a theme or a time period?

I'd have to say we live in the time of cyberpunk now, although it's just the beginning. And as if to prove me right, I just finished reading Pattern Recognition, by Will G. Before he's set all his books in some abstract hypothetical future, but now he can write books set in the present. How much more proof do we need than that???

isn't cyber punk always going to exist reguardless of it being taken from the "fictional" context and becomes the norm?

i agree that we are in the beginning of the true cyber punk era all of those authors painted a long time ago, now all we need is a nuclear holocost, rampant AI and human clones roaming through a post apocalyptic wasteland and it'll be just like we all imagined.

tofu ""

For discussion's sake, let me add a few more:

How close to the present do you feel still a theme can be and still be considered "cyberpunk"?

How necessary are the more fantastic elements within the common cyberpunk themes to the overall appeal of the genre? This one will be a personal preference thing, but that's the point of the question

What do you like best about the genre - the tech and gadgets, the environments, or the cynical approach often taken by its authors?

I'm going to go with the cyberpunk being a mentality that originated as early as 1890 with some of the futuristic literature of that era, and it isn't set in any particular time frame, but merely always exists to some extent.. lately there are new gadgets coming out everyday pushing technology, sony's blu ray burner for example, along with a focus on portability, and as showcased at siggraph this summer wearable gadgets and computers are very much in existance and ready to be brought into the streets. i'd say we've been here for a while but it keeps getting stronger. as a reference watch some 80s movies, the people that were cool and techy had the cellphones bigger than their shoes.

I had heard that the books took place in the 80's...but a futuristic 80's in the world of the Difference Engine.

.How close to the present do you feel still a theme can be and still be considered "cyberpunk"?
I think if you look at it from a perspective of present being the start of what will become CP. For the what I consider true CP I would say we are still a ways off

How necessary are the more fantastic elements within the common cyberpunk themes to the overall appeal of the genre?
From a personal perspective I think that the fantastic elements aren't necessary, but they do give a lot of food for thought. After reading Neuromancer I was fascinated by the thought that one day I would be able to talk to people all around the world through cyberspace (and now that we are there...well let's just say be careful what you wish for).

What do you like best about the genre - the tech and gadgets, the environments, or the cynical approach often taken by its authors?
For me, first and formost, it is all about the gadgets. I am at heart a gadget freak. I love getting new toys and figuring out how they work (or taking them apart to make them work better).

I always considered the modification of a human one of the main themes of cyberpunk. So once a human merges with the machine to some extent (other than just pacemakers and such), I would consider the age of cyberpunk to have arrived. But I see the errors inherint in this viewpoint. It's clear that quite many of us have already merged with machinery on a psychological level, even if we still use the internet via a keyboard instead of a cranial plug or whatever.

It's like Sterling said (I'm not sure if I'm getting this 100% right): "Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human. And we can do just about anything we want to rats. Closing your eyes and refusing to think about it won't make it go away."

[Edited on Dec 25, 2005]

I'm not feeling the cyberpunkery of todays world.

My feeling is cyberpunk will be a reality when hightechnology society removes the safeguards from both the society and the technology.

I'm sure I missed the question there, though i guess what I'm trying to say is i think the lawlessness is the foundation that makes cyberpunk in my book. Not complete anarchy, but a society where the law/corprate law is grasping desperately and violenty for control. (shadowrun, judge dread, etc..)

Things are way too safe right now in technologicly advanced societies, online and off, to be considered cyberpunk.

I'd agree with Naeon. That, aswell as we still have all our ventilation pipes inside the buildings.

From my standpoint, I think elements exist now, and have for a decade or two. Virtual reality didn't pan out like they kept telling us, so we don't have "cyberspace" the way Gibson imagined it; but we *are* well into the so-called "information age" nonetheless. Just about everyone has a computer, most of those are online, and then you start throwing cell phones into the mix...we're a world greatly reliant upon technology. We're becoming a society where technology takes the place of human contact. If that sounds far-fetched, consider how we're having this discussion, and "where" this is taking place.

If there's any one real world concept from the past ten years that sounds like something from a cyberpunk novel, it's "identity theft." That's real, as are P2P networks (and the megacorps trying to bring it all down). We may not be sticking wires in our skulls or flying around in orbital shuttles, but, damn, it certainly is starting to look like life imitates art.

Cyberpunk is here now, but just in spots, not all over. There are little dots of it in the form of certain people, events, devices, situations, and attitudes, as well as big ghostly gods of it gathering strength in the form of the net, the small-wars trend, the multinational corporations starting to influence daily life more than governments and starting to influence governments more than the other way around. Also the rise in elective surgeries and non-essential but non-recreational drugs, though these are still rare (except steroids and some amphetamine applications).

But I won't call it a true cyberpunk age until we get some honest-to-goodness cyborgs up in this mug! And lousy prosthetic limbs and Kevin Warwick with a tiny chip in his arm don't count. I mean implanted or grafted on functional cybernetics for non-medical purposes.

But it's pretty much all out there. Just in spots.

And I prefer my cyperpunk fiction 5-60 years in the future. I like my hypertech a little, but a world not vastly different from ours. A world BECOMING the one vastly different from ours.