cyberpunk
A science-fiction subgenre characterized by countercultural
antiheroes trapped in a dehumanized, high-tech future.
The word cyberpunk was coined by writer Bruce Bethke, who
wrote a story with that title in 1982. He derived the term from
the words cybernetics, the science of replacing human functions
with computerized ones, and punk, the cacophonous music and
nihilistic sensibility that developed in the youth culture during
the 1970s and '80s. Science-fiction editor Gardner Dozois is
generally credited with having popularized the term.
The roots of cyberpunk extend past Bethke's tale to the technological
fiction of the 1940s and '50s, to the writings of Samuel R.
Delany and others who took up themes of alienation in a high-tech
future, and to the criticism of Bruce Sterling, who in the 1970s
called for science fiction that addressed the social and scientific
concerns of the day. Not until the publication of William Gibson's
1984 novel Neuromancer, however, did cyberpunk take off as a
movement within the genre. Other members of the cyberpunk school
include Sterling, John Shirley, and Rudy Rucker.
cyberpunk /si:'ber-puhnk/ /n.,adj./ A subgenre of SF
launched in 1982 by William Gibson's epoch-making novel
"Neuromancer" (though its roots go back through
Vernor Vinge's "True Names" to John Brunner's
1975 novel "The Shockwave Rider"). Gibson's
near-total ignorance of computers and the present-day hacker
culture enabled him to speculate about the role of computers
and hackers in the future in ways hackers have since found both
irritatingly naive and tremendously stimulating. Gibson's work
was widely imitated, in particular by the short-lived but innovative
"Max Headroom" TV
series.
Since 1990 or so, popular culture has included a movement
or fashion trend that calls itself `cyberpunk', associated especially
with the rave/techno subculture. Hackers have mixed feelings
about this. On the one hand, self-described cyberpunks too often
seem to be shallow trendoids in black leather who have substituted
enthusiastic blathering about technology for actually learning
and *doing* it. Attitude is no substitute for competence. On
the other hand, at least cyberpunks are excited about the right
things and properly respectful of hacking talent in those who
have it. The general consensus is to tolerate them politely
in hopes that they'll attract people who grow into being true
hackers.
Asking someone to define Cyberpunk is like asking someone
to define art. Each person has their own ideas about what art
is, what constitutes art and what doesn't. Yet we all still
know art when we see it. The same is true for Cyberpunk - each
cyberpunk has their own definition for it, yet common threads
remain. In basic terms, these might be definied by an emphasis
on individualism and technology (both in the present and in
the future - and in the past as in The Difference Engine [a
book by Gibson & Sterling]).
So what seperates cyberpunk from other types of sci-fi? Generally,
cyberpunk occures in the not-so-distant-future. It generally
occurs on earth, in a time where technology is prominent. Characters
are generally "average Johnny Mnemonics" - not some fantastic
hero with lots of virtue and a blinding smile. Cyberpunk revels
in high-tech low-lifes, so you can expect to see lots of crime
and back-stabbing and drugs and such. These are the basic elements
of Gibsonesque CP (cyberpunk) - we've all seen it before in
movies such as Blade Runner and TV Shows like Max Headroom.
In many cases, it appears as if our world is evolving into
a classic cyberpunk setting: the rise of post-zaibatsu Japan
with it's monopoly on technology, American cities developing
into the "sprawl" (basically just large, mega-cities), drugs
and crime are predominant in some cultures, and we thrive and
survive on technology. So, it isn't too hard to see how cyberpunk
evolved from being just a literary movement into a growing sub-culture
- industrial and post-industrial aspects of the culture, virtual
reality, rave parties, nootropics, computer hacking - they're
all aspects of our culture, they all would fit nicely into a
Gibson novel, and they all exist *now*.
So, what makes a cyberpunk? If you already knew all this stuff,
and you're laughing at my generalities and inconsistencies,
then you're definitely a cyberpunk. If you're a techno-junkie
or an info-junkie, than you'd probably consider yourself a cyberpunk.
Basically, if you live in a world in the not-so-distant-future,
ahead of the masses (the masses being guys named Buford who
sit out in front of their trailer homes in lawn chairs sipping
a Bud and watching the Indy 500 on an old tv), then you could
probably safely consider yourself a cyberpunk. It's a spectrum,
though - I mean, it's kind of like if Michelangelo had an assistant,
he would probably not consider the assistant an artist. Yet
to his friends and family, that assistant may seem like a great
artist. I consider myself a cyberpunk compared to the masses
that walk the halls of my school, yet at a virtual reality conference
in the presence of the likes of Jaron Lanier, Gibson, John Perry
Barlow, Timothy Leary, RU Sirius, etc. I would probably be more
hesitant in labeling myself a true cyberpunk. But one the beauties
of CP is that it is still somewhat elitist to an extent: members
of the community realize that we who walk on the fringes of
culture need to hold each others' hand until the masses join
us - the communal atmosphere, at times, can be seen as similair
to the early hippie movement of the late 50's/early 60's.