Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk (a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk) is a sub-genre of science fiction which uses elements from the hard-boiled detective novel, film noir, Japanese anime, and post-modernist prose. It describes the nihilistic, underground side of the digital society which started to evolve in the last two decades of the 20th century. The dystopian world of cyberpunk has been called the antithesis of the utopian science fiction visions of the mid-20th century as typified by the world of Star Trek.
The term was originally coined in 1980 by Minnesota writer Bruce Bethke for his short story, "Cyberpunk," which was first published in Amazing Science Fiction Stories, Volume 57, Number 4, November 1983, although it was quickly appropriated as a label to be applied to the works of Gibson, Rucker, and others.
In cyberpunk literature much of the action takes place online, in cyberspace - the clear borderline between the real and the virtual becomes blurred. A typical (though not universal) feature of the genre is a direct connection between the human brain and computer systems.
Cyberpunk's world is a sinister, dark place with networked computers that dominate every aspect of life. Giant multinational corporations have replaced governments as centres of power. The alienated outsider's battle against a totalitarian system is a common theme in science fiction; however, in conventional sci-fi those systems tended to be sterile, ordered, and state-controlled. Cyberpunk, in sharp contrast, shows the seamy underbelly of corporatocracy, and the Sisyphean battle against their power by disillusioned renegades.
Cyberpunk is at its core relentlessly dystopian, mercilessly pessimistic. As Bruce Sterling said, "Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. We can do just about anything you can imagine to rats. And closing your eyes and refusing to think about this won't make it go away. THAT is cyberpunk." It is a primal scream, a warning of danger, and a call to action. Cyberpunk is not juvenile escapist sci-fi. Cyberpunk exists not to provide escapist entertainment (though some of it is very good reading indeed) but rather to cause the reader to ask uncomfortable and disquieting questions about the world we live in. Cyberpunk is not about the future--it's about the world we live in, here and now. Cyberpunk's sinister world of ruthless multinational megacorporations, corrupt governments, and alienation is the world of today, examined through the wrong end of the telescope, exaggerated for effect--and a dire warning of what may happen if current trends continue, in the opinions of the authors. Twenty years past 1984, how free do you feel?
Cyberpunk stories are seen by social theorists as fictional forecasts of the evolution of the Internet. The virtual world of the Internet often appears in cyberpunk under various names, including "cyberspace," the "Metaverse" (as seen in Snow Crash), and the "Matrix" (originally from Neuromancer, but further popularized by the movie The Matrix).
Notable precursors to the genre include:
- Alfred Bester (The Stars My Destination (Tiger! Tiger!), 1956)
- Philip K. Dick
- Roger Zelazny (Dream Master (He Who Shapes))
- William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch, 1959, The Soft Machine, 1961)
- John Brunner (The Shockwave Rider, 1975)
- Vernor Vinge (True Names, 1981)
- K. W. Jeter (Dr. Adder, published in the 1980s but written earlier)
- David Drake Lacey and His Friends, 1974
- George Orwell 1984, 1948
Raymond Chandler with his bleak, cynical worldview and staccato prose strongly influenced the creators of the genre. The world of cyberpunk is the dystopian, hopeless world of film noir, but pushed just a little bit into the future--somewhere between today and tomorrow--with the amps cranked up to 11.
Other famous cyberpunk writers include Bruce Sterling (who functioned as cyberpunk's chief ideologue with his fanzine Cheap Truth), Philip K. Dick, Rudy Rucker, Pat Cadigan, and Neal Stephenson.
The film Blade Runner (1982) based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is set in a dystopian future in which synthetic life forms have substandard rights. The short-lived television series Max Headroom also introduced many viewers to the genre.
The japanese manga-ka Masamune Shirow often writes in the cyberpunk style. His most notable story is Ghost in the Shell.
At least two role-playing games called Cyberpunk exist: Cyberpunk 2020, by R. Talsorian Games, and GURPS Cyberpunk, published by Steve Jackson Games as a module of the GURPS family of role-playing games. Both are set in the near future, in a world where cybernetics and computers are even more present than today. Corporate corruption is a frequent theme in these games' adventures. The characters often find themselves skirting the law, if not outright flouting it.
In 1990, in an odd re-convergence of cyberpunk art and reality, the U.S. Secret Service somehow came to believe that GURPS Cyberpunk was a "handbook for computer crime", and raided the offices of Steve Jackson Games, confiscating all files related to GURPS Cyberpunk. Steve Jackson Games later won a lawsuit against the Secret Service for their action.
Role-playing games have also produced one of the more unique takes on the genre in the form of the game series Shadowrun. Here, the setting is still that of the dystopic near future presented in other cyberpunk works, however it also incorporates heavy elements of fantasy literature and games, such as magic, spirits, elves, and dragons.
Netrunner is a collectible card game introduced in 1996, based on the Cyberpunk 2020 role-playing game.
An unusual sub-sub-genre of cyberpunk is steampunk, which is set in an anachronistic Victorian environment, but with cyberpunk's bleak, film noir world view.
The emerging genre called postcyberpunk continues the preoccupation with the effects of computers, but without the assumption of dystopia or the emphasis on cybernetic implants.
See also: Arcology, Cypherpunk, Corporatocracy, Technocracy, Cyberpunk fashion, Transhumanism, Cyberculture, Cyberware