Archive-name: cyberpunk-faq Last-modified: 2/6/1994 Frequently Asked Questions on alt.cyberpunk Assembled by Erich Schneider (erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu) Posted every two weeks This is a FAQ list for alt.cyberpunk. It is inspired by, but is not a direct descendant of, the previous unofficial FAQ, originally compiled by Andy Hawks (who has left FAQ-building behind), and later edited by Tim Oerting (who has graduated from UW and can no longer be editor). I have been an alt.cyberpunk reader for about five years now, and have seen many a FAQ get asked in my time. I am dedicated to answering your questions and keeping this document up to date and available. If you have comments, criticisms, additions, questions, or just general invective, send to erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu. Send to that address as well if you would like the latest version of this document, which is also available via anonymous ftp as "bush.cs.tamu.edu:/pub/misc/erich/alt.cp.faq". The latest archived version is available as "rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/ cyberpunk-faq". There is also a version that has been marked up with the HTML markup language, and is suitable for view with World Wide Web browsers like NCSA Mosaic; the URL is "ftp://bush.cs.tamu.edu/pub/misc/erich/ alt.cp.faq.html". A vast number of the "answers" here should be prefixed with an "in my opinion". It would be ridiculous for me to claim to be an ultimate cyberpunk authority. (A note on filenames: files or directories listed as being available by anonymous FTP are in the format "hostname:filename". Thus, the filename above (for this FAQ list itself) indicates the host is "bush.cs.tamu.edu" and the filename is "/pub/misc/erich/alt.cp.faq". Filenames of this type will always be given in quotes, to avoid problems with trailing periods.) --- 1. What is cyberpunk, the literary movement? 2. What is cyberpunk, the subculture? 3. What is cyberspace? How does it relate to today's "net" and "virtual reality"? 4. Cyberpunk books 5. Magazines about cyberpunk and related topics 6. Cyberpunk in visual media (movies and TV) What about movies based on Gibson's stories? 7. _Blade Runner_ 8. Cyberpunk music. What about Billy Idol's album? 9. What is [famous person]'s email address? 10. What is this "PGP" everyone is talking about? 11. Agrippa: what, and where, is it? 12. More, more, I must have more! --- 1. What is cyberpunk, the literary movement? The first use of "cyberpunk" to designate a body of literature is credited to Gardner Dozois, who, at the time (the early '80s), was editor of _Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine_. He cribbed it from the title of a short story by Bruce Bethke, "Cyberpunk". (Bethke has since proclaimed himself to be an "anti-cyberpunk".) Before its christening, the "cyberpunk movement", known to its members as "The Movement", had existed for quite some time, centered around Bruce Sterling's samizdat, _Cheap Truth_. Authors like Sterling, Rucker, and Shirley submitted articles pseudonymously to this newsletter, hyping the works of people in the group and vigorously attacking the "SF mainstream". This helped form the core "movement consciousness". (The run of _Cheap Truth_ is available by anonymous FTP in the directory "etext.archive.umich.edu:/pub/Zines/CheapTruth".) Cyberpunk literature, in general, deals with marginalized people in technologically-enhanced cultural "systems". In cyberpunk stories' settings, there is usually a "system" which dominates the lives of most "ordinary" people, be it an oppresive government, a group of large, paternalistic corporations, or a fundamentalist religion. These systems are enhanced by certain technologies (today advancing at a rate that is bewildering to most people), particularly "information technology" (computers, the mass media), making the system better at keeping those within it inside it. Often this technological system extends into its human "components" as well, via brain implants, prosthetic limbs, cloned or genetically engineered organs, etc. Humans themselves become part of "the Machine". This is the "cyber" aspect of cyberpunk. However, in any cultural system, there are always those who live on its margins, on "the Edge": criminals, outcasts, visionaries, or those who simply want freedom for its own sake. Cyberpunk literature focuses on these people, and often on how they turn the system's technological tools to their own ends. This is the "punk" aspect of cyberpunk. The best cyberpunk works are distinguished from previous work with similar themes by a certain