Cyberpunk: the new frontier?
Fusion of man and machine
becomes fast-growing trend
in science-fiction world
Is cyberpunk for real? If so, what is it?
“Cyberpunk” is a new addition to the En
glish language, coined in the middle of the last
decade. It hasn’t made it into the Webster’s
Dictionaries we use here at the office. Maybe
by the turn of the century “Cyberpunk” will
grace the pages of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Cyberpunk is generally acknowledged to
have its roots in William Gibson’s 1984 novel
“Neuromancer,” which went on to win the
Hugo, Nebula and Phillip K. Dick Awards.
Oddly enough, Gibson denies that the move
ment he supposedly birthed exists. Gardner
Dozois, now editor of Isaac Asimov’s Science
Fiction Magazine, coined the term when he
referred to Gibson and fellow authors Bruce
Sterling, Lewis Shiner and John Shirley as
“cyberpunks."
The grammatical roots are easy enough to
decipher. “Cyber-” comes from “cybernetics,”
the science of studying complex electronic
systems and similar organic control systems. “
punk” ought to be obvious, denoting a anarchic,
hooliganistic attitude. -
The central idea behind cyberpunk is the
melding of man and machine, blurring the line
between carbon and silicon.
.. Brain implants, allowing one to access a
computer by jacking directly into the skull, will
be common.
Coming from the other end of the evolution
ary ladder, cyberpunks foresee (and they are
not alone) computers that are, for all practical
purposes, intelligent life forms — HAL 9000
move over!
Once you get into a computer, you’re in
“cyberspace” (a term that Gibson invented).
It’s hard to explain, but remember the 1982
movie “Tron” and you get the idea.
Technically, any time you use E-mail or a
computer wire service, you’re in cyberspace.
Tocyberpunks, the term goes beyond just being
user-friendly.
Just as the western had cowboys as its he
roes, so cyberpunk has computer cowboys riding
the ranges inside worldwide computer nets,
hitting and raiding data banks for information
— all without leaving the comfort of their
homes.
Brain implants, allowing
one to access a computer
by Jacking directly into the
skull, will be common.
Virtual Reality allows a person to experi
ence far-off or imaginary worlds (as in “The
Lawnmower Man.”)
Virtual Sex, the ultimate in safe sex, is
around the comer — fit yourself with a tight
bodysuit woven with sensors, dial up your
partner a continent away, and reach out and
touch someone.
VR pom and erotica, featuring such sirens as
Virtual Valerie, arc already available.
Cyberpunk is more than mere machinery,
though, it’s attitude — Sid Vicious behind a
Cray YM computer.
Cyberpunk has inspired its own music, called
“industrial,” which is just what it sounds like, a
cacophony of electronic and machine noise.
Along with the music come drugs, and Ec
stasy is the drug of choice. Smart drugs, which
supposedly boost intelligence, come in a close
second.
One place to get a good look at cyberpunk
culture is the new magazine “Mondo 2000.”
Peruse its pages, and you will either be fasci
nated or horrified.
Between straight-science articles bearing
titles such as “At Play in the Unified Field,” the
reader is treated to manifestations of an upside
down culture. “The Grace Jones School for
Girls,” an assertiveness-training seminar for
female computer nerds, swaps sexual identity
about as readily as one would change their
socks.
Interviews with musical artists such as KRS
One, Mondo Vanilli, and the Red Hot Chili
Peppers are featured side by side with book
reviews on techno-culture.
Illustrations range from computer-gener
ated digital artwork, to a painting of Captain
Kirk and Mister Spock engaged in an act which
is outlawed in most of the states, and would
have them cashiered in today’s military.
“Mondo 2000,” like cyberpunk itself, is an
intriguing blend of the conventional Scientific
American brand of gee-whiz techno-worship,
and the downrightdisturbing and bizarre, break
ing down social conventions and norms. It
perfectly capsulizes cyberpunk’s strange at
traction. Look it in the face and you may see
civilization’s salvation, or its ultimate ruin.
CON NOTE: On Sunday, April 4, from
noon to 5 p.m., the Omaha Marriott will host
Trekon, a gathering for Star Trek and SF buffs.
