Postcyberpunk

Postcyberpunk describes a genre of science fiction which is believed to have emerged from the cyberpunk movement. Like its predecessor, postcyberpunk focuses on technological developments in near-future societies, typically examining the social effects of widespread telecommunication, genetic engineering and/or nanotechnology. Unlike "classic" cyperpunk, however, the works in this category feature characters who act to improve social conditions or at least protect the status quo from further decay. During the 90's. some performance artists such as Stelarc, Eduardo Kac, Orlan, Zhu Yu or Éric Létourneau / Benjamin Muon brought these paradigms into the art world, and consequently, into social reality.

Examples of postcyberpunk

• Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
• Greg Egan's Quarantine, Permutation City, Distress, Diaspora, and Teranesia
• Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson's Transmetropolitan
• Nancy Kress's Beggars in Spain
• Ken MacLeod's The Star Fraction and The Stone Canal
• Paul J. McAuley's Fairyland
• Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon
• Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net and Holy Fire
• Charles Stross's Singularity Sky and Accelerando
• Tad Williams's Otherland series
• M.T. Anderson's Feed
• Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Market Forces
• ' & '
• Luc Besson's The Fifth Element

Some authors to which the label has been applied have endorsed and adopted it. However, classification is always difficult; there are many works which explore postcyberpunk themes in a dystopian way—e.g. Paul McAuley's Fairyland. Some authors are hard to classify. For example, Greg Egan's work is arguably so inventive as to defy classification into a "movement" or "sub-genre".

Related Topics:
Paul McAuley - Fairyland - Greg Egan

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Postcyberpunk could become an umbrella for all sorts of interesting near-future action in movies and books such as Max Barry's satirical Jennifer Government. Postcyberpunk novels and movies have as of 2004 yet to gain as widespread popularity as their precursors (the Matrix trilogy is usually considered cyberpunk). Somewhat ironically, the technological optimism seen in postcyberpunk work can be traced back to Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics, or even to the sympathetic robots Helen O. Loy and Adam Link, all of which predate cyberpunk by a half-century.

Related Topics:
Max Barry's - Jennifer Government - As of 2004 - Matrix trilogy - Isaac Asimov - Laws of Robotics - Helen O. Loy - Adam Link

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Two role-playing games seem to embody Postcyberpunk concepts. The first to be published is called Transhuman Space written by David L. Pulver, illustrated by Christopher Shy, published by Steve Jackson Games and is part of the "Powered by GURPS" line. http://www.sjgames.com/transhuman/ The second is Ex Machina, published by Guardians of Order and part of both the tri-stat and d20 gaming lines.

Related Topics:
Role-playing game - Transhuman Space - David L. Pulver - Christopher Shy - Steve Jackson Games - Powered by GURPS - Ex Machina - Guardians of Order - Tri-stat - D20

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