cyberpunk Hear it!

cyberpunk Definition

☆ cy·ber·punk (sī′bər puŋk′)

noun

  1. a type of science fiction typically describing a violent, urban future in which computers and drugs predominate
  2. Slang hacker (sense )

Etymology: cyber- (as in cybernetics) + punk ()

Cyberpunk Hacker Definition
This word, which literally combines the words cyber and punk, first appeared as the title of a short story entitled “Cyberpunk,” by Bruce Bethke. The term was published in the AMAZING science fiction stories magazine in 1983. The short story was a high-tech science fiction story about a group of teenage crackers with ethical shortcomings. Bethke said that the coining of the word was his attempt to find a word that would combine the notions of “punk attitudes” and “high-technology.”

In a 1993 issue of Time magazine, the term “cyberpunk” was more broadly used to define a culture involved with virtual sex, drugs, and rock and roll music—a counterculture segment of the computer age. The term combined “cyber” from communication and control theory with “punk” to indicate a rebellious youth segment with anti-social tendencies and having a disdain for conventional ways of using cyber tools.

Two defining books of cyberpunk include Neuromancer by William Gibson and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

See Also: Computer; Computer Underground (CU).

cyberpunk Usage Examples

Adjective modifier

  • classic: Classic cyberpunk, complete with environmental devastation and futuristic weaponry.

Modifies a noun

  • fiction: In the Beginning was the Command Line A masterpiece of computer journalism by one of the masters of cyberpunk fiction.
  • genre: There's a new player in town - or more to the point a new book that places itself firmly in the cyberpunk genre.
  • novel: These things also exist in cyberpunk novels, which is why they're in the book.
  • story: A corporation is frequently the moving force behind a cyberpunk story.
  • literature: The growing cyberpunk literature warns of the threats of rationalized politics increasingly in the hands of technologically competent corporations.
  • writer: It wasn't that the cyberpunk writers sprang fully grown from the sea foam.

Noun used with modifier

  • word: The word cyberpunk was coined by writer Bruce Bethke, who wrote a story with that title in 1982.
  • term: The term cyberpunk was first coined by Bruce Bethke in his short story Cyberpunk published in 1983.