1.
Genre
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Genre is any form or type of communication in any mode with socially-agreed upon conventions developed over time. Genres form by conventions that change over time as new genres are invented, often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand alone texts, works, or pieces of communication may have individual styles, some genres may be rigid with strictly adhered to guidelines while others may be very flexible. Genre began as a classification system for ancient Greek literature. Poetry, prose, and performance each had a specific and calculated style that related to the theme of the story. Speech patterns for comedy would not be appropriate for tragedy, in later periods genres proliferated and developed in response to changes in audiences and creators. Genre became a tool to help the public make sense out of unpredictable art. Because art is often a response to a state, in that people write/paint/sing/dance about what they know about. Genre suffers from the ills of any classification system. Genre is to be reassessed and scrutinized and to works on their unique merit. While the genre of storytelling has been relegated as lesser form of art because of the heavily borrowed nature of the conventions, proponents argue that the genius of an effective genre piece is in the variation, recombination, and evolution of the codes. The term genre is used in the history and criticism of visual art. These are distinguished from staffage, incidental figures in what is primarily a landscape or architectural painting, Genre painting may also be used as a wider term covering genre painting proper, and other specialized types of paintings such as still-life, landscapes, marine paintings and animal paintings. The concept of the hierarchy of genres was a one in artistic theory. It was strongest in France, where it was associated with the Académie française which held a role in academic art. Genres may be determined by technique, tone, content. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as adult, young adult. They also must not be confused with format, such as novel or picture book
2.
Cyberpunk
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The settings are usually post-industrial dystopias but tend to feature extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its original inventors. Much of the genres atmosphere echoes film noir, and written works in the often use techniques from detective fiction. Primary exponents of the field include William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling, Bruce Bethke, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley. Blade Runner can be seen as a example of the cyberpunk style. Video games, board games, and tabletop role-playing games, such as Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun, often feature storylines that are influenced by cyberpunk writing. Beginning in the early 1990s, some trends in fashion and music were also labeled as cyberpunk, Cyberpunk writers tend to use elements from hardboiled detective fiction, film noir, and postmodernist prose to describe an often nihilistic underground side of an electronic society. The genres vision of a future is often called the antithesis of the generally utopian visions of the future popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Gibson defined cyberpunks antipathy towards utopian SF in his 1981 short story The Gernsback Continuum, in some cyberpunk writing, much of the action takes place online, in cyberspace, blurring the line between actual and virtual reality. A typical trope in such work is a connection between the human brain and computer systems. Cyberpunk settings are dystopias with corruption, computers and internet connectivity, giant, multinational corporations have for the most part replaced governments as centers of political, economic, and even military power. The economic and technological state of Japan, in the 80s influenced Cyberpunk literature at the time, of Japans influence on the genre, William Gibson said, Modern Japan simply was cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is often set in urbanized, artificial landscapes, and city lights, receding was used by Gibson as one of the genres first metaphors for cyberspace and virtual reality. The cityscapes of Hong Kong and Shanghai have had influences in the urban backgrounds, ambiance and settings in many cyberpunk works such as Blade Runner. Ridley Scott envisioned the landscape of cyberpunk Los Angeles in Blade Runner to be Hong Kong on a bad day. The streetscapes of Ghost in the Shell were based on Hong Kong, mamoru Oshii felt that Hong Kongs strange and chaotic streets where old and new exist in confusing relationships, fit the theme of the film well. Hong Kongs Kowloon Walled City is particularly notable for its disorganized hyper-urbanization, one of the cyberpunk genres prototype characters is Case, from Gibsons Neuromancer. Case is a cowboy, a brilliant hacker who has betrayed his organized criminal partners. These anti-heroes—criminals, outcasts, visionaries, dissenters and misfits—call to mind the private eye of detective fiction and this emphasis on the misfits and the malcontents is the punk component of cyberpunk
3.
