After watching this week’s lecture on Cyberpunk, and completing the assigned readings/viewings, write at least 250 words summarizing your notes and copy-and-paste your summary into a comment made to this post. Focus on what stands out to you, what were some of the important points that I made, what were interesting elements in the readings, connections between the readings and other SF that you know, etc. Remember, the weekly writing assignment is graded on best effort. I would like to know what you find notable about each week’s class. As long as the posts relate to the class and you give me your best, you receive all the credit. Also, this serves as regular writing practice, which has been shown to improve your writing skills by simply doing this kind of work. It will help prepare you for the writing that you will do on your research essay and the final exam.
NB: This is the last Weekly Writing Assignment.
If you need to make any of these up, please do so and remember to email Prof. Ellis to check off your work.
The term cyberpunk has probably become one of the most well known themes when it comes to science fiction nowadays. Just like the previous eras of science fiction, Cyberpunk was an answer to New Wave and Feminist SF and with it came new stories and new authors. What makes cyberpunk different from other types of science fiction is the increased use of computers. Stories usually take place in the near future where humans have completely mastered computers, networks and interfaces and use them to their advantage. Some even fuse with computers to become cyborgs. The cyberpunk era began as soon as 1984 when author William Gibson came up with the Neuromancer. Neuromancer even got a video game adaptation a few years later. Ever since then, the cyberpunk theme has become extremely popular as it is still used in different kinds of works even today. Some movies that were mentioned were Tron, Blade Runner, Robocop and of course the Matrix. Personally the ones that I enjoyed the most were Akira and Ghost in the Shell and a Netflix series called Altered Carbon. Video games are also actively using the Cyberpunk theme, with some personal favorites including, Detroit: Become human, Katana Zero and of course Cyberpunk 2077. I really enjoyed this lecture and I think most other classmates will as well, simply because we are very familiar with the topic. I could continue listing Cyberpunk themed works but that list would be very long.
This week’s topic is by far my most favorite topic to read about, watch and learn about from the lecture! I always found the fact that so many cyber hacking and attacks in the world are ignored; our US government doesn’t prioritize cybercrime as much as we’d like them to, and I found the coincidence that as we were emerging into this topic of “Cyberpunk”, there was a cyberattack on a pipeline, that ultimately left many people without gas and not to mention was a HUGE threat to our American defense systems. I thought it was a huge advantage because for some reason, people only act when bad things happen and now cybersecurity is starting to look like a rising issue and priority in America (which should’ve been for the last 20 years!). Nonetheless, I found it really ironic how “Burning Chrome” focused on Russian hacking software and the use of the hackers to steal money from Chrome, because usually the conversation always shifts to Russia, Russia, Russia all te time when it comes to hacking, but other countries such as North Korea and highly skilled in cyber hacking and foreign interference in other countries. Watching “Kill Switch” in the X-Files series, I felt mortified because of how real the storyline of the mutating artificial intelligence and its evolution can cause on humanity. When the artificial intelligence kept evolving and took agent Jackson as a hostage, and exploited his deepest fears for the Kill Switch, I thought of the many instances of giving human intelligence of different machines like the motherboard of control panels that operate large entities such as facilities and cruise ships, etc and how they are portrayed on television to taking over that world in mass destruction due to their strength and human emotions. I also though of Rick and Morty, where there was an episode of Rick giving their pet dog a helmet that gave the dog the ability to communicate with humans and for the intelligent critical thinking of its existence as a dog or ‘man’s servant’ and formulating an army of robot dogs that took over the world and their masters erase the slavery of dogs. Although the SF history with cyberpunk is brand new compared to the other instances of SF that we’ve learned this semester, I found it extremely interesting and horrifying at the same time because our lives are technology-dependent and will continue to be even more dependent as the human race continues to progress,s and the implication of giving artificial intelligence more power is really scary. I want to emphasize the characteristics of cyberpunk, because they seem to resonate with today’s world news; The Pentagon, or central military defense base of the United States as well as our police forces are planning to or already have conducted the need to use artificial intelligence to determine strength and stability of weapons during war, or the continuing wars that we are in the Middle East. The notion of artificial intelligence developing and evolving to be used for mass destruction and violence, on civilians of countries that are disadvantaged compared to the US really shows the foreboding future that cyberpunk SF anticipates for the future of our lifetimes.
