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"Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats. This is a hard thing to think about, but it's the truth. It won't go away because we cover our eyes. THAT is cyberpunk."
"Transhumanism is about how technology will eventually help us overcome the problems that have, up until now, been endemic to human nature. Cyberpunk is about how technology won't."
— Stephenls of RPG.Net, on the difference between transhumanism and cyberpunk
Speculative Fiction centered around the transformative effects, both good and bad, of information processing technology, computers and networks. In many ways the spiritual descendant of "hard-boiled" private-eye literature and Film Noir.
Heroes are most often hackers, specialists and freedom fighters trying to overcome monolithic Big Brother types or corporate quasi-government forces. Major villains are almost inevitably powerful businessmen, with a number of gun-toting Mooks at their beck and call. If the work dates from 1980s, there's a good chance that sinister zaibatsu will be in the background somewhere, and Japanese-sounding brand-names will be liberally scattered around.
Cyberpunk is originally a literary genre. Many anime have at least a hint, perhaps due to the fact that Japan is closer to actually being cyberpunk.
Tends to be dystopian and cynical in tone. By default set in some giant, sprawling City Noir, sometime about Twenty Minutes Into The Future. People also tend to be "extended human", what with Artificial Limbs and cable jacks in the skull. And the weather is always bad.
See also Cyberspace. Compare Dungeon Punk, Punk Punk.
Gradually evolving into Post Cyber Punk. To clarify the distinction; if you have a Crapsack World modelled on Japanese Zaibatsu where (most critically) technology is a method by which the power elite control the people, and the protagonists are entirely against said society, you have traditional Cyber Punk. If, however, you have a world that has some redeeming features, is not controlled by the State and/or Mega Corp, technology ISN'T screwing everything up (or, heaven forbid, it's actually a good thing), and the protagonists are trying to fix social problems from within rather than rebelling against society from without, you have Post Cyber Punk. Of course, several works fit on a continuum between the two tropes.
Clear-Cut Examples
Anime
- Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex, as well as the two previous GITS movies.
- Especially the series is closer to Post Cyber Punk, featuring a world which is filled with social problems, but the oppressive, authoritarian society definative for the Cyberpunk-genre is conspiciously absent.
- There is, however, government censorship of the media, refugees are treated poorly and social welfare appears to be nonexistent. As well, members of the military appear to be able to issue orders to civilians (something which is not permitted in most democracies except under martial law).
- Gunnm or Battle Angel Alita
- Serial Experiments Lain
- This series is rather lacking on the punk elements of cyberpunk, though. It's closer to Magical Realism done in a cyberpunk-like setting.
- Bubblegum Crisis (and especially its spinoff, AD Police - in all its incarnations. The remake series, Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 was criticized for being more clean-cut than the original.)
- Akira
- Ergo Proxy
- Texhnolyze
- Thanks to deliberate use of Zeerust This series borders on Diesel Punk, although cybernetic implants are a fairly important part of the story's world.
- Geno Cyber
- A.D. Police
- Angel Cop
- Appleseed
- Eden: It's an Endless World!
- Megazone 23 combines this with Mecha.
- The Animatrix
Comic Books
Film
Literature
- John M Ford was possibly the earliest pioneer in this genre with his 1980 novel Web Of Angels.
- William Gibson is often referred to as the father of the genre; he created the word "cyberspace", and, despite his lack of technical knowledge, his novel Neuromancer was the prototype for much of what followed.
- Marc D. Giller's Hammerjack and its sequel Prodigal; both include virtually every trope associated with cyberpunk, but most notably the leather-clad "razor girls."
- Bruce Sterling is another shaper of the genre. His works tend to be less bleak than Gibson's.
- Neal Stephenson has been credited with founding the "post-cyberpunk" genre, working with more "modern" ideas such as memes, the Internet, and computer cryptography. He tends to stuff a lot of ideas into his books, which become brilliant when it works and confusing when it doesn't. Most notable is probably Snow Crash.
- John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider invented the concept of an internet worm / virus long before the WWW, and it gave us a hacker hero long before War Games.
- Pat Cadigan is also considered to be a genre co-founder and major influence, starting with her 1984 short-story "Rock On"; as well as the later novels Mindplayer, and Synners, the latter of which which expands on the story and themes of "Rock On".
- Michael Moorcock's Cornelius Quartet novels have often been described as early or proto-cyberpunk.
- Negative consequences of technological progress are a common theme in the works of Dutch author Tais Teng. The most intense example of cyberpunk is his short story Silicium Snelwegen ("Silicon Highways"), in which broken computer chips are repaired by nanomachines imprinted with the personalities of specialists. The story becomes outright Nightmare Fuel when the main characters, personalised nanomachines busy repairing a chip, discover that their originals have been erased and they now exist only as data.