Worldbuilding
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Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe. The term world-building was first used in the Edinburgh Review in December 1820, eddingtons Space Time and Gravitation, An Outline of the General Relativity Theory to describe the thinking out of hypothetical worlds with different physical laws. The term has been used in fiction and fantasy criticism since appearing in R. A. Lupoff’s Edgar Rice Burroughs, Master of Adventure, the resulting world may be called a constructed world. Developing an imaginary setting with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, Worldbuilding often involves the creation of maps, a backstory, and people for the world. Constructed worlds can enrich the backstory and history of fictional works, constructed worlds can be created for personal amusement and mental exercise, or for specific creative endeavors such as novels, video games, or role-playing games. The creation of literary fictional worlds was first examined by authors such as George MacDonald, J. R. R. Tolkien, Dorothy L. Sayers. Constructed worlds shift away from storytelling, narrative, characters and figures, later analysis of fantasy worlds in the 1960s contextualized them in the medium or the narrative of the works, offering an analysis of the stories in the world, but not the world itself. In the 2000s, world-building in film has increased in popularity, when before, writers sought to create a character that could sustain multiple stories, now they create a world that can sustain multiple characters and stories. Worldbuilding can be designed from the top down or the bottom up, the official world-building guidelines for Dungeons and Dragons refer to these terms as outside-in and inside-out, respectively. From there, he or she develops the rest of the world in increasing detail and this approach might involve creation of the worlds basics, followed by levels such as continents, civilizations, nations, cities, and towns. A world constructed from the top tends to be well-integrated. It can, however, require considerable work before enough detail is completed for the setting to be useful, with the bottom-up approach, the designer focuses on a small part of the world needed for his or her purposes. This location is given considerable detail, such as geography, culture, social structure, government, politics, commerce. Prominent local individuals may be described, including their relationships to each other, the surrounding areas are then described in a lower level of detail, with description growing more general with increasing distance from the initial location. The designer can subsequently enhance the description of other areas in the world and this approach provides for almost immediate applicability of the setting, with details pertinent to a certain story or situation. The approach can yield a world plagued with inconsistencies, however, by combining the top-down and bottom-up approaches, a designer can enjoy the benefits of both. This is very hard to accomplish, however, because the need to start both sides creates twice as much work, which may delay the desired product
4.
Retrofuturism
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Retrofuturism is a trend in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a bent on anticipating what will come. Primarily reflected in artistic creations and modified technologies that realize the imagined artifacts of its parallel reality, but it has also manifested in the worlds of fashion, architecture, design, music, literature, film, and video games. The word retrofuturism, combines more recent ideas of nostalgia and retro with older traditions of futurism, an early use of the term was in the title of T. R. Hinchcliffes Pelican book Retro-futurism - Penguin,1967. A recent neologism, the actual term retrofuturism was used by American Lloyd Dunn in 1983, according to fringe art magazine Retrofuturism, Retrofuturism builds on ideas of futurism, but the latter term functions differently in several different contexts. In avant-garde artistic, literary and design circles, Futurism is a long-standing, in his 1967 book T. R. Retrofuturism is first and foremost based on modern but changing notions of the future. It took its current shape in the 1970s, a time when technology was rapidly changing, from the advent of the personal computer to the birth of the first test tube baby, this period was characterized by intense and rapid technological change. But many in the public began to question whether applied science would achieve its earlier promise—that life would inevitably improve through technological progress. In the wake of the Vietnam War, environmental depredations, but they also wondered, sometimes in awe, sometimes in confusion, at the scientific positivism evinced by earlier generations. Retrofuturism seeped into academic and popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s, inflecting George Lucas’ Star Wars and the paintings of pop artist Kenny Scharf alike. Surveying the optimistic futurism of the twentieth century, the historians Joe Corn and Brian Horrigan remind us that retrofuturism is a history of an idea. The future, or course, does not exist except as an act of belief or imagination, Retrofuturism incorporates two overlapping trends which may be summarized as the future as seen from the past and the past as seen from the future. Such futuristic visions are refurbished and updated for the present, and offer a nostalgic, counterfactual image of what the future might have been, the second trend is the inverse of the first, futuristic retro. It starts with the appeal of old styles of art, clothing, mores, and then grafts modern or futuristic technologies onto it, creating a mélange of past, present. In the movie Space Station 76, mankind has reached the stars, in practice, the two trends cannot be sharply distinguished, as they mutually contribute to similar visions. In the same way, futuristic retro owes much of its flavor to early science fiction, both retrofuturistic trends in themselves refer to no specific time. Examples include the film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, set in an imaginary 1939, adam Reeds animated comedy series Archer is also set in a retrofuture aesthetic world. The import of retrofuturism has, in recent years, come under considerable discussion, some, like the German architecture critic Niklas Maak, see retrofuturism as nothing more than an aesthetic feedback loop recalling a lost belief in progress, the old images of the once radically new
5.
