this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2024
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Cyberpunk
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What is Cyberpunk?
Cyberpunk is a science-fiction sub-genre dealing with the integration of society and technology in dystopian settings. Often referred to as “low-life and high tech,” Cyberpunk stories deal with outsiders (punks) who fight against the oppressors in society (usually mega corporations that control everything) via technological means (cyber). If the punks aren’t actively fighting against a megacorp, they’re still dealing with living in a world completely dependent on high technology.
Cyberpunk characteristics include:
- Dystopian city setting where mega-corporations rule
- Full integration of technology into society, featuring cybernetic implants
- Outsider protagonists (punks) who often are very familiar with the technology around them
- Hard boiled detective and film noir vibes and influence
- Themes dabbling in trans-humanism, existentialism, and what it means to be human.
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I can't find the quote now so I'm sure I'm going to butcher this, but i remember seeing some interview with Gibson where he said computer nerds at the time were all laughing at him because the sheer scale of networking speeds he was talking about (up to hundreds of baud!) were physically impossible. Of course, his total ignorance of computers ended up being more accurate than what nerds at the time thought was possible.
The computer in question being a Pac-Man machine some teenagers were playing on.
Which goes with the weirdly analogue and vaguely magic-like nature of Gibsonian cyberspace: an ethereal plane of light, populated by vaguely demonic forces which can physically melt the terminal you’re using if they get you, only expressed through the metaphor of computers.