cyberpunk, n.
(ˈsaɪbəˌpʌŋk)
Also cyber-punk.
[f. cybernetics n. + punk n.3]
1. a. A subgenre of science fiction typified by a bleak, high-tech setting in which a lawless subculture exists within an oppressive society dominated by computer technology. b. An author of, or protagonist in, such writing.
| 1983 B. Bethke (title) in Amazing Stories Nov. 94 Cyberpunk. 1984 Washington Post 30 Dec. (Book World section) 9/1 About the closest thing here to a self-willed esthetic ‘school’ would be the purveyors of bizarre hard-edged, high-tech stuff, who have on occasion been referred to as ‘cyberpunks’—Sterling, Gibson, Shiner, Cadigan, Bear. 1988 Times Lit. Suppl. 21 Oct. 1180/3 The subgenre of science fiction now widely known as Cyberpunk, in which life in the computerized jungle of the near future can only be survived by young street-wise masters of software interfaces and the arts of combat. 1989 Adbusters Q. Winter 30/1 Cyberspace is inhabited by Cyberpunks. 1992 Independent 19 May 12/4 Cyberpunk protagonists are electronic cowboys in a battle for the control of information. |
2. transf. A person who accesses computer networks illegally, esp. with malicious intent. Cf. hacker n. 3 b.
| 1989 C. Stoll Cuckoo's Egg xlvi. 245 This was a sensitive medical device, not a plaything for some cyberpunk. Some poor computer geek, indeed. 1989 Daily Tel. 4 Nov. 2/3 A ‘stinky Sperry computer’ caught fire after a cyber-punk sent an instruction to its printer to overwrite the same line of text 1,000 times. 1991 Hafner & Markoff Cyberpunk i. 123 In the ten years Reid had taught at Stanford, he had been involved in network security, had met several such ‘cyberpunks’ and had sparred with dozens of them inside the Stanford computers. 1993 Wired Sept./Oct. 90/2 Cyberpunks are setting the stage for a coming digital counterculture that will turn the '90s zeitgeist utterly on its head. |