Concept in Definition ABC

In the nineteenth century the emergence of machines was received mostly with optimism, since it seemed that the production Industrial and technical advances would lead us to fulfillment as a society. Literatures like Oscar Wilde or philosophers like Karl Marx understood that machines could be the perfect allies for the emancipation of humanity. One hundred years later, a literary trend appeared that presented a dystopian vision against the utopians of the past, cyberpunk. It involves the synthesis of two postulates: cybernetics and the word punk as a synonym for rebellion.

East literary movement, and its later film version, is framed within the genre of science fiction and in its stories cybernetics appears as a threat disturbing and not as a salvation.

The cyberpunk universe took its first steps in the 80s with the novels "Neuromancer" and "Count Zero" by William Gibson. The subgenre continued with titles such as "Carbon altered" by Richard Morgan, "Stellar Tide" by David Brin and films such as the mythical "Blade Runner", "Matrix" or "Terminator".

Over time, Japanese manga and anime and the conventional comic sector bet on a neo cyberpunk. The same has happened in the video game industry.

What can we find in the stories of cyberpunk?

The framework science fiction is not a distant and distant future but a future very close to the present, something like what awaits us around the corner.

Anti-utopian references appear and the capitalist model of society presents a very little version friendly: urban tribes who oppose the system, a pseudo-apocalyptic atmosphere, dominated characters by artificial intelligence or engineering genetics and some multinationals that replace political power.

The urban landscape is cybernetic and, at the same time, decadent; because we find graffiti, neon lights in impoverished cities and technologies that corner humans.

Cyberpunk combines several narrative trends. In this sense, it drinks from the classics of 20th century science fiction (novels like "1984" by Orwell or "A Happy World" by Huxley), has something of a detective crime novel and some similarities with the movement Steampunk.

Philosophical dimension

While science fiction stories are told, there is much more than one description ingenious of the future. Cyberpunk addresses some questions of philosophical interest: will we humans be dominated by intelligence artificial? Are we capable of mastering technology? Will our individual being be the same when cybernetics and engineering genetics turn us into someone else? If individual experiences are collected on a chip, will we continue to be U.S?

Fotolia photos: Nejron / Agor2012