Cyberpunk as a Way of Life

By Claudia Melisa Paniza <gt5308b@prism.gatech.edu>.

On the reading for today, "The Cyberpunk: The Individual as Reality Pilot" by Timothy Leary, definitions are given on the roots of the words cyberpunk. Cybernetics comes from the Greek language "kubernetes" which means pilot. When the greek word is translated into Latin it becomes "gubernetes" which means to control the actions of something. The word government comes from this root.In 1948, the word cybernetics was created to encompass the field of control an dcommunications theory. This whole essay goes into detail into the creating of the words preceded by cyber.

I enjoyed the part about examples of cyberpunks. Who would have ever imagined that Christopher Columbus and Mark Twain were cyberpunks? Nobody I think! Well they are cyberpunks, by the definition in this article, "all of those who boldly package and steer ideas out where no thoughts have gone before. Christopher Columbus was a cyberpunk because he believed in the dream of discovery. Mark Twain was one also because he was the first writer to hand a typewritten manuscript to a publisher.

This definition of a cyberpunk is very different of what people nowadays think of as a cyberpunk. To be considered a cyberpunk you have to do something NEW, something which may completely change the way that our society works, or thinks, as Columbus and Twain were able to change the society that they lived in, just by their way of doing things. I like this definition, so many people out there are creating inovative products and methods of working and all this people could be considered cyberpunks. By this definition everyone is a bit of a cyberpunk. Everyone does things a little bit different, I find this very interesting and exciting.