“Gibson said it in a short story somewhere. Cyberpunk is the stuff that has EDGE written all over it. You know, not edge, it’s written EDGE. All capital letters. Now ask me how I’d define EDGE. Well, EDGE is not about definitions. To the contrary, things so well known that they provide an exact definition can’t be EDGE. They probably once were but now they ain’t. SO DON’T TRY TO DEFINE IT!!!”

This is an oft quoted defintion from Thomas Eicher. eg Syberpunk The original link to Thomas Eicher is dead, but if you want to see his real pages (not updated since 2002) try this: http://www.teicher.net/cyberpunk.html

Cyberpunk

The word ‘cyberpunk’ first appeared as the title of a short story “Cyberpunk” by Bruce Bethke, published in “AMAZING” science fiction stories magazine volume 57, number 4, in November 1983. The word was coined in the early spring of 1980, and applied to the “bizarre, hard-edged, high-tech” SF emerging in the eighties. The story itself is about a bunch of teenage hackers/crackers. (From syberpunk)

Snowcrash of course is the 1991 book from Neal Stephenson that is a classic ‘cyberpunk’ novel.

You have come of age when you have a professional website.

Edupunk

Some of the stuff I read doesn’t make sense.  It’s not commubnicating in verbal propositional form in a way I can grasp.  Or coherent images and metaphors.  A bit self indulgent.  Never mind.  In some respects I did identity quite a lot with just the ‘has edge’ bit.  We need edge.  for instance, many ‘academic’ papers don’t have edge.

Hmm. “Has EDGE” I’ve done little more than ponder this: I wonder if I have lost the amount of edge I once had? School can often be injurious to your education. Maybe working in a university can have a similar effect. Nothing more to say really.

PS.  Not everyone likes Edu-Punks. Ken Carrell.

“So here is my take: Allowing Edupunks to define themselves as agents of humanitarian uplift is absurd. Forty year old tenured men in hoodies, talking about revolution is no more than perpetual adolescence and self-indulgence.  By appointing themselves as the Defenders the Oppressed they are pre-empting the right to lecture on the subject. Personally I reserve that right for someone with a grown-up argument and a relatively serious attitude.”

I need less serious and more fun.