Steampunk
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Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Therefore, steampunk may be described as neo-Victorian, Steampunk may also incorporate additional elements from the genres of fantasy, horror, historical fiction, alternate history, or other branches of speculative fiction, making it often a hybrid genre. The first known appearance of the term steampunk was in 1987, Steampunk is influenced by and often adopts the style of the 19th-century scientific romances of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Mary Shelley. Several more modern works of art and fiction significant to the development of the genre were produced before the genre had a name, the film Brazil was an important early cinematic influence that helped codify the aesthetics of the genre. The Adventures of Luther Arkwright was a comic version of the Moorcock-style mover between timestreams. In fine art, Remedios Varos paintings combine elements of Victorian dress, fantasy, in television, one of the earliest manifestations of the steampunk ethos in the mainstream media was the CBS television series The Wild Wild West, which inspired the subsequent film. Although many works now considered seminal to the genre were published in the 1960s and 1970s and it was coined by science fiction author K. W. G. Wells The Time Machine. Though of course, I did find her review in the March Locus to be quite flattering, personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term for Powers, Blaylock and myself. Something based on the technology of the era, like steam-punks. They were far from the first modern science fiction writers to speculate on the development of steam-based technology or alternative histories, keith Laumers Worlds of the Imperium and Ronald W. Clarks Queen Victorias Bomb apply modern speculation to past-age technology and society. Michael Moorcocks Warlord of the Air is another early example, harry Harrisons novel A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah. Portrays a British Empire of an alternative year 1973, full of atomic locomotives, coal-powered flying boats, ornate submarines, the Adventures of Luther Arkwright was the first steampunk comic. In February 1980, Richard A. Lupoff and Steve Stiles published the first chapter of their 10-part comic strip The Adventures of Professor Thintwhistle and His Incredible Aether Flyer. Indeed, both sensibilities recall the older but still modern eras in which technological change seemed to anticipate a better world, one of steampunk’s most significant contributions is the way in which it mixes digital media with traditional handmade art forms. As scholars Rachel Bowser and Brian Croxall put it, the tinkering and tinker-able technologies within steampunk invite us to roll up our sleeves, in this respect, steampunk bears more in common with DIY craft and making. This theme is carried over to Disneys theme parks, in the designs of The Mysterious Island section of Tokyo DisneySea theme park. Aspects of steampunk design emphasise a balance between form and function, in this it is like the Arts and Crafts Movement. But John Ruskin, William Morris, and the reformers in the late nineteenth century rejected machines
6.
