I'll start with a few questions.

First, the question of artificiality. Has anyone ever allowed the artificiality inherent in pretty much everything in cyberpunk to get to their characters? I don't just mean snack foods, cyberware, and meat puppets; I mean everything being a money-making scheme and the result of extensive market research, whether it's a stupid action simsense or nature friendly clothes or the Evo retreat in Hawaii.

Including love and personal conviction?

Are you really asking that question in a world of Hallmark cards and Mail-Order Brides, Televangelists and War On X?

How do your characters handle this artificiality?

Ever seen a romantic comedy or heard a presidential speech? If so, I don't see why you're asking this question.

I know all this; I'm just wondering how an SR character would respond to this artificiality. And I don't mean the obvious; how do they deal with falsehoods that creep up on them? Cyberpunk isn't just "Let's escape from corporate-sponsored sexual encounters into true, fulfilling romance!" In Count Zero, it's shown that the latter can be duplicated. How do your characters deal with the fact that anything natural and true can be duplicated? Do they shrug it off, or do they hide from the world?

The world I run is a Holden Caufield (sp) kind of place. Where almost everyone is phoney and in it for themselves, usually just to turn a few quick nuyen. The few exceptions, however, are what my stories tend to revolve around. Somebody with real principles trying to survive in such a world. Or a truly exceptional entity who has the means to fight for what (to them) is right. But like I said, those are the noteworthy exceptions.

I'm loathe to compare SR to Gibson in the literary perspective. (Not to disrespect either...but that's for another thread, I suppose.) But as for the theme you're describing, check out the novel "Noir," by an English author whose name I can't recall.

Like my guy.

K.W. Jeter, who also wrote the two sequels of the Blade Runner story.