Gareth Branwyn’s CYBERPUNK MANIFESTO (1992)

sciencefiction:

A) 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.
B) The megacorps ARE the new governments.
C) The U.S. is a big bully with lackluster economic power.
D) The world is splintering into a trillion subcultures and designer cults with their own languages, codes, and lifestyles.
E) Computer-generated info-domains are the next frontiers.
F) There IS better living through chemistry.
G) Small groups or individual “console cowboys” can wield tremendous power over governments, corporations, etc.
H) 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.
I) We’re becoming CYBORGS. Our tech is getting smaller, closer to us, and it will soon merge with us.
J) Some attitudes that seem to be related:
- 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.