Cyberpunk, it origins and essential works.

Cyberpunk is a genre that is quite hard to define. It's not defined by a specific set of visuals, a specific setting, or it's main characters. Nor it is defined by a time-period, or it's literary elementsm, nor by how many random biblical quotes appear. It can appear in unexpected places, including Fantasy, Victorian Anachronism, Spy Fiction set in the 60's or what is essentially now. The quite possibly best definition for cyberpunk would be stories centered around the negative impact of technology in specific, and philosophical themes stemming from that in general.

The classical cyberpunk was born from William Gibson, the so-called "godfather" of cyberpunk. In his novel Neuromancer, published in 1984, we see a future world that isn't pretty at all. The drug-addicted hacker Case is recruited (by some rather unconventional means involving his pancreas) to do a job together with the former-prostitute hired gun Molly and an artificial version of one of Case's dead hacker friends to hack into a bunch of places and steal a bunch of stuff. Fair enough. Here's the deal. I haven't touched the cyberpunk yet. No, the cyberpunk arrives when one or more of the important characters are revealed to be already dead, sucidal AI's trying to kill themselves without knowing it, or simply manipulating data for their own benefits. Now it's cyberpunk, because the possibilities and negative impact of technology are arriving. Then Neuromancer begins to question reality and the final cornerstone is lain down.

However, cyberpunk begins eariler than that. In 1982, Ridley Scott released a movie staring Harrison Ford. Besides Neuromancer and Ghost in the Shell it is perhaps one of first things people will think of when they hear cyberpunk. The name of the movie was, and is, Blade Runner. Blade Runner was based upon the Philiph K. Dick story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? released about two decaded earlier. In fact, most of the newer cyberpunk and semi-cyberpunk movies released are based upon stories by Philiph K. Dick, so if Gibson is the godfather, then K. Dick is the grandfather. Blade Runner centers around Deckard, whose job is to retire (Hint: It means kill.) Replicants. Replicants are genetically engineered clones of humans, used as slaves, prostitutes and soldiers on off-world colonies. However, because they are grown to adult size and thrown into their jobs, they have no emotional buffer, and can easily kill people without a shrug. Deckard's job is to find them and retire them before they slaughter more people. However, as the story progresses, we see more and more sides of the Replicants, and a lot of characters may or may not be replicants themselves, and we encounter one of the largest themes of cyberpunk. What is a human?

If Neuromancer is the most infulential in elements, briging us hackers, stealth camo, cyborgs, memory transfer and digital memories, then Blade Runner brough in the visuals. The world is dark, and it rains. Thousands of lights illuminate the horizon. Light and dark encapsule each other. Blade Runner is heavily influenced by Film Noir, and it shows. Femmes Fatales, Strippers, Prostitutes, the alcoholic Private Eye, and the Sexy Secretary. The world is lived in. It's not a happy, idealistic place. It's a run-down cynical world with thieves at every corner. And, just to show us that cyberpunk is illusive. There are no cyborgs, hackers or AI's in Blade Runner.

With the two corners of a triangle, elements and visuals, it's time for the third corner. Themes. There is no single work that is iconic for themes. The closes would be Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, but it wans't influential. It just brought everything further. Themes are what distingushes cyberpunk stories from each other. It might be what constitues a human. Can a robot be human? Can an AI be human? Can a clone be human? (GitS, Blade Runner, etc.) Maybe the themes is what is reality. Maybe you're trapped in a fake world (Neuromacer, the Matrix, etc.), or maybe you're just being manipuled by a mountain of lies. (Metal Gear Solid 1, 2 & 3) other themes include social seregation (Gattaca, MGS1) identity (GitS) right & wrong and whatever theme can be expressed though the use of technology, only limited by the imagination of the author. (For better or worse.)

With this elusive triangle, a number of book, movies, animated series and graphics novels form what is known as cyberpunk.

-LatwPIAT