We are only a few months away from Apple TV‘s Neuromancer adaptation, premiering on January 22, 2027. In the meantime, many science fiction fans have picked up the original 1984 novel by William Gibson — either for the first time, or for a much-deserved re-read. It’s a great time for fans of the cyberpunk genre, as they are exploring its roots and meeting it in the medium where it began. Looking back on cyberpunk can be enlightening, but the genre has never stopped advancing over the last five decades. Fans of Neuromancer will find many follow-up reads worth their time, but those that want to catch up on the cutting edge of cyberpunk should turn their eyes to Infomocracy by Malka Older.
Some might think it’s a stretch to refer to Infomocracy as “cyberpunk,” but it has many of the hallmarks that are most important to fans. The story is set in a futuristic world with all kinds of well-thought-out new technology, yet it’s very terrestrial, with no long space odysseys or intergalactic warfare. Instead, it explores a world that has embraced information technology so wholeheartedly that the entire globe now participates in “micro-democracy,” with areas as small as a city block voting for their own representatives. Of course, that kind of worldwide power struggle creates space for the cyberpunk staples we all want to see, from espionage and spyware to enhanced superhumans with retractable weapons hidden under their skin.
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‘Infomocracy’ is a Hopeful Sci-Fi Story
The covers of the Centenal Cycle trilogy — Infomocracy, Null States, and State Tectonics — by Malka OlderImage via Macmillan Books
The biggest difference between Neuromancer and Infomocracy — and perhaps the reason it isn’t often categorized as cyberpunk — is its comparatively hopeful tone. Neuromancer is told from the perspective of Case (Callum Turner), a young man who has suffered tremendously as a direct result of his futuristic setting, and who sees more horrors everywhere he turns. The whole book explores the ways in which each character on Case’s crew has been manipulated and hurt by the insatiable corporate plutocracy they live in, and no matter how hard they work, they can’t flip a switch and win equality for humanity — not even in the sequels.
Infomocracy has a very different tone from Neuromancer, and from many other bleak, noir-flavored cyberpunk stories. The story begins during the third-ever election cycle in this global system of micro-democracy, so the strengths and weaknesses of this relatively new form of government are still being tested. It also has various point-of-view characters, so we aren’t stuck in one headspace the way we are with Case. Infomocracy‘s Mishima is easy to compare to Neuromancer‘s Molly (Briana Middleton) since she is a spy and a fighter with weaponized augmentations, but even her perspective isn’t as dour as anything Gibson wrote.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
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Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
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🚀Star Wars
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01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
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02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
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03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
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04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
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05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
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06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
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07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
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08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
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Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
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The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
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The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
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Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
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Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
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A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
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The real tone shift comes from Ken, an idealistic young campaigner working for an underdog political party called Policy1st. He’s realistic without coming off as naive, initially hoping his work in this election will help him climb the ladder to a better position down the line. Ken is the novel’s ground-level point of view, leading us through the futuristic city streets which are plastered with ads and computer interfaces, and introducing us to the real world that micro-democracy governs. The audience is able to question the faults of this system alongside Ken without feeling out of place or breaking their immersion.
Throughout all this drama, theoretical threats loom in the background, much like the corporations and artificial superintelligences in Gibson’s work. We are constantly reminded that, despite its faults, micro-democracy has successfully maintained global peace since its introduction, and no one wants a return to war of any kind. However, corporations are not above violence in order to achieve their ends, and the centralized tech monopoly Intelligence must also be willing to get its hands dirty to keep the wheels turning. Meanwhile, Older’s background in humanitarian aid and crisis response comes through in some of the book’s most stressful moments, reminding us that sometimes decisiveness is a virtue.
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‘Infomocracy’ Builds on ‘Neuromancer’
Neuromancer-Book-CoverImage via Editora Aleph
Neuromancer is credited with popularizing and codifying the cyberpunk genre, and many of the biggest cyberpunk works since then have been inspired by it. Infomocracy and its sequels take that a step further. While the series is clearly inspired by cyberpunk ideas in some ways, Older didn’t bend her story to fit into the genre. It may stick out among cyberpunk recommendations, but that’s exactly the reason it’s worth reading.
Neuromancer itself will likely be changed when it hits Apple TV. Book adaptations never feel 100% faithful, even if that’s what the producers intended, and this will be no different. If the Neuromancer TV show is a re-examination of the book’s original ideas, then newer cyberpunk books like Infomocracy should definitely be in the conversation. Infomocracy is the first book in Older’s Centenal Cycle trilogy, which also includes Null States and State Tectonics. The story is finished, and is available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
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