Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a future setting, noted for its fo

cus on "high tech and low life" aspects of society.[1][2] It features advanced t
echnology and science, such as information technology and cybernetics, coupled w
ith a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.[3]
Cyberpunk plots often center on a conflict among artificial intelligences, and m
egacorporations, and tend to be set in a future Earth, rather than the far-futur
e settings or galactic vistas found in novels such as Isaac Asimov's Foundation
or Frank Herbert's Dune.[4] The settings are usually post-industrial dystopias b
ut tend to be marked by extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology
in ways never anticipated by its creators ("the street finds its own uses for t
hings").[5] Much of the genre's atmosphere echoes film noir, and written works i
n the genre often use techniques from detective fiction.[6]
Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on th
e edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by
rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized informatio
n, and invasive modification of the human body.
?Lawrence Person[7]
Contents [hide]
1
Style and ethos
1.1
Setting
1.2
Protagonists
1.3
Society and government
2
Media
2.1
Literature
2.1.1 Reception and impact
2.2
Film and television
2.3
Anime and manga
2.4
Games
2.5
Music
3
Social impact
3.1
Art and architecture
3.2
Society and counterculture
3.3
Related genres
4
See also
5
References
6
External links
Style and ethos[edit]
Primary exponents of the cyberpunk field include William Gibson, Neal Stephenson
, Bruce Sterling, Bruce Bethke, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker, and John Shirley.[8]
Blade Runner can be seen as a quintessential example of the cyberpunk style and
theme.[4] Video games, board games, and tabletop role-playing games, such as Cyb
erpunk 2020 and Shadowrun, often feature storylines that are heavily influenced
by cyberpunk writing and movies. Beginning in the early 1990s, some trends in fa
shion and music were also labeled as cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is also featured promi
nently in anime and manga:[9] Akira, Gunnm, Ghost in the Shell, Serial Experimen
ts Lain, Dennou Coil, Ergo Proxy and Psycho Pass being among the most notable.[9
][10]
Setting[edit]
Shibuya, Tokyo.[11] Of Japan's influence on the genre, William Gibson said, "Mod
ern Japan simply was cyberpunk."[12]
Cyberpunk writers tend to use elements from hardboiled detective fiction, film n
oir, and postmodernist prose to describe the often nihilistic underground side o
f an electronic society. The genre's vision of a troubled future is often called

the antithesis of the generally utopian visions of the future popular in the 19
40s and 1950s. Gibson defined cyberpunk's antipathy towards utopian SF in his 19
81 short story "The Gernsback Continuum," which pokes fun at and, to a certain e
xtent, condemns utopian science fiction.[13][14][15]
In some cyberpunk writing, much of the action takes place online, in cyberspace,
blurring the border between actual and virtual reality.[16] A typical trope in
such work is a direct connection between the human brain and computer systems. C
yberpunk settings are dystopias with corruption, computers and internet connecti
vity. Giant, multinational corporations have for the most part replaced governme
nts as centers of political, economic, and even military power.
The economic and technological state of Japan in the 80s influenced Cyberpunk li
terature at the time. Of Japan's influence on the genre, William Gibson said, "M
odern Japan simply was cyberpunk."[12] Cyberpunk is often set in urbanized, arti
ficial landscapes, and "city lights, receding" was used by Gibson as one of the
genre's first metaphors for cyberspace and virtual reality.[17]
Protagonists[edit]
One of the cyberpunk genre's prototype characters is Case, from Gibson's Neuroma
ncer.[18] Case is a "console cowboy," a brilliant hacker who has betrayed his or
ganized criminal partners. Robbed of his talent through a crippling injury infli
cted by the vengeful partners, Case unexpectedly receives a once-in-a-lifetime o
pportunity to be healed by expert medical care but only if he participates in an
other criminal enterprise with a new crew.
Like Case, many cyberpunk protagonists are manipulated, placed in situations whe
re they have little or no choice, and although they might see things through, th
ey do not necessarily come out any further ahead than they previously were. Thes
e anti-heroes "criminals, outcasts, visionaries, dissenters and misfits"[19] call to
mind the private eye of detective fiction. This emphasis on the misfits and the
malcontents is the "punk" component of cyberpunk.