Fantasy
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Fantasy is a fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Most fantasy uses magic or other elements as a main plot element, theme. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds, in popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy works by many writers, artists, filmmakers. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, history. The identifying trait of fantasy is the reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that whereas realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, an author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters, plots, and settings that are impossible in reality. Fantasy has often compared with science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements, a science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seeming possible through logical scientific and/or technological extrapolation, whereas fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. The imagined elements of fantasy do not need an explanation to be narratively functional. Authors have to rely on the suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment. Despite both genres heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable, horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Beginning perhaps with the earliest written documents, mythic and other elements that would come to define fantasy. MacDonald was an influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, lord Dunsany established the genres popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Indeed, juvenile fantasy was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, intended for children, though works for adults only verged on fantasy. Political and social trends can affect a societys reception towards fantasy, in the early 20th century, the New Culture Movements enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature
7.
Science fantasy
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Science fantasy is a mixed genre within the umbrella of speculative fiction which simultaneously draws upon and/or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. It also sometimes incorporates elements of horror fiction, distinguishing between science fiction and fantasy, Rod Serling claimed that the former was the improbable made possible while the latter was the impossible made probable. As a combination of the two, science fantasy gives a scientific veneer of realism to things that simply could not happen in the world under any circumstances. Where science fiction does not permit the existence of fantasy or supernatural elements, all were relatively rationalistic stories published in John W. Campbell, Jr. s Unknown magazine. These were an attempt to apply the techniques and attitudes of science fiction to traditional fantasy subjects. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published, among other things, all but the last of the Operation series, henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore published novels in Startling Stories, alone and together, which were far more romantic. These were closely related to the work that they and others were doing for outlets like Weird Tales, ace Books published a number of books as science fantasy during the 1950s and 1960s. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction points out that as a genre, science fantasy has never clearly defined. The Star Trek franchise created by Gene Roddenberry is considered an example of science fantasy, writer James F. Broderick describes Star Trek as science fantasy because it includes semi-futuristic as well as supernatural/fantasy elements such as The Q. According to the science fiction author Arthur C, clarke, many purists argue that Star Trek is science fantasy rather than science fiction because of its scientifically improbable elements, which he partially agrees with. Jack Vances Dying Earth stories are sometimes classed as science fantasy because the cosmology used is not compatible with that accepted by science fiction. Other stories in the Dying Earth subgenre such as M. John Harrisons Viriconium novels or Gene Wolfes Book of the New Sun are usually classed as science fantasy. Terry Brooks Shannara books represent a world as the far future of Earth after supernatural events cause the downfall of civilization. The last two films in George Millers post-apocalyptic Mad Max franchise, while science fiction films, contain fantastical elements to their depiction of a devastated world. The works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and E. R. Eddison are probably the earliest examples of this genre, C. S. Lewis Out of the Silent Planet is an example of the same type of story, though in its case the preoccupations are theological. In both cases the elements are barely rationalized, and in Lewis case stand in stark contrast to the pseudo-scientific machinery that frames the story. In Andre Nortons Witch World series, the world is excused as a parallel universe. There are a few fictional elements in the earlier stories of this series
8.