style. The setting is urban, the mood is dark and pessimistic. Concepts are thrown at the reader without explanation, much like new developments are thrown at us in our everyday lives. There is often a sense of moral ambiguity; simply fighting "the system" (to topple it, or just to stay alive) does not make the main characters "heroes" or "good" in the traditional sense. --- 2. What is cyberpunk, the subculture? Spurred on by cyberpunk literature, in the mid-1980's certain groups of people started referring to themselves as cyberpunk, because they correctly noticed the seeds of the fictional "techno-system" in Western society today, and because they identified with the marginalized characters in cyberpunk stories. Within the last few years, the mass media has caught on to this, spontaneously dubbing certain people and groups "cyberpunk". Specific subgroups which are identified with cyberpunk are: Hackers, Crackers, and Phreaks: "Hackers" are the "wizards" of the computer community; people with a deep understanding of how their computers work, and can do things with them that seem "magical". "Crackers" are the real-world analogues of the "console cowboys" of cyberpunk fiction; they break in to other people's computer systems, without their permission, for illicit gain or simply for the pleasure of exercising their skill. "Phreaks" are those who do a similar thing with the telephone system, coming up with ways to circumvent phone companies' calling charges and doing clever things with the phone network. All three groups are using emerging computer and telecommunications technology to satisfy their individualist goals. Cypherpunks: These people think a good way to bollix "The System" 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. 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. However, one person's "cyberpunk" is another's everyday obnoxious teenager with some technical skill thrown in, or just someone looking for the latest trend to identify with. This has led many people to look at self-designated "cyberpunks" in a negative light. Also, there are those who claim that "cyberpunk" is undefinable (which in some sense it is, being concerned with outsiders and rebels), and resent the mass media's use of the label, seeing it as a cynical marketing ploy. --- 3. What is cyberspace? How does it relate to today's "net" and "virtual reality"? To my knowledge, the term "cyberspace" was first used by William Gibson in his story "Burning Chrome". That work first describes users using devices called "cyberdecks" to override their normal sensory organs, presenting them with a full-sensory interface to the world computer network; when doing so, said users are "in cyberspace". (The concept had appeared prior to Gibson, most notably in Vernor Vinge's story "True Names".) "Cyberspace" is thus the metaphorical "place" where one "is" when accessing the world computer net. Even though Gibson's vision of how cyberspace operates is in some senses absurd, it has stimulated many in the computing community. The word "cyberspace" is beginning to filter into common use, referring to the emergent world-wide computer network (especially the Internet). Also, some researchers in the "virtual reality" area of computer science are trying to implement something like Gibson's information space. However, "cyberspace" is also used to refer to any computer-generated VR environment, even if its purpose is not "accessing the net". --- 4. Cyberpunk books The following is intended to be a short list of the best in-print cyberpunk works. Note that quite a few works written before 1980 have been retroactively labelled "cyberpunk", because of stylistic similarities (like Pynchon's _Gravity's Rainbow_), or similar themes (Brunner's _The Shockwave Rider_, Delany's _Nova_). William Gibson's _Neuromancer_, about a cracker operating in cyberspace, a cybernetically-enhanced bodyguard/mercenary, and a pair of mysterious AIs, got the ball rolling as far as cyberpunk is concerned. It won the Hugo, Nebula, P. K. Dick, and Ditmar awards, something no other SF work has done. Gibson wrote two sequels in the same setting, _Count Zero_ and _Mona Lisa Overdrive_. Gibson also has a collection of short stories, _Burning Chrome_, which contains three stories in _Neuromancer_'s setting, as well as several others, such as the excellent "The Winter Market" and "Dogfight". Gibson recently published _Virtual Light_, set nearer in the future and with somewhat more toned-down technology, but dealing with the same thematic concerns as other cyberpunk works. Bruce Sterling's _Crystal Express_ contains his "Shaper/Mechanist" short