cyberpunk means A subgenre of science fiction which focuses on computer or information technology and virtual reality juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 85 out of 100.
Why this word is great
CYBERPUNK — [Noun] A science fiction subgenre fusing dystopian, high-tech futures with marginalized, countercultural underclasses. Its etymology is precise: From cyber- (relating to computers and information technology) + -punk (denoting a rebellious, anti-establishment subculture), coined by Bruce Bethke in 1983. Unlike steampunk, which retreats into a fantasia of brass and steam, or post-cyberpunk, which offers guarded optimism and reformist heroes, cyberpunk is raw, near-future nihilism. It is the acidic-yellow reflection of a neon sign in a gutter puddle, the subdermal ache of a cheap neural implant, and the flicker of stolen data on a cracked monitor in a coffin apartment—a genre built on the melancholic dread that the future has already arrived, and we are not its masters but its spare parts.
noun
- A subgenre of science fiction which focuses on computer or information technology and virtual reality juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.“But by 1987, cyberpunk had become a cliche. Other writers had turned the form into formula: implant wetware (biological computer chips), government by multinational corporations, street-wise, leather-jacketed, amphetamine-loving protagonists and decayed orbital colonies.”
- A cyberpunk character, a hacker punk, a high-tech low life.“The film The Matrix redefined what a cyberpunk looked like.”
- A writer of cyberpunk fiction.“[…] cyberpunks like William Gibson, Lucious Sheperd^([sic]), Bruce Sterling […]”
- A musical genre related to the punk movement that makes use of electronic sounds such as synthesizers.“A more technologically elaborate current of microtonal music can be found at M.I.T and Berklee College of Music, where R. Boulanger works in exotic equal temperaments and non-octave scales (E₆₀ and the 13th root of 3, i.e. the Bohlen-Pierce scale) using the CSOUND acoustic compiler, the Mathews radio drum and various MIDI synthesizers; nearby, E. Mullen performs cyberpunk music in E₁₉ and the 13th”