Volume is a cyberpunk world built for 2026 anxieties, not the 1980s ones. Forget Cold War paranoia and neon-soaked street gangs — this is a world that looks uncomfortably familiar. Elites buy elections, governments serve shareholders, and the mega-corporation isn’t a villain lurking in the shadows. It is the government. It just doesn’t pretend otherwise anymore.
The world runs on financialization. There are no cartoonishly evil CEOs twirling mustaches — just untalented shareholders endlessly maneuvering for position, optimizing spreadsheets, and extracting value from everything they touch. The environment doesn’t show up on a balance sheet, so it doesn’t count. Workers are a line item to be reduced. The corporation doesn’t hate you — it just finds you inconvenient.
This is the world of Volume. Not a dystopia that feels alien, but one that feels like a logical next step from the headlines we’re already reading.
💡 Idea by me, prose by Claude (Anthropic)
#WorldBuilding #Cyberpunk #Financialization #SpeculativeFiction #Volume