Historical fantasy
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Historical fantasy is a category of fantasy and genre of historical fiction that incorporates fantastic elements into the narrative. There is much crossover with other subgenres of fantasy, those classes as Arthurian, Celtic, stories fitting this classification generally take place prior to the 20th century. In this, it has a similarity to contemporary fantasy. This commonly overlaps with the secret history trope, alternatively, the authors narrative shows or implies that by the present day, magic will have retreated from the world so as to allow history to revert to the familiar version we know. It also can include a history where the past or present has been significantly changed when an actual historical event turned out differently. However, many if not most, works by fantasy authors derive ideas and inspiration from real events, Historical Fantasy may also be set in a fictional world which resembles a period from history but is not that actual history. All four approaches have overlapped with the subgenre of steampunk commonly associated with science fiction literature, however, not all steampunk fantasy belongs to the historical fantasy subgenre. After Antoine Gallands translation of One Thousand and One Nights became enormously popular in Europe, many writers wrote fantasy based on Gallands romantic image of the Middle East, early examples included the satirical tales of Anthony Hamilton, and Zadig by Voltaire. Marion Crawford, and James Elroy Fleckers Hassan, in the late 1970s, interest in the subgenre revived with Hasan by Piers Anthony. Baghdad by Ian Dennis Nights of the Crusades by MJ Alishah Celtic fantasy has links to historical fantasy, Celtic historical fantasy includes such works as Katharine Kerrs Deverry series, or Teresa Edgertons Green Lion trilogy. These works are based on Ancient Celtic cultures, the Welsh tradition has been particularly influential, which has its connection to King Arthur and its collection in a single work, the epic Mabinogion. One influential retelling of this was the work of Evangeline Walton, The Island of the Mighty, The Children of Llyr, The Song of Rhiannon. Fantasy based on the Breton folklore branch of Celtic mythology does not often appear in the English language, however, several noted writers have utilized such material, Robert W. Chambers The Demoiselle dYs and A. Both drew on the Breton legend of the lost city of Ys, while The Lay of Aotrou, wǔxiá figures prominently in the popular culture of Chinese-speaking areas, and the most important writers have devoted followings. The wǔxiá genre is a blend of the philosophy of xiá, a martial artist who follows the code of xiá is called a swordsman, or xiákè. Japans samurai bushidō traditions, Englands knight chivalry traditions, and Americas gunslinger Western traditions all share some aspects with Chinas swordsman xiá traditions, the swordsman, however, need not serve a lord or hold any military power and they are not required to be from an aristocratic class. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee Classical Fantasy is a fantasy based on the Greek. Symbolism from classical mythology is enormously influential on Western culture, richard Garnett and John Kendrick Bangs used the Greek myths for satirical purposes
9.
Postmodern literature
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Postmodern works are seen as a response against dogmatic following of Enlightenment thinking and Modernist approaches to literature. Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, tends to resist definition or classification as a movement, Postmodern works also tend to celebrate chance over craft, and further employ metafiction to undermine the texts authority or authenticity. In the 1910s, artists associated with Dadaism celebrated chance, parody, playfulness, tristan Tzara claimed in How to Make a Dadaist Poem that to create a Dadaist poem one had only to put random words in a hat and pull them out one by one. Another way Dadaism influenced postmodern literature was in the development of collage, artists associated with Surrealism, which developed from Dadaism, continued experimentations with chance and parody while celebrating the flow of the subconscious mind. André Breton, the founder of Surrealism, suggested that automatism and he used automatism to create his novel Nadja and used photographs to replace description as a parody of the overly-descriptive novelists he often criticized. Surrealist René Magrittes experiments with signification are used as examples by Jacques Derrida, Foucault also uses examples from Jorge Luis Borges, an important direct influence on many postmodernist fiction writers. He is occasionally listed as a postmodernist, although he started writing in the 1920s, the influence of his experiments with metafiction and magic realism was not fully realized in the Anglo-American world until the postmodern period. Ultimately, this is seen as the highest stratification of criticism among scholars, other early 20th-century novels such as Raymond Roussels Impressions dAfrique and Locus Solus, and Giorgio de Chiricos Hebdomeros have also been identified as important postmodern precursor. Both modern and postmodern literature represent a break from 19th century realism, in addition, both modern and postmodern literature explore fragmentariness in narrative- and character-construction. The Waste Land is often cited as a means of distinguishing modern and postmodern literature, the poem is fragmentary and employs pastiche like much postmodern literature, but the speaker in The Waste Land says, these fragments I have shored against my ruins. Postmodernists, however, often demonstrate that this chaos is insurmountable, the artist is impotent, gertrude Steins playful experiment with metafiction and genre in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas has been interpreted as postmodern, as with all stylistic eras, no definite dates exist for the rise and fall of postmodernisms popularity. 1941, the year in which Irish novelist James Joyce and English novelist Virginia Woolf both died, is used as a rough boundary for postmodernisms start. Irish novelist Flann OBrien completed The Third Policeman in 1939 and it was rejected for publication and remained supposedly lost until published posthumously in 1967. A revised version called The Dalkey Archive was published before the original in 1964, notwithstanding its dilatory appearance, the literary theorist Keith Hopper regards The Third Policeman as one of the first of that genre they call the postmodern novel. The prefix post, however, does not necessarily imply a new era, rather, it could also indicate a reaction against modernism in the wake of the Second World War. It could also imply a reaction to significant post-war events, the beginning of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, postcolonialism, some further argue that the beginning of postmodern literature could be marked by significant publications or literary events. For others the beginning is marked by moments in critical theory, Jacques Derridas Structure, Sign, though postmodernist literature does not include everything written in the postmodern period, several post-war developments in literature have significant similarities
10.
