The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed
IDEA No 14
CYBERPUNK
William Gibson’s groundbreaking debut novel Neuromancer, published in 1984, was the first novel to win a clean sweep of the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick science-fiction awards. It heralded a new genre in sci-fi – cyberpunk – repainting the computer nerd as a hard-boiled anti-hero.
First-edition paperback cover, Ace Books 1984.
Set in the near future, cyberpunk describes an information-age dystopia where organized crime, drug addiction and corruption are rife. Mega-corporations have replaced governments as centres of political, economic and military power. ...
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