Cyberpunk Manifesto

by Gareth Branwyn

Gareth Branwyn posted the following description of the CYBERPUNK WORLDVIEW to general approval at a mondo2000 conference on the WELL:

• The future has imploded onto the present. There was no nuclear Armageddon. There's too much Real Estate to lose. The new battlefield is people's minds.
• The megacorps ARE the new governments.
• The U.S. is a big bully with lackluster economic power.
• The world is splintering into a trillion subcultures and designer cults with their own languages, codes, and lifestyles.
• Computer-generated info-domains are the next frontiers.
• There IS better living through chemistry.
• Small groups or individual "console cowboys" can wield tremendous power over governments, corporations, etc.
• The coalescence of a computer "culture" is expressed in self-aware computer music, art, virtual communities, and a hacker/street tech subculture. The computer nerd image is passe, and people are not ashamed anymore about the role the computer has in this subculture. The computer is a cool tool, a friend, important human augmentation.
• We're becoming CYBORGS. Our tech is getting smaller, closer to us, and it will soon merge with us.
• Information wants to be free.
• Access to computers and anything which may teach you something about how the world works should be unlimited and total.
• Always yield to the hands-on imperative.
• Mistrust Authority.
• Promote Decentraliztion.
• Do It Yourself.
• Fight the Power.
• Feed the noise back into the system.
• Surf the Edges.

[from mondo2000's USERS' GUIDE TO THE NEW EDGE; page 65-66; 1992]