This week’s lecture would be one of my favorites throughout the semester because of the cyberpunk genre. Cyberpunk is one of the strong and influential genres within science fiction in the modern history. It contains high advance technology, networking, and computer programing system. In the lecture, there’s five characteristics to defines the meaning of cyberpunk. The first one is near future, second is interfaces, third is networks, forth is surfaces, and the last is punk sensibilities. The meaning of these five characteristics are set in the near future, and the people in the society is using networking, machine, or computer to fight against the authority. The idea of this it reminds me of a Japanese movie that I had watched. Is call Akira (1988), the story of this was about Tokyo is in a rebuilding after World War III, a group of biker gang lead by Kaneda is fighting against their rival clown gang to protect the city, and one night Kaneda’s friend Tetsuo was accidentally crashing his bike into Takashi, a kid who escaped from the government laboratory, then the colonel of that government lab took Tetsuo in as his next project. After Kaneda find out about his friend gone missing without going to school, he is going around the school grouping up people to find Tetsuo and sneak into the government facility. This is the idea of punk sensibilities. The next cyberpunk I want to talk about is the game 2077. Also set in the near future in a place name Night City. Most of the people there are “interfaces” interfaces between body and machine, brain computer and cyborg. Lots of people in Night City use these high-tech upgrades to their body to commit crime, such as hacking and use as weapon to fight. In the end, I believe is possible in the future human society will live in a cyberpunk life style because technology is evolving year after year and is getting stronger and fast, so now we are looking at the prophecy of the future world.
After watching this week’s lecture and reading/watching the required readings/films, what stands out to me most is that cyberpunk is what comes to my mind when I usually think about science fiction. We live in a modern world where we have robots stocking shelves in Walmart, phones running on 5g broadband, and at home devices that can turn lights off with a simple voice command. Cyberpunk was created at a time when technology was just getting started but a lot of its works are beginning to take shape in the modern world we are living in today. “Kill Switch” of the X-File series followed a story line where computer artificial intelligence was murdering people. While this may seem practically insane to even think of, artificial intelligence (AI), has been growing more intelligent as the days past. It wouldn’t shock me if AI in the future is behind some sort of scandal or if it is currently undergoing various scandals but is so smart at covering it up that we do not realize it. While this is all bizarre to even think of, it came to my mind when watching the TV film this past week. Cyberpunk has also laid the groundwork for various video games, blockbuster movies like the Terminator, and ideas of how technology can be used. COVID-19 has shown our dependence on technology to a degree that is worth noting. It is quite scary to think about how much our modern world relies on technology and it is important we grow with tech at the same pace it seems to be growing with us.
This week introduced the genre of Science Fiction known as “cyberpunk”. We covered the origin of cyberpunk which was coined by Bruce Bethke who said he was actively trying to invent a new word that grocked the punk attitude and technology. Cyberpunk covered more ambitiousness in writing and more literary risk-taking. There are five important characteristics of cyberpunk: Near future; Interfaces: such as cyborgs; Networks: global capital, information, interpersonal relationships; surfaces: connections to others on deeper levels; and punk sensibilities: challenging authority.
I really enjoyed watching the episode of X-Files titled “Kill Switch” which followed 3 hackers who create an AI organism and implants it into the global network. The AI becomes its own monster, killing its creator in the beginning of the episode by organising five pairs of lowly mob members and pitting them against U.S. marshals: resulting in a bloodbath. The main hacker that is followed is Inivisigoth, partner of one of the 3 hackers that helped create the AI. One of the detectives goes searching for a T3 connector in rural Virginia. When he comes across a trailer and enters it, he joins a web of cables and connections. He is then transported into a virtual reality universe where he is tortured by the AI. He is finally saved by Invisigoth and his partner, where Invisigoth decides to join the AI and transfers her consciousness onto the network.
“Burning Chrome” is a story about a cyber brothel that controls womens’ bodies for people to take control of. It follows two hackers that fall in love with a woman named Rikki. They try to impress her by hacking into the Brothel only to find out she is one of the prostitutes.
“Burning Chrome” threw me off when I first read it. All the terms like matrix and monochrome make it a really hard read. To be honest, I was still pretty confused about what the story is after finish reading it. I had to search around to see what others were saying about it, and I’m glad to learn more about it in our class.
The X-Files, “Kill Switch” Season 5, Episode 11 has a really good exposition. It draws the viewers in as the tension gets higher and higher until the explosion of gun fire. It sets up the story nicely. I am intrigued by the theme of artificial intelligence gaining consciousnesses and autonomy. And I’m really interested in the fact that the characters can upload their consciousness to the internet, so they wouldn’t need a physical bodies; this reminds me of Black Mirror “San Junipero” episode. I kind of hope I can do the same thing, too. Overall, I really love this episode, and I’m glad that I can watch it and finish an assignment at the same time—two birds with one stone.
In this week’s lecture, I learned five characteristics of cyberpunk. They are (1) stories about near future. (2) It is about the interfaces between body and machines, brain and computer and also cyborg. (3) It is the networks including global capital, information, political, and interpersonal networks. (4) It stays on the surface, which means that we know the characters by their names, what they do and buy, the performance of their identity, and who they work with. (5) it has punk sensibilities, which includes the challenge to authority and hard-boiled prose.