Society and government[edit]
Cyberpunk can be intended to disquiet readers and call them to action. It often
expresses a sense of rebellion, suggesting that one could describe it as a type
of culture revolution in science fiction. In the words of author and critic Davi
d Brin:
...a closer look [at cyberpunk authors] reveals that they nearly always portray
future societies in which governments have become wimpy and pathetic ...Popular
science fiction tales by Gibson, Williams, Cadigan and others do depict Orwellia
n accumulations of power in the next century, but nearly always clutched in the
secretive hands of a wealthy or corporate elite.[20]
Cyberpunk stories have also been seen as fictional forecasts of the evolution of
the Internet. The earliest descriptions of a global communications network came
long before the World Wide Web entered popular awareness, though not before tra
ditional science-fiction writers such as Arthur C. Clarke and some social commen
tators such as James Burke began predicting that such networks would eventually
form.[21]
Media[edit]
Literature[edit]
See also: List of cyberpunk works Print media and Cyborgs in fiction
The science-fiction editor Gardner Dozois is generally acknowledged as the perso
n who popularized the use of the term "cyberpunk" as a kind of literature, altho
ugh Minnesota writer Bruce Bethke coined the term in 1980 for his short story "C
yberpunk," which was published in the November 1983 issue of Amazing Science Fic
tion Stories.[22] The term was quickly appropriated as a label to be applied to

the works of William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan and others. Of these, S
terling became the movement's chief ideologue, thanks to his fanzine Cheap Truth
. John Shirley wrote articles on Sterling and Rucker's significance.[23] John Br
unner's 1975 novel The Shockwave Rider is considered by many[who?] to be the fir
st cyberpunk novel with many of the tropes commonly associated with the genre, s
ome five years before the term was popularized by Dozois.
William Gibson with his novel Neuromancer (1984) is likely[according to whom?] t
he most famous writer connected with the term cyberpunk. He emphasized style, a
fascination with surfaces, and atmosphere over traditional science-fiction trope
s. Regarded as ground-breaking and sometimes as "the archetypal cyberpunk work,"
[7] Neuromancer was awarded the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards. Count Z
ero (1986) and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) followed after Gibson's popular debut
novel. According to the Jargon File, "Gibson's near-total ignorance of computers
and the present-day hacker culture enabled him to speculate about the role of c
omputers and hackers in the future in ways hackers have since found both irritat
ingly nave and tremendously stimulating."[24]
Early on, cyberpunk was hailed as a radical departure from science-fiction stand
ards and a new manifestation of vitality.[25] Shortly thereafter, however, some
critics arose to challenge its status as a revolutionary movement. These critics
said that the SF New Wave of the 1960s was much more innovative as far as narra
tive techniques and styles were concerned.[26] Furthermore, while Neuromancer's
narrator may have had an unusual "voice" for science fiction, much older example
s can be found: Gibson's narrative voice, for example, resembles that of an upda
ted Raymond Chandler, as in his novel The Big Sleep (1939).[25] Others noted tha
t almost all traits claimed to be uniquely cyberpunk could in fact be found in o
lder writers' works often citing J. G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, St
anislaw Lem, Samuel R. Delany, and even William S. Burroughs.[25] For example, P
hilip K. Dick's works contain recurring themes of social decay, artificial intel
ligence, paranoia, and blurred lines between objective and subjective realities,
and the influential cyberpunk movie Blade Runner (1982) is based on his book, D
o Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Humans linked to machines are found in Pohl
and Kornbluth's Wolfbane (1959) and Roger Zelazny's Creatures of Light and Dark
ness (1968).
In 1994, scholar Brian Stonehill suggested that Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Grav
ity's Rainbow "not only curses but precurses what we now glibly dub cyberspace."
[27] Other important[according to whom?] predecessors include Alfred Bester's tw
o most celebrated novels, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination,[28] a
s well as Vernor Vinge's novella True Names.[29]
Reception and impact[edit]
Science-fiction writer David Brin describes cyberpunk as "the finest free promot
ion campaign ever waged on behalf of science fiction." It may not have attracted
the "real punks," but it did ensnare many new readers, and it provided the sort
of movement that postmodern literary critics found alluring. Cyberpunk made sci
ence fiction more attractive to academics, argues Brin; in addition, it made sci
ence fiction more profitable to Hollywood and to the visual arts generally. Alth
ough the "self-important rhetoric and whines of persecution" on the part of cybe
rpunk fans were irritating at worst and humorous at best, Brin declares that the
"rebels did shake things up. We owe them a debt."[30]
Fredric Jameson considers cyberpunk the "supreme literary expression if not of p
ostmodernism, then of late capitalism itself".[31]
Cyberpunk further inspired many professional writers who were not among the "ori
ginal" cyberpunks to incorporate cyberpunk ideas into their own works,[citation
needed] such as George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails. Wired magazine, creat
ed by Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe, mixes new technology, art, literature, a

nd current topics in order to interest today s cyberpunk fans, which Paula Yoo cla
ims "proves that hardcore hackers, multimedia junkies, cyberpunks and cellular f
reaks are poised to take over the world."[32]
Film and television[edit]
See also: List of cyberpunk works Films and List of cyberpunk works Television a
nd Web Series
A futuristic Los Angeles in Blade Runner.
