Meaning of cyberpunk | Babel Free

Definitions

1. 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.
   uncountable
2. A cyberpunk character, a hacker punk, a high-tech low life.
   countable
3. A writer of cyberpunk fiction.
   countable
4. A musical genre related to the punk movement that makes use of electronic sounds such as synthesizers.
   uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“Cyberpunk stories are set⟳ in a futuristic, dystopic environment—the opposite of utopian—in which computer technology plays an important role. […] The protagonists of cyberpunk stories are technologically proficient, lonely adventurers struggling with issues of identity and forced to use⟳ computer skills to fight⟳ menacing forces of domination.”

“The film The Matrix redefined what a cyberpunk looked like⟳.”

“[…] cyberpunks like⟳ William Gibson, Lucious Sheperd^([sic]), Bruce Sterling […]”

“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 root of 3.”

“At Meredith we stayed up all night listening to doof doof cyberpunk music and I saw⟳ you cry⟳ for the first time, at four in the morning bottle of ice tea and vodka in hand I saw⟳ your real face⟳ and something changed.”

“Indeed, 'Mindphaser' (and Tactical Neural Implant more generally) represents a high point⟳ of cyberpunk in the industrial music scene.”

CEFR level