This has actually been a consistent design choice throughout the editions. It allowed them to do things that changed the world permanently (chicago, for instance, and Dunkelzien

>I think that wacky "man, we
>did not account sufficiently for Godwin's Law" thing that '80s

Did you mean Moore's Law here? Because I'm kind of confused what 80's cyberpunk and Nazis have to do with one another

>cyberpunk has going on is part of what defines the form these days;
>"updating" it is like updating Napoleonic Wars fiction to include
>steamships and wireless telegraphy. That could be cool (indeed,
>that's basically what steampunk is), but it's not the same thing.

Ah. The issue here is that they decided that, instead of just re-writing the rules, they were going to play with an extrapolation of the current tech level because that's what early aught's cyberpunk was all about. Oversurveillence, drones, hackers in shady corners emptying out your bank accounts with their telephones.

>Also, interfacing with the interwebs using a direct neural interface
>standard so sloppily designed that you can be injured by sudden
>disconnection was already daft - classical cyberpunk's

Dumpshock was never (well, it might have been in 1E, I never played that) described as physical damage, but stun damage.<1> Which makes sense if you think about it as the groggy state you're in right after being suddenly woke up out of a particularly vivid dream.

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

<1> This is a footnote in two parts. Part the first: We're getting into kitten smashing territory here and so if you want me to shut up, go ahead and say so. Part the second: We're a little off topic here, even for Misc, so if you want me to shut up about it, I totally can. But you all stumbled into a big steaming pile of my fandom here. I can talk about RPGs the same way you all talk about STO and CoX and etc.