Postcolonialism
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Postcolonialism or postcolonial studies is an academic discipline that analyzes, explains, and responds to the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Postcolonialism speaks about the consequences of external control and economic exploitation of native people. As a genre of history, postcolonialism questions and reinvents the manner in which a culture is being viewed. Anthropologically, it records human nations between the colonists and the peoples under colonial rule, seeking to build an understanding of the nature and practice of colonial rule. It also examines the effects of rule on the cultural aspects of the colony and its treatment of women, language, literature. Postcolonialism is aimed at destabilizing these theories by means of which colonialists perceive, understand, Colonialism was presented as the extension of civilization, which ideologically justified the self-ascribed racial and cultural superiority of the Western world over the non-Western world. Especially in the colonisation of the Far East and in the late-nineteenth century Scramble for Africa, hence, Belgium and Britain, and France and Germany proffered theories of national superiority that justified colonialism as delivering the light of civilisation to unenlightened peoples. A decolonised people develops a postcolonial identity that is based on interactions between different identities which are assigned varying degrees of social power by the colonial society. e. Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania, in The Wretched of the Earth, the psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon analysed and medically described the nature of colonialism as essentially destructive. Its societal effects—the imposition of a subjugating colonial identity—are harmful to the health of the native peoples who were subjugated into colonies. Fanon wrote the ideological essence of colonialism is the denial of all attributes of humanity of the colonised people. Such dehumanization is achieved with physical and mental violence, by which the colonist means to inculcate a servile mentality upon the natives, for Fanon the natives must violently resist colonial subjugation. Hence, Fanon describes violent resistance to colonialism as a mentally cathartic practice, which purges colonial servility from the native psyche, thus he supported the Front de Libération Nationale in the Algerian War for independence from France. Michel Foucault argues that colonial discourses are where power and knowledge become intertwined and his work implies that power does not exist for punitive measures but rather, power provides a consistent gratification during its perpetual expression. Orientalism thus conflated and reduced the world into the homogeneous cultural entity known as the East. In Edward Said, The Exile as Interpreter, about Saïds Orientalism and that the applied power of such cultural knowledge allowed Europeans to rename, re-define, and thereby control Oriental peoples, places, and things, into imperial colonies. The power–knowledge binary relation is conceptually essential to identify and understand colonialism in general, with this described binary logic, the West generally constructs the Orient subconsciously as its alter ego. Therefore, descriptions of the Orient by the Occident lack material attributes and this inventive, or imaginative interpretation subscribes female characteristics to the Orient and plays into fantasies that are inherent within the Wests alter ego
11.
