🏹 ⛹️ 🛑 Business and cyberpunk: mix, sustain, use 👩🏻‍🏫 💓 🏊

Is it possible to connect a subculture and commercial activity? The question is rhetorical, similar examples exist. And if you are ready for experiments, you will only have to find this very subculture and make yourself known there. Texts and any other content in this case will be “non-standard” by nature.

Without further ado, I present to your attention “cyberpunk” (K.). We will talk about what kind of phenomenon it is, how it appeared and where it goes. And how can a commercial project be connected with the “great and terrible” cyberpunk. (Do not confuse with “punks”, although a few words will be said about them too).

At this point, all the “real” fans of this trend are likely to close the page, and may even never return to it (I hope this does not happen). In fact, this article is more for entrepreneurs and those who have not heard of K. at all, or who have an incomplete understanding of him.

For those who are “fully informed”, I suggest that you read this report about business and cyberpunk. You can add or fix something - it will be just wonderful! After all, criticism is always better than silence.

Where did cyberpunk come from? Fiction, IT and punk revolution - mix in the right proportions

Science fiction: riot on the "literary outskirts" (30-70s)

Cyberpunk is essentially science fiction. It began with this, then stood out in a separate genre, and today it is a whole phenomenon. But more on that later.

Cyberpunk, as a literary genre, had many predecessors. This is a whole layer of science fiction literature and individual iconic works, not necessarily related to it.

For example, the dystopian novel O Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932). Perhaps this is one of the earliest works, the theme of which is consonant with cyberpunk.

Or the works of the American science fiction writer Philip Dick (1928 - 1982). He did not live to see the emergence of cyberpunk, but, in fact, prepared the basis for it.

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"Hacking" originated in the 50s of the last century in the university environment of America. Talented students and teachers have researched information technology (IT) and its free access. (In our time - this is the essence of the philosophy of K).

The basic principle of such research is the exclusion of damage to the system. It doesn't fit very well with modern hacking, right? But in fact - it was these people who became his predecessors!

Computers of the time were very expensive and occupied entire buildings. Therefore, their owners were educational and scientific government institutions, or very large companies. As a result, it was possible to buy or get for free (at the university) only “computer time”.

Therefore, the first "cyber rebels" were looking for ways to circumvent bureaucratic and commercial restrictions. They did so, first of all, for creative self-realization and a desire to protest in principle.

The latter is generally characteristic of young people of all time. But in combination with the desire to create, this is the basis for entrepreneurship, which has always been formally encouraged in Western society. The road for such people, in principle, was open, which they later took advantage of.

Later, such specialists will create the first high-tech companies as a creative experiment, but at a higher level. There will be an opportunity not only to come up with a new product, but to introduce consumers to it (I think that IT masters initially treated them as friends and fans, without defining them as “standard customers”).

Internet innovators have had a huge impact on the economy and society, changing old ineffective rules of life to more relevant. We can say that they were building a new world. This did not immediately become apparent, and the creation of mega-corporations like Google was still a long way off. Our “brave new world” is yet to come.

70s are the first IT companies. For example, in 1976 Apple was founded. You can feel the atmosphere of those times by watching films about Steve Jobs.

Punk Revolution: The Voice of the Street (70s)

Now let's talk about the second part of the word “cyberpunk”. This component has become the last in time and a very important element of “composition”. He created a truly "explosive mixture."

The time of action is the end of the 60s-70s. Location - USA and Western Europe. The protest method was music, or rather, rock.

At first it was just alternative music - “not for sale” rock, then punk rock arose, and later - punk subculture.

This time gave the world the most diverse directions and groups (we will name only a few):

from avant-garde pioneers (American Velvet Undeground, Captain Beefheart, the Fugs),
Detroit Proto-Punk (American The Stooges, MC5),
glam (American New York Dolls, British Roxy Music, T.Rex),
to punk (American Ramones, Television, British Sex Pistols, the Clash) and the “new wave”.

In the end, music and subculture turned into pure commerce, similar to the first companies.

Rock music of the 60s and 70s is a vast and completely separate topic. If it’s interesting, I can redirect you: the

history of punk rock is well covered in the Walks on the Wild Side series (hosted by Vladimir Ilyinsky and Mikhail Kuzishchev), and in 120 minutes of rock classics (Ekho Moskvy radio station).

You can also draw parallels with cyberpunk here. Having emerged as part of science fiction, he became a separate genre, and then created a whole movement (I will abstain about the subculture for now).

Cyberpunk literature (80 - our time): from classics to new horizons

The founder of the cyberpunk genre in science fiction is considered to be William Gibson, a Canadian writer of American descent. He became one of those who discerned the consequences of a new technological (or “information”) revolution, looking into our immediate future.

As a result, in science fiction, instead of space, robots and aliens, virtual space and characters of a different kind appear:

“Cyber jockeys” (hackers);
“Street samurai” (mercenaries);
buyers of illegal or stolen goods;
quite decent technicians, doctors and other specialists (they only work in the field of the shadow economy, which seems to be an official struggle).