- George Alec Effinger sets a lot of his work in cyber punk worlds, especially his Marid Audran novels.
- Philip K. Dick is a notable precursor to cyberpunk, and many adaptations of his work fit squarely into the genre.
- Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey trilogy.
- Richard K Morgan's Altered Carbon trilogy sits firmly in the Cyberpunk genre.
Live Action TV
Video Games
- Deus Ex
- And to a lesser extent, its Spiritual Successor, Project Snowblind.
- Deus Ex 3's developers, Eidos Montreal, has been Completely Missing The Point and opted for the transhumanism take.
- Actually, transhumanistic theme is much more prevalent than cyberpunk one; the endings of the second game are simply different views on transhumanism
- The first sequel could also reasonably be said to have badly failed to match up to the original in this respect.
- Grand Theft Auto II (Yes, there were two before the jump to 3D)
- Both System Shock games.
- Syndicate and Syndicate Wars by Bullfrog.
- Snatcher. Everything, down to the main character's design, screams "I wanna be Blade Runner." It even has the Gibson Shout Out used by The Centurions, in the form of a second Deckard-a-like who even sort of looks like Harrison Ford. Too bad this one dies a rather painful death early on, setting the game's events in motion.
- Metal Gear Solid 2
- Spectre VR. Overtly cyberpunk in theme and presentation, and was once sold in a bundle with Snow Crash.
- Sim City Societies: You can Create Your Own Cyberpunk City.
- Beneath A Steel Sky
 : A British 1994 sci-fi point and click adventure game initially released for DOS and Amiga. Underworld was its working title.
- The Jak And Daxter series, from the second game onward.
- The Neo Tokyo mod for Half Life
- Neuromancer an 1988 adventure game by Interplay Productions, loosely based on Gibson's novel.
- ''Decker'' is an indie 'hacker simulation' that seems to be influenced by Cyberpunk 2020 RPG.
- Bloodnet, a 1993 RPG-adventure by Microprose. It merges some essential cyberpunk themes with vampirism. Definitely Better Than It Sounds.
- Blade Runner, a 1997 adventure game by Westwood Studios. Shares setting and some characters with Ridley Scott's movie but follows different plot.
Western Animation
- Perhaps the first Western cartoon to use Cyberpunk motifs was "Zone Dancer," an episode of The Centurions. The plot took elements from Blade Runner and Neuromancer, the dialogue actually used the word "cyberpunk," and as an additional Shout Out, one of the guest star characters was a computer hacker named Gibson.
- Phantom 2040, which was based on a Super Hero who predated Superman, was a surprisingly thoughtful take on the genre.
- Samurai Jack takes place in a future with lots of cyberpunk atmospheres, especially the first city he finds himself in after his time travel.
Other
Having Some Elements
Anime
Comic Books
- Adam Warren's comic version of the Dirty Pair; the original anime lacks this element, however.
Film
Literature
- Many of Philip K. Dick's works can be thought of as "proto-cyberpunk", including titles like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (which was adapted into the movie Blade Runner) and A Scanner Darkly.
- Jeff Noon's "Vurt", "Nymphomation" and "Automated Alice" have many elements of Cyberpunk, heavily influenced by Lewis Carroll (so there's a lot of mindscrew)
- The Brawne Lamia chapter of Hyperion contains elements of Cyber Punk.
- Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination, written in 1953 and 1956 respectively, include many of the tropes characteristic of Cyberpunk. Both involve amoral, anti-heroic protagonists, megacorporations and alpha-societies with seedy underbellies. The Stars... explicitly describes cyberware, including the enhanced reflexes so beloved of Cyberpunk Tabletop Games, and a backstreet 'Freak Factory' for extreme biological body modifications.
Live Action TV
Tabletop Games
Video Games
- Many sci-fi games by Origin, including Bioforge, Cybermage, and Crusader: No Remorse and No Regret.
- The Half-Life series also features elements of Cyber Punk.
- Tabuu, the final boss in Super Smash Bros Brawl
- The MMORPG City Of Heroes has very literal Cyber Punks in the Freakshow, a powerful gang of drug-fuelled cyborg punks who have to be seen to be believed. They are pretty much the main comic relief faction of the game, while still managing to be a considerable threat in their own right. Case in point from a bank robber: "I'm gonna buy a sports car, then weld it to me!"
- ''Final Fantasy VII, definitely. It becomes rather obvious when your bioengineered antihero protagonist battles an army of corporate thugs on a freeway, with a gigantic sword, on a motorcycle. However, it tones it down for the rest of the game, so it's not a straight example.
- Dystopia is an FPS that relies heavily on the idea of cybernetic implants and Cyberspace.
Web Comics
Western Animation
Real Life
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