Postcyberpunk

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Postcyberpunk describes a subgenre of science fiction which some critics suggest has evolved from classic cyberpunk. Like its predecessor, postcyberpunk focuses on technological developments in near-future societies, typically examining the social effects of an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized informaton, genetic engineering and modification of the human body, and the continued impact of perpetual technological change. Unlike "classic" cyberpunk, however, the works in this category feature characters who act to improve social conditions or at least protect the status quo from further decay. During the 90's some performance artists such as Stelarc, Eduardo Kac, Orlan, Zhu Yu or Benjamin Muon brought these paradigms into the performance art world.

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[edit] History

The term "postcyberpunk" was first used circa 1991 to describe Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Lawrence Person argued that the term should be applied to an emergent subgenre of science fiction, which he proceeded to identify. In 1998, he published an article called "Notes Towards a Postcyberpunk Manifesto" in the small-press magazine Nova Express; the next year, he posted the article to the popular technology website Slashdot. The article proposed the idea that postcyberpunk should be seen as the evolution of the cyberpunk genre of science fiction popular in the late 1970s and 1980s characterized by movies like Blade Runner and books like William Gibson's Neuromancer:

"Bud, from Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, is a classic cyberpunk protagonist. An aggressive, black-leather clad criminal loner with cybernetic body augmentations (including a neurolinked skull gun), Bud makes his living first as a drug runner's decoy, then by terrorizing tourists for money. All of which goes a long way toward explaining why his ass gets wasted on page 37 of a 455 page novel. Welcome to the postcyberpunk era." [1]

In the same essay, Person describes Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net from 1988 as the first postcyberpunk work. "Just as Sterling's The Artificial Kid encapsulated many of cyber-punk's themes before the movement had a name, Islands in the Net prefigured a growing body of work that can (at least until someone comes up with a better name) be labeled postcyberpunk."

Like its predecessor, postcyberpunk depicts realistic near-futures rather than space opera–style deep futures. The focus is on the social effects of Earth-bound technology rather than space travel. Person argues that postcyberpunk is distinct from cyberpunk in the following ways:

  • Cyberpunk typically deals with alienated loners in a dystopia. Postcyberpunk tends to deal with characters who are more involved with society, and act to defend an existing social order or create a better society.
  • In cyberpunk, the alienating effect of new technology is emphasised, whereas in postcyberpunk, "technology is society" (including more transhumanist themes than traditional cyberpunk).
  • Includes a sense of humor, as opposed to the frequently deadly serious nature of cyberpunk.

Other possible characteristics:

  • A more realistic depiction of computers, such as replacing virtual reality with a sort of super voice/audio/video/holographic Internet-based network.
  • A change in emphasis from metallic implants to biotechnology-enabled body modification.

Postcyberpunk possibly emerged because SF authors and the general population began using computers, the Internet, and PDAs to their benefit, without the massive social fragmentation of this Digital Revolution predicted in the 1970s and 1980s.

The term has also been applied to other media works, such as Person's description of the anime series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex as "the most interesting, sustained postcyberpunk media work in existence." [2]

Some critics decry the term, stating that the key characteristic appears no more than a demarcation date, in which everything cyberpunk created after or around 1993 should now be termed "postcyberpunk" regardless of the content of the work.[citation needed] Though the term is widespread,[3] not all readers or critics agree on the precise meaning of the term. For example, this "postcyberpunk" list on Amazon.com [4] categorizes cyberpunk works such as Neuromancer and Blade Runner as postcyberpunk.

[edit] Examples of postcyberpunk

Some authors to which the label has been applied have endorsed and adopted it. However, classification is always difficult; there are many works which explore postcyberpunk themes in a dystopian way—e.g. Paul McAuley's Fairyland. Some authors are hard to classify. For example, Greg Egan's work is arguably so inventive as to defy classification into a "movement" or "sub-genre".

Postcyberpunk could become an umbrella for all sorts of interesting near-future action in movies and books such as Max Barry's satirical Jennifer Government. Aspects of postcyberpunk can be found in works before Sterling's Islands in the Net or Stephenson's The Diamond Age, just as cyberpunk itself had partial anticedents like John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider, but not combined all the classic elements of cyberpunk with a less alienated and more mature and optimistic outlook before Sterling and Stephenson's first postcyberpunk works.

Interestingly, a new niche for postcyberpunk is emerging- transmissions from postcyberpunks themselves via the participatory media revolution encompassing "Podcasting" and "Videocasting". Examples include: Cyberpunk Radio San Francisco and Hack Virtual Television.

An early example, possibly the earliest (depending on the precise limits one chooses to define as postcyberpunk), of a role-playing game with a postcyberpunk setting was Cybergeneration, originally published in 1993. It is published by R. Talsorian Games. Other early postcyberpunk role-playing games or settings might include High Colonies (1988) or GURPS Terradyne (1991), indicating some of the difficulty in categorization.

Another example of a postcyberpunk role-playing game (though other categories are proposed as well) is Transhuman Space written by David L. Pulver, illustrated by Christopher Shy, published by Steve Jackson Games and is part of the "Powered by GURPS" line. [5] Yet Another is Ex Machina, published by Guardians of Order and part of both the tri-stat and d20 gaming lines.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Literary sci-fi punk genres
Cyberpunk — Postcyberpunk — Steampunk — Biopunk
Other themes
Retro-futurism — Cyberprep — Transrealism
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