Special guest will be John De Lancie, “Q” of
Star Trek: The Next Generation. Tickets are
$15 at the door, $5 for children.
Sam Kcpfield is an A & E columnist, but not a
cyberpunk, having reached a respectable old age.
uourosy oi Monao auvu
Mondo 2000
Mondo 2000 offers readers
look at non-material world
Mondo 2000, recently featured in Time,
exists for some of us as an Nth dimensional
peephole into the backroom show that is the
future. -
For those of us who lust for that future,
Mondo offers us a vision of the world demate
rialized at last.
Mondo is a magazine, but it’s more: a
reframing of reality.
Sampled to death and beyond, the Digital
Universe (Digiverse) as represented in M2 is
recombinant and multidimensional, layered
with memeing.
Memes are the “sound bites” of meaning.
Meaning is constantly being broken down in
the accelerator of time into component parts—
and recombined to create new memeing: other
meaning — other reality.
We are no longer living in the present.
Copies of M2 are available m town if* you
know here to look.
— Mark Baldridge
International movie
beautifully portrays
survival of hardship
Stranded crew
learns to adapt
to new culture
r- 1 111 ■ 1 111 ■ ■" 1 .
Courtesy of Concord# Films
A conquistador from
“Cabeza de Vaca.”
Forget “Lord of the Flies” and
“Last of die Mohicans.” Forget the
movie versions, anyway. Nicolas
Echevarria's “Cabeza de Vaca”
goes straight to the heart of inhu
manity and the ability of the indi
vidual to survive hardship and adapt
to other cultures.
Set at the beginning of the 16th
century, the movip begins with the
sinking of a Spanish ship headed
for the New World. Split between
two life rafts, the surviving crew
drifts at sea until one raft hits land.
The survivors (a group of sol
diers, a priest and a slave) find
themselves in a hostile land filled
with sorcery. After discovering a
fetish of blood and bone and a
mutilated body, the group gets
promptly struck down by arrows
and spears.
The few who remain alive are
taken captive and caged. The cap
tors remove Alvar Nunez Cabeza
de Vaca (Juan Diego), apparently
for their main course, but instead
take him to an Indian mystic and
his companion, an armless dwarf.
Initially used as a slave, Alvar
eventually comes to attain the pow
erful magic of the mystic. He real
izes he has been chosen as a healer.
By the time we realize Alvar as
aChrist figure, he and his band are
found by armored conquistadors.
Alvar then finds that civilization
poses chal lenges to his transformed
ideas of spiritual faith.
“Cabeza de Vaca,” intensely
beautiful in a “National Geo
graphic” sort of way, is frequently
gruesome and vibrates with hallu
cinatory color.
“Cabeza de Vaca” is showing at
the Mary Ricpma Ross Film The
ater Sunday as part of the UPC
International Film series. Screen
ings are at 2:30,4:45, 7 and 9:15
p.m.
— Calvin Clinchard
Courtesy of Blue Eagle Booking
Howard “Louie Bluie" Armstrong and Nat Reese play the Lied Sunday.
Blues musicians to take stage Sunday
The combination of banjo, guitar
and voice can produce a style of music
that has seemed to disappear with the
times.
Howard Armstrong and Nat Reese,
longtime musicians, will bring back
the lost tradition of “old blues” music
with their performance at the Lied
Center for Performing Arts’ Johnny
Carson Theater Sunday.
Both musicians have influenced
the blues world for more than 40
years, touring extensively for most of
their careers. Howard “Louie Bluie”
Armstrong, 80, is one of the world’s
most versatile musicians and plays
almost any instrument with strings.
He has been named a National Heri
tage Fellow by the National Endow
ment for the Aits, America’s most
prestigious recognition of its tradi
tional art forms and its progenitors.
Nat Reese, 61, is known for play
ing a mixture of different types of
music: jazz, swing, country and tne
blues.
Aboulsix yearsago, the two started
touring together after they realized
people liked the "old blues" way they
P Half-price tickets are available for
students at the Lied Center Box Of
fice. Reservations for the 8 p.m. per
formance are strongly suggested be
cause seating is open and limited.
— Sarah Duey
Diara of a Madman • ——
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