The film Blade Runner (1982) adapted from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of El
ectric Sheep? is set in 2019 in a dystopian future in which manufactured beings ca
lled replicants are slaves used on space colonies and are legal prey on Earth to
various bounty hunters who "retire" (kill) them. Although Blade Runner was larg
ely unsuccessful in its first theatrical release, it found a viewership in the h
ome video market and became a cult film.[33] Since the movie omits the religious
and mythical elements of Dick's original novel (e.g. empathy boxes and Wilbur M
ercer), it falls more strictly within the cyberpunk genre than the novel does. W
illiam Gibson would later reveal that upon first viewing the film, he was surpri
sed at how the look of this film matched his vision when he was working on Neuro
mancer. The film's tone has since been the staple of many cyberpunk movies, such
as The Matrix (1999), which uses a wide variety of cyberpunk elements.
The number of films in the genre or at least using a few genre elements has grow
n steadily since Blade Runner. Several of Philip K. Dick's works have been adapt
ed to the silver screen. The films Johnny Mnemonic[34] and New Rose Hotel,[35][3
6] both based upon short stories by William Gibson, flopped commercially and cri
tically.
In addition, "tech-noir" film as a hybrid genre, means a work of combining neo-n
oir and science fiction or cyberpunk. It includes many cyberpunk films such as B
lade Runner, Burst City,[37] The Terminator, Robocop, 12 Monkeys, The Lawnmower
Man, Hackers, Hardware, and Strange Days.
Anime and manga[edit]
See also: List of cyberpunk works Animation
Cyberpunk themes are widely visible in anime and manga. In Japan, where cosplay
is popular and not only teenagers display such fashion styles, cyberpunk has bee
n accepted and its influence is widespread. William Gibson s Neuromancer, whose in
fluence dominated the early cyberpunk movement, was also set in Chiba, one of Ja
pan s largest industrial areas, although at the time of writing the novel Gibson d
id not know the location of Chiba and had no idea how perfectly it fit his visio
n in some ways. The exposure to cyberpunk ideas and fiction in the mid 1980s has
allowed it to seep into the Japanese culture.
Cyberpunk anime and manga draw upon a futuristic vision which has elements in co
mmon with western science fiction and therefore have received wide international
acceptance outside Japan. The conceptualization involved in cyberpunk is more of
forging ahead, looking at the new global culture. It is a culture that does not
exist right now, so the Japanese concept of a cyberpunk future, seems just as v
alid as a Western one, especially as Western cyberpunk often incorporates many J
apanese elements. [38] William Gibson is now a frequent visitor to Japan, and he c
ame to see that many of his visions of Japan have become a reality:
Modern Japan simply was cyberpunk. The Japanese themselves knew it and delighted
in it. I remember my first glimpse of Shibuya, when one of the young Tokyo jour
nalists who had taken me there, his face drenched with the light of a thousand m
edia-suns all that towering, animated crawl of commercial information said, "You see
? You see? It is Blade Runner town." And it was. It so evidently was.[39]
Cyberpunk has influenced many anime and manga including the ground-breaking Akir

a, Ghost in the Shell, Ergo Proxy, Battle Angel Alita, Megazone 23, Neo Tokyo, G
oku Midnight Eye, Cyber City Oedo 808, Bubblegum Crisis, A.D. Police: Dead End C
ity, Angel Cop, Extra, Blame!, Armitage III, Texhnolyze and Psycho-Pass.
Games[edit]
See also: List of cyberpunk works Video games and List of cyberpunk works Role-p
laying games
There are many cyberpunk video games. Popular series include the Metal Gear seri
es, Megami Tensei series, Deus Ex series, Syndicate series, and System Shock and
its sequel. Other games, like Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, and the Matrix
series, are based upon genre movies, or role-playing games (for instance the var
ious Shadowrun games). CD Projekt RED are currently developing a cyberpunk game,
Cyberpunk 2077.[40]
Several role-playing games (RPGs) called Cyberpunk exist: Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk 2
020 and Cyberpunk v3, by R. Talsorian Games, and GURPS Cyberpunk, published by S
teve Jackson Games as a module of the GURPS family of RPGs. Cyberpunk 2020 was d
esigned with the settings of William Gibson's writings in mind, and to some exte
nt with his approval[citation needed], unlike the approach taken by FASA in prod
ucing the transgenre Shadowrun game. Both are set in the near future, in a world
where cybernetics are prominent. In addition, Iron Crown Enterprises released a
n RPG named Cyberspace, which was out of print for several years until recently
being re-released in online PDF form.