Of course, in the plots of cyberpunk works there are also “normal” characters. For example, “stars” and “simstim” specialists (new TV format), police, couriers, sellers. But it is more a background for the main characters. And all events take place in the "twilight zone" of reality.

One of the main players in cyberpunk is artificial intelligence (AI), whose representatives are actively working for the corporation. True, especially “advanced” AIs sometimes get out of hand. For example, “some Iskin suddenly wanted to tweak his personal cash flow” (William Gibson, “Count Zero”).

But the most significant “characters” of William Gibson's short stories and novels are corporations that have long begun their struggle for control of the global economy. And the methods used here are different, right up to the real war. It is corporations (in an impersonal form) that make decisions that change the fate of heroes and force them to be pawns in a strange game.

Powerful syndicates are at the intersection of the real and shadow economies, pushing to a certain extent state and criminal structures. And the "independence" and "coolness" of individual heroes, in fact, are at the service of corporations. But sometimes the heroes are still able to make independent decisions and even change the "course of the general game."

Gibson gives the first description of the high-tech world of the future in his debut short story “Shards of a Holographic Rose” (1977). Then this theme was developed in the collection “Burning Chrome” (1986, by the name of the longest and most characteristic story in this series).

The described world turned out to be so real that a sequel appeared in the form of the Cyberspace trilogy (1984 - 1988, the Russian version - The Anthill).

Gibson's next cycle is The Bridge Trilogy (1993 - 1999). Here he studies the “asocial territories” and people who are beyond the orbit of a prosperous society.

The latest series of novels to date is The Bigenda Trilogy (2003 - 2010). This work can be attributed to the so-called "naupanki" (what it is - I will say further).

Naturally, one Gibson number of authors working on the topic of cyberpunk. not limited to. There are a lot of them - from co-author Gibson and another founder K., Bruce Sterling, to representatives of the “new wave of cyberpunk (rather, even bio-punk)”, like Paolo Bachigalupi.

What will happen after cyberpunk and the information society? New trends in K. paint the future

The genre is developing, its new directions appear, which quite seriously can “move” the classic cyberpunk. Therefore, it’s worth a little talk about them.

Naupank and liberpunk. The first is the cyberpunk of today (the last Gibson trilogy is a good example), the second is the opposition to the modern Western way of life, there is an intersection with the anti-globalist movement (the term, according to some information, was created by Russian writers). Events take place now or a little later.

Postkiberpunk. K. contrasts himself, demonstrating to us the overcoming of his most complex problems. At the same time, other, less dramatic or local ones appear.

Examples of this style include:

Japanese anime series Ghost in the Shell: The Loner Syndrome (2002);
The novel "Urodina" (2005) by the American-Australian science fiction writer Scott Westerfeld (the first from the Rebel fiction cycle, 2005 - 2007).

Utilpunk is a post-apocalyptic world. The plot is common in science fiction. But there is a subtle difference - it is the information society that leads to the collapse of civilization or part of it.

Examples of such a “landfill world” from the cinema are the film trilogy “Mad Max” (1979, 1981, 1985), the film “Water World” (1995). A good example of a utilpunk can be found in the second cycle of William Gibson's novels - The Bridge Trilogy (1993 - 1999).

Biopunk and nanopunk are the most likely successors to cyberpunk. This is about genetic engineering and nanotechnology. Some elements of these themes can be found in classical cyberpunk (and in our present life).

So, K.'s subgenres appeared due to the approach of the future, which he described. But they continue to actively develop, intersect, and national features are added. So, our future is constantly being specified, and only time will tell whether the "science-fiction predictors" were right.

Cyberpunk now: no longer literature, not ideology yet? Aged product is ready to eat!

“The future has already come. It’s just that it’s still unevenly distributed. ” William Gibson

We got to the most interesting part. Because K. now is not just a literary genre, but a global movement. And the simple reason for this is the onset of reality, described in science fiction from the 80s to the present.

Evidence of this is the emergence of such areas as “naupank”, “liberpunk” that describe the present. That is, cyberpunk begins to resemble in some way “journalistic investigations” or something like that.

Information technology has become an important part of both the economy and society. Now this is not just a “fashion industry”, but something more. New opportunities have given rise to new threats. Not everyone is happy with the free flow of information. But cyberpunk, as a movement, advocates just such a natural state of things.

We list only some projects in the style of K., taking different spheres of life (or the problems that all got) and specific solutions:

Alternative finance: cryptocurrency. This is a real alternative to government money. Despite the difficulties of its development, the idea is progressing, actually recognized as legal, and is even being studied by state structures.
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Free media: blogs and other services. No comments.

The list will be constantly growing, you can be sure! And conversations like "Well, look what they did, how do we live now? This is outrageous! ”Will not change anything.

Of course, other services could be added here, such as direct hotel reservations, taxi calling systems, market places and the like. But at the same time, there is a temptation to call any IT project “cyberpunk”.

Another interesting point. Not all Internet technologies relate only to “pure IT needs.” Security, information, finance are more than cheap entertainment and IT joys (like free software). Yes, these projects arose on the Web, but went far beyond its borders.

Business and cyberpunk: mix, sustain, use