Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction that emerged in the 1980s, characterised by its focus on "high tech, low life" — a combination of advanced technology and societal breakdown. The genre typically features a dystopian future where society is dominated by powerful corporations, ubiquitous technology, and cybernetic body modification, while ordinary people struggle to survive in the margins.

The term was coined by Bruce Bethke in his 1983 short story "Cyberpunk", and the genre was popularised by William Gibson, particularly through his novel Neuromancer (1984). Common elements include artificial intelligence, virtual reality, hackers, megacorporations, and themes of resistance against technological control. The genre often explores the relationship between humanity and technology, questioning what it means to be human in a world where the line between organic and artificial becomes increasingly blurred. Its concerns resonate strongly with the cypherpunk movement, which shares the focus on privacy, corporate power, and technological autonomy.

Cyberpunk has evolved beyond literature into a broader cultural phenomenon, shaping fashion, music, film (Blade Runner, The Matrix), and architecture. Its influence runs through contemporary discussions of AI, surveillance-capitalism, and digital privacy — many of its once-fictional concepts having become reality. For the parallel-society and cypherpunk traditions, cyberpunk is more diagnosis than aesthetic: it described a corporate-tech dystopia decades before it arrived, and its sibling movements (solarpunk, lunarpunk, biopunk) have since extended the lineage into possible futures rather than only inevitable ones.