isn’t a good argument against modifying ourselves. If you don’t want to, there is nothing wrong with that, but if you want to, there’s also nothing wrong with that. Besides some puritanical western religiosity making us feel like changing our body is wrong, there are no physical laws in the universe, medical or health reasons to dissuade us from changing our body how we see fit.

It’s interesting being transgender because I made a choice to change my body to align it more with how I see myself and what makes me feel good. But I look out into the world and see so many people who would also benefit from body modification to help them feel more comfortable in their own skin.

To me, the cyberpunk future isn’t one in which we all have access to retractable fingernail razor-blades, I mean it is, but it’s also one in which things like metabolic boosting allows people to achieve whatever weight they want effortlessly. Eye color, hair color, muscular and fat tissue enhancement are all possible and available. Because the truth is that transgender people aren’t the only ones who feel out of place in their bodies. There are so many more people that could be helped in this cyberpunk future.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners came out on Netflix a few months ago. It’s an amazing anime and over the holidays, sitting on the couch all day is a perfect time to binge it. It displays a future in which almost everyone has body modifications of some kind. It’s not just accepted. It’s looked upon with pride. In the real world, I believe we as humans will eventually come to the place where we celebrate people who change their bodies in new and unique ways. People who don't just settle for the body that genetics and their environment thrust upon them. This meat suit of ours isn’t much more than an outfit we wear everyday anyway.

All I want for Christmas is for fashion houses of the future to be cyberpunk genetic engineering clinics for our bodies. Is that too much to ask for?

The only way we get there is by people making body modification common enough to keep pushing forward. So keep getting those lip fillers, liposuctions and butt implants cause I want retractable fingernail razor-blades.