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"The future masters of technology
will have to be lighthearted and intelligent.
The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb."
-- Marshall McLuhan, 1969
Some groups associate themselves with cyberpunk
literature/scifi and call themselves cyberpunks, or, are associated
with cyberpunk and called cyberpunks. The main classifications
of cyberpunks are:
- Hackers
- Persons who are skilled or talented with most aspects of computers,
software, electronics, and technology, and can do things with
them that seem "magical". For hackers, technology is not just
a hobby but a way of life.
- Crackers
- Sometimes called as "dark-side hackers". People who use their
computing skills when breaking security on computer systems,
for illicit gain or simply for the pleasure of exercising their
skills. These are the real-world analogues of the "console cowboys"
of Cyberpunk fiction. There's also software crackers, who open
programs without paying, make patches, and change serial numbers.
- Phreaks
- Telecom crackers. They do a similar thing with the telecom
system, coming up with ways to circumvent phone companies' calling
charges and doing clever things with the phone network. Telephones
are a phreaks primary interest. Many expand their knowledge
to satellite and wireless radio communications. Scanners and
counter surveillance devices, cellular phones and pagers are
commonly used to maintain contact with the Internet and comrades
around the world.
- Cypherpunks
- Masters of cryptography. Individuals who believe that the
government is out to invade the privacy of everybody on the
planet. The cypherpunk's central goal is to out-smart the system,
and a good way to do this is through cryptography and cryptosystems.
They believe widespread use of extremely hard-to-break coding
schemes will create "regions of privacy" that "The System" cannot
invade.
- Netrunners
- People who live in the Net and master it. Surfing, chatting,
ircing, pinging, tracing, ftp:ing, fingering...
- Otakus
- Alienated computer nerds, mainly in Japan, fixated on manga/anime
art, Net, and computer games - an obsession that in one case
led to a string of horrific murders.
- Ravers
- These are the folks who use synthesized and sampled music,
computer-generated psychedelic ("cyberdelic") art, and designer
drugs to create massive all-night dance parties and love-fests
in empty warehouses.
- Transhumans and Extropians
- People who attempt to exploit technology to increase human
potential and life expectancy.
- Zippies
- Zippies, or cyber-hippies.
But, as the definitions say, cyberpunk is (intrinsically)
undefinable and anyone claiming to be a "cyberpunk" may be laughed
off any cyberculture community. It's also often so, that people
who "should" be cyberpunks according to some definitions, don't
consider so, or haven't realized it. Essays about
Cyberpunks in General
- Cyberpunks
- Timothy Leary's essay about cyberpunks.
- Analysis of
Cyberpunk Subculture
- Analysis of a subculture group called cyberpunks, by Robert
Weir.
- Nerds with an Attitude
- Are cyberpunks creative visionaries or merely nerds with an
attitude? By Candee Wilde and David Weldon.
- A Postmodernist Interpretation
of the Computer Underground
- A sociological analysis of the computer underground. Takes
a look at the members and actions of the computer underground.
An essay by Gordon Meyer and Jim Thomas.
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