g-humphr@gumby.UUCP (09/26/87)
Subject: Cyberpunk Definitions Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk Keywords: Cyberpunk, NASfiC, Rudy Rucker, Arguments, Drunken Moderators In so far as defintions for cyberpunk go, I'm tempted to fall back on the one created by Rudy Rucker in the infamous Cyberpunk panel at the 1985 NASfiC in Austin, Texas. To paraphrase, "Cyberpunk is like the punk rock movement. The writers took S/F and stripped it down then sped it up." So what qualifies as "stripped down and sped up?" I dont think that grimy urban settings have anything to do with it. Just look at Bruce Sterling's _Schizmatrix_. The settings are man-made worlds, the characters are movers and shakers of ideaological movements. What made it "stripped down and sped up" was how it reached back to the sense of wonder. Early S/F had it easy when creating a sense of wonder, all you needed was a spaceship or an alien. We're used to those things now. Popular culture has iconized them via -StarTrek/Wars/ET- ad naseum. In an interview with Andy Mc Quiddy that was published in the Texas S/F Inquirer,r , Sterling described what constitutes a sense of wonder these days as, paraphrasing again: "getting in bed with the technology". The cyberpunk writers take the tack of "if this goes on..." to its wildest extremes. To synopsize, I would say that cyberpunk is not about "low life and high tech", but about living in a world where technology has gone from shaping to controlingg the world.
hugh@mit-eddie.UUCP (09/26/87)
MeSirs: g-humphr@gumby.wisc.edu (Bill Humphries) Says: > To synopsize, I would say that cyberpunk is not about "low life and high > tech", but about living in a world where technology has gone from shaping to > controling the world. I must say NAK to this, technolgy never 'controls' the world. It does give us bounds and directions, and maybe we can even whip up some AI (sgag) to do some 'controling' it we are real lucky. I might restate your synopsis are "Liveing in a world where the technolgy has gone from simple and slow (Fords & NY Times) to *fast* and direct (Straight into the Brain & Info to the point, never another Syntax Error!)." Cyber=Information Age, Punk=Face up to the Black Phycial Reality and DO IT! ||ugh Danile hugh@hop.toad.com & far to many other sites to remember...
bart@speedy.UUCP (09/27/87)
In article <7011@eddie.MIT.EDU> hugh@hop.toad.com (Hugh Daniels) writes: > I must say NAK to this, technolgy never 'controls' the world. Never had a coke machine take your money? An autoteller refuse a withdrawal? A confused entry in an INS database order your car stripped coming back from Mexico? A bad sensor put the entire world on nuclear alert? And that just comes from STUPID machines. Just wait until they really get smart. (And tired of humanoids pounding on them and giving them sh-twork to do). --bart miller uw-madison cs dept bart@asiago.wisc.edu ...!uwvax!bart