In 1990, in a convergence of cyberpunk art and reality, the United States Secret
Service raided Steve Jackson Games's headquarters and confiscated all their com
puters. This was allegedly because the GURPS Cyberpunk sourcebook could be used
to perpetrate computer crime. That was, in fact, not the main reason for the rai
d, but after the event it was too late to correct the public's impression.[41] S
teve Jackson Games later won a lawsuit against the Secret Service, aided by the
new Electronic Frontier Foundation. This event has achieved a sort of notoriety,
which has extended to the book itself as well. All published editions of GURPS
Cyberpunk have a tagline on the front cover, which reads "The book that was seiz
ed by the U.S. Secret Service!" Inside, the book provides a summary of the raid
and its aftermath.
Cyberpunk has also inspired several tabletop, miniature and board games such as
Necromunda by Games Workshop. Netrunner is a collectible card game introduced in
1996, based on the Cyberpunk 2020 role-playing game. Tokyo NOVA, debuting in 19
93, is a cyberpunk role-playing game that uses playing cards instead of dice.
Music[edit]
See also: List of cyberpunk works Music
"Much of the industrial/dance heavy 'Cyberpunk' recorded in Billy Idol's Macintosh
-run studio revolves around Idol's theme of the common man rising up to fight agai
nst a faceless, soulless, corporate world."
Julie Romandetta[42]
Some musicians and acts have been classified as cyberpunk due to their aesthetic
style and musical content. Often dealing with dystopian visions of the future o
r biomechanical themes, some fit more squarely in the category than others. Band
s whose music has been classified as cyberpunk include Psydoll, Front Line Assem
bly, Clock DVA and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Some musicians not normally associated w
ith cyberpunk have at times been inspired to create concept albums exploring suc
h themes. Albums such as Gary Numan's Replicas, The Pleasure Principle and Telek
on were heavily inspired by the works of Philip K. Dick. Kraftwerk's The Man-Mac
hine and Computer World albums both explored the theme of humanity becoming depe
ndent on technology. Nine Inch Nails' concept album Year Zero also fits into thi
s category. Billy Idol's Cyberpunk drew heavily from cyberpunk literature and th
e cyberdelic counter culture in its creation. 1. Outside, a cyberpunk narrative

fueled concept album by David Bowie, was warmly met by critics upon its release
in 1995. Many musicians have also taken inspiration from specific cyberpunk work
s or authors, including Sonic Youth, whose albums Sister and Daydream Nation tak
e influence from the works of Phillip K. Dick and William Gibson respectively.
Vaporwave and Synthwave are also influenced by cyberpunk. The former has been in
terpreted as a dystopian[43] critique of capitalism[44] in the vein of cyberpunk
and the latter as a nostalgic retrofuturistic revival of aspects of cyberpunk's
origins.
Furthermore, many dubstep producers, such as Machine Man and Ghosthack, have fou
nd inspiration in cyberpunk themes for their works.
In 2013, electronic artist, synx, started a style of cyberpunk which blends mild
edm and industrial with euphoric sounds and Japanese styled melodies. He releas
ed his "LET GO EP" in 2015 which further explores this style.
Social impact[edit]
Art and architecture[edit]
Berlin's Sony Center
Some Neo-Futurism artworks and cityscapes have been influenced by cyberpunk, suc
h as [12] the Sony Center in the Potsdamer Platz public square of Berlin, German
y,[45] Cyberport in Hong Kong, and Shanghai.[46]
Society and counterculture[edit]
Several subcultures have been inspired by cyberpunk fiction. These include the c
yberdelic counter culture of the late 1980s and early 90s. Cyberdelic, whose adh
erents referred to themselves as "cyberpunks", attempted to blend the psychedeli
c art and drug movement with the technology of cyberculture. Early adherents inc
luded Timothy Leary, Mark Frauenfelder and R. U. Sirius. The movement largely fa
ded following the dot-com bubble implosion of 2000.
Cybergoth is a fashion and dance subculture which draws its inspiration from cyb
erpunk fiction, as well as rave and Gothic subcultures. In addition, a distinct
cyberpunk fashion of its own has emerged in recent years[when?] which rejects th
e raver and goth influences of cybergoth, and draws inspiration from urban stree
t fashion, "post apocalypse", functional clothing, high tech sports wear, tactic
al uniform and multifunction. This fashion goes by names like "tech wear", "goth
ninja" or "tech ninja". Important designers in this type of fashion[according t
o whom?] are ACRONYM, Demobaza, Boris Bidjan Saberi, Rick Owens and Alexander Wa
ng.
The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong (demolished in 1994) is often referenced as
the model cyberpunk/dystopian slum as, given its poor living conditions at the
time coupled by the city's political, physical, and economic isolation has cause
d many in academia to be fascinated by the ingenuity of its spawning.[47]