Cyberpunk is a genre of science fiction that focuses on computers or
information technology, usually coupled with some degree of breakdown
in social order. The plot of cyberpunk writing often centers on a
conflict among hackers, artificial intelligences, and mega
corporations, tending to be set within a near-future dystopian Earth,
rather than the "outer space" locales prevalent at the time of
cyberpunk's inception. Much of the genre's "atmosphere" echoes film
noir, and written works in the genre often use techniques from
detective fiction. While this gritty, hard-hitting style was hailed as
revolutionary during cyberpunk's early days, later observers concluded
that in terms of literature, most cyberpunk narrative techniques were
less innovative than those of the New Wave, twenty years earlier.
Primary exponents of the cyberpunk field include William Gibson, Bruce
Sterling, John Shirley and Rudy Rucker. The term became widespread in
the 1980s and remains current today.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1777:
San José de Guadalupe, the first town in the Spanish colony of
California, was founded.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose%2C_California)
1854:
The Eureka Flag was flown for the first time during the Eureka
Stockade rebellion in Australia.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Flag)
1890:
The Diet of Japan, modelled after the German Reichstag, first met,
when the Meiji Constitution went into effect in Japan.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Japan)
1944:
Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas at the Johns Hopkins Hospital
performed the first Blalock-Taussig shunt operation to treat blue baby
syndrome.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Blalock)
1947:
The United Nations General Assembly voted to approve the Partition
Plan for Palestine, a plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict in the
British Mandate of Palestine.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_UN_Partition_Plan)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its
victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under
robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber
baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be
satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us
without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-- C.S. Lewis
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/C.S._Lewis)