CYBERPUNK

noun Sometimes written Cyberpunk (Lifestyle and Leisure) A style of science fiction writing combining high-tech plots (in which the world is controlled by artificial intelligence) with unconventional or nihilistic social values. Also, a writer of (or sometimes a character in or follower of) cyberpunk. Etymology: Formed by combining the first two syllables of cybernetics (the science of control systems) with punk (probably as an allusion to the hard, aggressive character of punk music, with which cyberpunk has much in common, particularly in its harshness and deliberate attempt to shock). History and Usage: Although only a few years old, cyberpunk has grown into a leading genre of science fiction. The word may have been coined by Gardner Dozois to describe the work of a number of writers in the mid eighties, notably William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. William Gibson's book Neuromancer (1984) is seen as a foundational influence; so much so, in fact, that another name for the writers of this type of fiction is Neuromantics. They have also been called outlaw technologists or the mirror-shades group, while the genre has been called technopunk or radical hard SF as well as cyberpunk. Outside the world of science fiction only cyberpunk has been widely popularized, especially as a result of the television adaptation of Neuromancer, Max Headroom. In 1991 Cyberpunk was the title of Peter von Brandenburg's documentary film on the genre, which itself used some of the techniques characteristic of cyberpunk writing. The purveyors of bizarre, hard-edged, high-tech stuff, who have on occasion been referred to as 'cyberpunks'...They are the '80s generation. Washington Post 30 Dec. 1984, p. 9 It's the Rhetoric of the New. Pitched somewhere between the SF genre of cyberpunk and the mainstream brat novel. Listener 4 May 1989, p. 29