It's Time to Reimagine the Future of Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is like cyberspace: instantly recognizable, but so ubiquitous as to be intangible. An aesthetic movement and a commentary on capitalism, it can be a genre, a subjectivity, an adjective, a political approach, a time period. It can tackle artificial intelligence, embodied identity, digital immortality, or simply, in the case of Pat Cadigan's Synners, whether a marriage can survive electronic pornography addiction. Like the best fiction, cyberpunk still slips on like a pair of fingerless gloves, even if--in the 21st century, partially situated in the future it imagined--it's hard to see where fiction ends and reality begins. Despite all of this, cyberpunk often gets reduced to an aesthetic: black leather, mirror shades, implants--pieces of flare that look cool when lit by neon and computer screens.