This week’s lecture talks about Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is one of the most popular science fiction themes. I really like cyberpunk. I would say, science fiction movies with cyberpunk elements are my favorite type of science fiction films. As mentioned in the lecture, movies like Tron, Akira, Robocop, Johnny Mnemonic, and the Matrix are fun movies to watch. And cyberpunk themed video games are fun like Cyberpunk 2077. The five characteristics of cyberpunk are near future, interfaces, networks, surfaces, and punk sensibilities. Cyberpunk was coined by Bruce Bethke. He was trying to invent a new word. I learned that William Gibson coined the term cyberspace. Cyberpunk stands out from the other types of SF. Set in the near future where people are basically cyborgs. The X-Files “Kill Switch”. Aired in 1998 the x-files episode was written by William Gibson and Tom Maddox. It was a self-contained episode. I liked the episode. The intro of the episode was crazy. I wasn’t expecting that to happen. This episode is cyberpunk because it features goths, AI, and transcendence of the body. “Kill Switch” is about an AI that grew big on the net, killing it’s creators one by one. The show follows two FBI agents trying to find and kill the AI with Invisigoth, one of the creators. One of the agents encountered the AI and was caught. The AI began torture him. He will ultimately get saved and Invisigoth dies to be with the person she loved.
Some things I have noticed about this week’s lecture is that cyberpunk came from our advancement of society. It fueled our ideals of what could or would be possible. It also came about from postmodern conditions. The conditions were the weakening of historicity, the breaking down of high and low culture, waning of affect and death of individual subjects, and computers becoming more common. These factors lead to the creation of the cyberpunk genre. The cyberpunk genre has five characteristics. They are that it is set in the near future, it has interfaces, it has networks,it has surfaces, and it has punk sensibilities. A writer mentioned in the lecture was William gibson. He was known for using rich metaphors. He also was known for coining the term cyberspace. He also says that we are all cyborgs. There were also two other pieces of media that were mentioned. Those two are “Burning Chrome” and “Kill Switch”. Burning Chrome was published in July 1982 in the issue of OMNI. It was about two men named Automatic Jack and Bobby Quine who steal a program that can break into security systems. They use it on a person named Chrome. They successfully steal his funds and then use it on a girl named Rikki. She wanted to get new eye implants and go to Hollywood but Jack and Quine decide to change her flight to Chiba city. She stayed there and never came back. Kill Switch was an episode from the X-Files series. In that episode it dealt with people uploading themselves onto the internet. I like the things covered in cyberpunk. It is interesting. There are games that have characteristics of cyberpunk such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Deus Ex.
In this week’s lecture, we learned about Cyberpunk. The term “cyberpunk” was coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his story “Cyberpunk,” published in Amazing Stories in 1983. He tried to invent a term that grokked the juxtaposition of punk attitudes and high technology. “Cyber” comes from Norbert Wiener’s “Cybernetics,” feedback and control systems (Greek: steersman). “Punk”: associated with worthlessness, marginalism, etc. Cyberpunk is a subgenre, a kind of science fiction that imagines a near future where computer technology, the technology of bodily enhancement, and the networks of global capital, opened up new possibilities and new challenges. Five characteristics of Cyberpunk SF were topics on the near future, Interfaces (e.g. body and machine, networks (capital, informational and political), surfaces (narratives usually value the superficial aspects of characters, a reflection of their commoditized value in society), and punk sensibilities (telling the story straight). We also learned about a story called “Burning Chrome” written in 1982 by William Gibson (1948). It’s a story about two hacker’s automatic Jack and software expert Bobby Quine. Bobby is interested in Rikki, he wants to become rich in order to impress her, he gains a powerful Russian program that can penetrate corporate security systems. To rob money from a famous criminal named Chrome. Then we talked about a film called “ The X-Files” episode eleven of the fifth season “Kill Switch” it was created by Chris Carter for the Fox Network. It was written by William Gibson and Tom Maddick and was aired on February 15, 1998, it was a film about the murder of a computer programmer who leads Mulder and Scully to the discovery of a sentient loose on the internet.
The week’s lecture ends with Cyberpunk a subgenre coined by Bruce Bethke, being a response to the SF before its time. Each new genre of SF that came out was usually a response to the genre prior to it. The characteristics of Cyberpunk are near future, inter faces, networks, surfaces and punk sensibilities. Burning Chrome by William Gibson was first published in OMNI in July 1982, OMNI was about paranormal SF technology, it had its run from 1978 to 1997. Burning Chrome is about two characters Jack, a hardware specialist and Bobby, a software expert who use a program to get into a security system of a criminal known as Chrome and empty out their bank accounts. Gibson also coined the term Cyberspace, about the bulk consensual illusion in computer networks. The X-Files Kill Switch episode written by William Gibson and Tom Maddox and directed by Rob Bowman is all in regards to cyber technology, human and artificial intelligence on the internet. Kill Switch contained many different digital effects including computer animation and explosives. That episode was influenced by “Gibsonian” that included alienation, artificial intelligence and transporting one’s consciousness into cyberspace. Douglas Englebart an engineer and innovator became known for his “Mother of all Demos,” an innovative computer demonstration in 1968 and he also invented the P.C. mouse, video & teleconferencing, editing and many other things. Englebart won an A.M. Turning award in 1997 which is considered the highest honor in computer science. The work that Englebart put into computers is the reason why we can use computers the way we do today and have the special effects as seen on the X-Files.