stories about the future of humanity and "post-humanity", as well as "Green Days in Brunei", a story sharing the global setting of his _Islands in the Net_. Both are near-future extrapolations in worlds very similar to our own. (_Schismatrix_, a novel-length story in the "Shaper/Mechanist" future, is out of print.) Sterling edited _Mirrorshades: A Cyberpunk Anthology_, which contains stories by many authors; some are questionably cyberpunk, but it has some real gems ("Mozart in Mirrorshades" being one). Gibson and Sterling collaboratively wrote _The Difference Engine_, a novel called "steampunk" by some; it deals with many cyberpunk themes by using an alternate 19th-century Britain where Babbage's mechanical computer technology has been fully developed. _Snow Crash_, by Neal Stephenson, carries cyberpunk to a humorous extreme; what else can one say about a work where the Mafia delivers pizza and the main character's name is "Hiro Protagonist"? Larry McCaffrey editied an anthology, _Storming the Reality Studio_, which has snippets of many cyberpunk works, as well as critical articles about cyberpunk, and a fairly good bibliography. Some other good cyberpunk works include: Walter Jon Williams, _Hardwired_: a smuggler who pilots a hovertank decides to take on the Orbital Corporations that control his world. Walter Jon Williams, _Voice of the Whirlwind_: a corporate soldier's clone tries to discover what happened to his "original copy". Pat Cadigan, _Mindplayers_: events in the training and life of a "mindplayer", a kind of "psychological consultant" who "jacks in" with another person into a "space" created from that person's thoughts, to help them modify their mental behavior. Greg Bear, _Blood Music_: a genetic engineer "uplifts" some of his own blood cells to human-level intelligence, with radical consequences. (Some good out-of-print works to look for are Sterling's _Schismatrix_ and Michael Swanwick's _Vacuum Flowers_.) --- 5. Magazines about cyberpunk and related topics Some magazines which are popular among cyberpunk fans are: _Mondo 2000_ P O Box 10171 Berkeley, CA 94709-0171 Voice (510)845-9018, Fax (510)649-9630 mondo2k@well.sf.ca.us _Mondo_'s reputation has been declining among cyberpunk fans lately, as the articles have become less and less technically-oriented. _bOING-bOING_ 544 Second St. San Francisco, CA 94107 Voice (415)974-1172, Fax (415)974-1216 A less "slick" magazine than _Mondo_ or _Wired_, but with plenty of attitude and plenty of good writers. _Wired_ P.O. Box 191826 San Francisco, CA 94119 Voice (415)904-0660, Fax (415)904-0669 Credcard subscriptions: 1-800-SO-WIRED (1-800-769-4733) for information, mail to info@wired.com for subscription requests, mail to subscriptions@wired.com Gopher site at "wired.com", port 70; HTTP site at "wired.com" A magazine that is very popular right now. It's aimed more at technically-oriented professionals with disposable income, but many cyberpunk fans like the articles on network- and future-related topics. _Phrack_ 603 W. 13th #1A-278 Austin, TX 78701 phrack@well.sf.ca.us _2600 Magazine_ Subscription correspondence: 2600 Subscription Dept. P.O. Box 752, Middle Island, NY, 11953-0752 Letters/Article submissions: 2600 Editorial Dept. P.O. Box 99, Middle Island, NY, 11953-0099 2600@well.sf.ca.us Two mainstays of the computer underground. _Phrack_ deals more with people and goings-on in the community, while _2600_ focuses on technical information. --- 6. Cyberpunk in visual media (movies and TV) What about movies based on Gibson's stories? TV gave us the late, lamented _Max Headroom_, which featured oodles of cyberpunk concepts. The Bravo cable network is rerunning the few episodes that were made. TV also gave us the somewhat bloated _Wild Palms_, with a "cyberspace", evil corporations, and a cameo by William Gibson. Recently, a TV-movie based on William Shatner's novel _TekWar_ was released, with some traditionally cyberpunk elements and an extended "cyberspace run". (The movie, overall, boiled down to a good guys vs. bad guys cop story, but aficionados may want to watch for sequels based on Shatner's other "Tek" novels.) _Blade Runner_ is considered the archetypical cyberpunk movie. (Gibson has said that the visuals in _Blade Runner_ match his vision of the urban future in _Neuromancer_.) Few other movies have matched it; some that are considered cyberpunk or marginally so are _Alien_ and its sequels, _Freejack_, _The Lawnmower Man_, _Until the End of the World_, the "Terminator" movies, _Total Recall_, the somewhat goofy _Circuitry Man_, and _Brainstorm_. There is an hourlong documentary