What is Cyberpunk?

Many people confuse cyberpunk with sci-fi but actually cyberpunk is the child or sub-genre of science fiction. Cyberpunk embodies future technology, hackers, cyborgs, mega-corporations and advanced robotics all while maintaining a sense of urbanism in a dark, edgy underground world. Thus the phrase “high tech low life” was born.

This is the coined phrase that distinctly makes cyberpunk vastly different then a shiny polished sci-fi world and it seems like everyday we get one step closer to this type of future. Underneath the chrome and neon world lies a cultural movement of future gangs, cybernetic body modifications, corruption, holograms nestled between sky high skyscrapers and the dangers of technological progress all in a dystopian futuristic setting. In this type of world it is common to see flying vehicles weaving in between the city buildings and bleeding alleyways filled with poverty and addiction.

The economy is completely driven by big technology companies. The middle class is very few and far between with mostly everyone living in low income hustling for their next paycheck. The elite 1% have more power than ever because mega-corporations control the governments. Cyberpunk showed us the dark side, revealing the dangerous side effects of the drug of futurism.

The History of Cyberpunk

The origins of cyberpunk started in the 1960’s and 1970’s during the new wave science fiction movement. Writers like Philip K. Dick with the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” which pioneered a dystopian world showcasing the morel problems of artificial intelligence and cybernetic technology. This revolutionary novel kick started the cyberpunk area and inspired other writers and film makers to continue on with this new sub culture of sci-fi. Bruce Sterling, Walter Jon Williams, and William Gibson were also important in early cyberpunk literature with short stories “Johnny Mnemonic“ and “Burning Chrome.“

The term cyberpunk was created by Bruce Bethke and it was the title of his short story written in 1980. Gardner Dozois later picked up the term and popularized it in his editorials, saying “the purveyors of bizarre hard-edged, high-tech stuff, who have on occasion been refereed to as cyberpunks” and thus the term cyberpunk became main stream. A few years later in 1982 Ridley Scott directed the iconic movie “Blade Runner” based on the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” mentioned earlier. The movie was about a bounty hunter tracking down dangerous human like androids (replicants) in a cyberpunk world staring the famous actor Harrison Ford.

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

– William Gibson

A few years later in 1984 Neuromancer, published by William Gibson, delivered another glimpse of a cyberpunk future in a fantastic story. It was part neo-noir and part heist story showcasing how cyberpunk culture looks, feels, and reads for many decades.