called "Cyberpunk" available on video from Mystic Fire Video. It features some interview-style conversation with Gibson, is generally low-budget, and the consensus opinion on the net is that it isn't really worth anyone's time. Gibson is apparently embarrassed by it. Regarding films based on Gibson stories: At one point a fly-by-night operation called "Cabana Boys Productions" had the rights to _Neuromancer_; this is why the front of the _Neuromancer_ computer game's box claims it is "soon to be a motion picture from Cabana Boys". The rights have since reverted to Gibson, who is sitting on them at the moment. A film version of his short story "Johnny Mnemonic" is being produced at this time, and there are also rumors that "New Rose Hotel" will soon be made into a film. Gibson also recently claimed that a short (15 minute) film was made in Britain based on his short story "The Gernsback Continuum". --- 7. _Blade Runner_ There is a _Blade Runner_ FAQ which is available via anonymous FTP as "rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/movies/bladerunner-faq". It answers many of the more common questions. Here are short answers to the most common. a. There are several alternate versions. The original theatrical release in the US omitted the Batty-Tyrell eye-gouging sequence and a few other bits; these were added back in Europe and the video release. In 1992, a "director's cut" was released, now available on video, which omits the Deckard voiceover and the "happy" ending, and reinserts the "unicorn scene". Before that, however, a different cut was shown at two theaters, one in LA, the other in San Francisco, for a brief period; this has a different title sequence and soundtrack, some different dialogue, no voiceover and no happy ending, but no unicorn sequence. (In my opinion, it was the best version.) b. The 5/6 replicants problem: This is widely accepted as an editing glitch which slipped through to the release. The film originally featured a fifth "live" replicant, "Mary", who was later deleted. In the limited-release cut, the line "one got fried ..." is changed to "two got fried ...". Bryant does not include Rachel in the original six escaped replicants. However ... c. Internal clues, such as lack of emotion, the photographs, and the reflective eyes, do suggest that Deckard is a replicant. However, this is not _explicitly_ stated in any cut. The "unicorn scene" gives this theory more weight. --- 8. Cyberpunk music. What about Billy Idol's album? There is a bit of confusion as to what "cyberpunk music" really is. Is it "music that deals with cyberpunk themes", or "music that people in a cyberpunk future would listen to"? Those who claim there _is_ cyberpunk music usually say the fast, synthesized, and sample-oriented forms such as techno, rave, and industrial music are "cyberpunk". Billy Idol recently released an album called "Cyberpunk", which garnered some media attention. The album seems to have been a commercial and critical flop, but based on his statements (two of them) on the net, Billy seems sincere about learning about the "cyberpunk scene". However, scorn and charges of commercialization have been heaped upon him in this and other forums. --- 9. What is [famous person]'s email address? William Gibson has no public e-mail address. In fact, he doesn't really care about computers all that much; he didn't use one until he wrote _Mona Lisa Overdrive_, and was thinking of kids playing videogames when he developed his "cyberspace". Other authors _are_ on the net, however. Tom Maddox (author of _Halo_, "Snake Eyes", and many critical articles) is good buddies with Gibson, and occasionally posts to alt.cyberpunk from his address at "tmaddox@halcyon.com". Bruce Sterling maintains an e-mail address at "bruces@well.sf.ca.us". Billy Idol can be reached at "idol@well.sf.ca.us". For courtesy's sake, please don't abuse these addresses; most people have better things to do with their time than answer floods of fan mail. --- 10. What is this "PGP" everyone is talking about? "PGP" is short for "Pretty Good Privacy", a public-key cryptosystem that is the mainstay of the cypherpunk movement. "OK, so what's a public-key cryptosystem?", you now ask. A public-key cryptosystem allows one to send secret messages with the assurance that the receiver will know who the sender was. (This is important if, say, you are sending your credit-card number to buy an expensive item; ordinary e-mail is somewhat easy to fake.) The message is said to be "signed" by a "digital signature". Consider two people, Alice and Bob. Each has two mathematical functions, constructed via two "keys", A and B. A message encrypted with key A can be decrypted only by key B, and a message encrypted with key B can be decrypted only by key A. Key A is kept secret, known only to its owner, and is called the "private" key; key B is given to anyone who wants it, and is called the "public" key. Suppose Alice is sending a message to Bob. She first encrypts it with her private key, and then encrypts the result with Bob's public key. This is then sent to Bob. Bob decrypts the message using his private key, and decrypts the result with Alice's public key. The fact that he was able to decrypt using his private key means Alice inteded the message for him, and that only he can read it; the fact that Alice's public key decrypted the result means that Alice was the true author of the message (since only Alice has the required private key to encrypt). Thus, when you see a "PGP public key block" at the end of someone's Usenet posts, that's the "public key" that you can use to encrypt secret messages to them. --- 11. What is "Agrippa" and where can I get it? "Agrippa: A Book of the Dead", the textual component of an art project, was written by William Gibson in 1992. Gibson wrote a semi-autobiographical poem, which was placed onto a computer disk. This disk was part of a limited release of special "reader" screens; the reader units themselves had etchings by Dennis Ashbaugh which were light-sensitive, and slowly changed from one form to another, final, form, when exposed to light. Also, the "text" of the poem, when read, was erased from the disk - it could only be read once. On the net, opinion on the Agrippa project ranged from "what an interesting concept; it challenges what we think 'art' should be" to "Gibson has sold out to the artsy-fartsy crowd" to "Gibson is right to make a quick buck off these art people". Naturally (some would say according to Gibson's plan), someone got hold of the text of "Agrippa" and uploaded it to the Usenet. The compiler of this FAQ has a copy which is available to all who ask for it; a public copy can be found in the file "english-server.hss.cmu.edu:/English Server/Fiction/Gibson-Agrippa". The author of this FAQ has a copy at "bush.cs.tamu.edu:/pub/misc/erich/ agrippa", as well as a copy of a parody, "agr1ppa", in the same directory. --- 12. More, more, I must have more! A larger list, with more resource listings (of books, music, etc.) is the Future Culture FAQ, various versions of which are stored on many sites. (An old version can be found in "etext.archive.umich.edu: /pub/Zines/Future.Culture/".) The Rutgers SF archive, at "gandalf.rutgers.edu:/pub/sfl/", contains many general SF-related items, including a directory of John Wenn's "author lists", which are very good bibligraphies for many popular authors. The UWP Music Archives, at "cs.uwp.edu:/pub/music/", has subdirectories of musical interest, such as discographies and lyrics of many bands, some of them "cyberpunk". "rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/music/industrial-faq/" contains the two-part industrial music FAQ list from "rec.music.industrial". "techno.stanford.edu:/pub/raves/" has items of interest to ravers and about the rave scene in general. "soda.berkeley.edu:/pub/cypherpunks/" has many cryptography items, including a directory containing the latest version of PGP for several platforms. RSA Laboratories' ftp site at "rsa.com" also contains cryptography materials in the "rsa.com:/pub/" and "rsa.com:/rsaref/" subdirectories. FAQ lists covering cryptographic topics can be found in the directory "rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/sci.crypt/". The WELL's gopher site (at "gopher.well.sf.ca.us", port 70) has a subdirectory on "Cyberpunk and Postmodern Culture", which contains, among other things, some stuff by Bruce Sterling, including Bruce's recommended cyberpunk reading list and the complete text of his book _The Hacker Crackdown_, a nonfiction account of the attempts in 1990 to bloody the nose of the "computer underground". _The Hacker Crackdown_ is also available by anonymous FTP in the directory "ftp.tic.com:/bruces/hackcrack/". _Wired_ magazine's gopher site (at "wired.com", port 70) has, among other things, complete contents of many back issues available online. The also have an HTTP site at the same address. Many files of relevance to the real-life "computer undergrond" and the hacking/phreaking communities can be found in one of the "Computer Underground Digest" sites. One of these is at "aql.gatech.edu:/pub/eff/cud", and includes a complete set of issues of _Phrack_ magazine. Happy exploring! --- End of alt.cyberpunk FAQ.