Bruce Bethke
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Bruce Bethke is an American author, best known for his 1983 short story Cyberpunk which led to the widespread use of the term. His novel, Headcrash won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1995 for SF original paperback published in the US, Bethkes collected thoughts on the cyberpunk subculture are collected on his website, in an essay entitled The Etymology of Cyberpunk. Bethke served as a judge on the Philip K. Dick Award in 2013, Bethke lives in Minnesota where he works as a developer of supercomputer software. Novels Maverick Written from an outline by Isaac Asimov in 1990, Headcrash Bethkes first published novel, published in 1995. Headcrash is the story of Jack Burroughs, a nerd in his mid twenties, who lives with his overbearing mother. Jack lives a far more interesting life in the metaverse. Along with his friend Gunnar, Jack is hired to hack into a system to retrieve files proving that the company was stolen from the rightful heir of its founder. This novel was awarded the Philip K. Dick Award and this work is sometimes credited with the first use of the word Spam as a term for junk e-mail. Bethke replies that while he appreciates the thought, the term was in use on usenet long before he used it in Headcrash. Rebel Moon A collaboration with Vox Day, Rebel Moon was the novelization of the prequel of the game Rebel Moon Rising, Wild Wild West The novelization of the critically panned steampunk film Wild Wild West. Bethke summarily dismisses the novel on his website, stating it was how he paid for a new roof for his house. Initially written as a series of stories in 1980, the culminated novel was purchased by a publisher via an exclusive contract which forbade Bethke to sell the novel to any other publisher. The publisher decided not to release the novel, causing years of legal battles over the rights to the book. Bethke has a version of the novel available for five dollars on his website. When asked, during a 2005 interview, Why was your book Cyberpunk never published when you sold it to a publisher in 1989, Bruce replied, Ah, well, hindsight is 20/20. The book was never released because the publisher hated the ending, so I refused to write it. Perhaps the book would have sold well with a blood-soaked adolescent revenge fantasy ending, Bruce Bethke won the Philip K. Dick Award for SF original paperback published in the US. 1995, Headcrash - Winner Bethke is currently creator and Editor in Chief of the anthology series Stupefying Stories which he began publishing in 2012
12.
Punk subculture
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The punk subculture, which centres on punk rock music, includes a diverse array of ideologies, fashions and forms of expression, including visual art, dance, literature and film. The subculture is largely characterized by anti-establishment views and the promotion of individual freedom, the punk subculture is centered on a loud, aggressive genre of rock music called punk rock. It is usually played by small bands consisting of a vocalist, Punk politics cover the entire political spectrum. Punk-related ideologies are mostly concerned with freedom and anti-establishment views. Common punk viewpoints include anti-authoritarianism, a DIY ethic, non-conformity, direct action, there is a wide range of punk fashion, in terms of clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, tattoos, jewelery and body modification. Early punk fashion adapted everyday objects for aesthetic effect, such as T-shirts, leather jackets, hardcore punk fans adopted a dressed-down style of T-shirts, jeans, combat boots or sneakers and crewcut-style haircuts. Women in the hardcore scene typically wore masculine clothing, one part of punk was creating explicitly outward identities of sexuality. Everything that was supposed to be hidden was brought to the front. Punk aesthetics determine the type of art punks enjoy, usually underground, minimalistic, iconoclastic. Punk artwork graces album covers, flyers for concerts, and punk zines, Punk has generated a considerable amount of poetry and prose. Punk has its own press in the form of punk zines, which feature news, gossip, cultural criticism. Some zines take the form of perzines, important punk zines include Maximum RocknRoll, Punk Planet, No Cure, Cometbus, Flipside, and Search & Destroy. Many punk-themed films have made, as have punk rock music videos. Some punk films intercut stock footage with news clips and amateur videos of concerts, Punks can come from any and all walks of life and economic classes, and punk culture has aspects of gender equalist ideology. The punk subculture emerged in the United Kingdom, Australia, exactly which region originated punk has long been a major controversy within the movement. Various musical, philosophical, political, literary and artistic movements influenced the subculture. In the late 1970s, the subculture began to diversify, which led to the proliferation of such as new wave, post-punk,2 Tone, pop punk, hardcore punk, no wave, street punk. Hardcore punk, street punk and Oi. sought to do away with the frivolities introduced in the years of the original punk movement
13.
Information Age
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The onset of the Information Age is associated with the Digital Revolution, just as the Industrial Revolution marked the onset of the Industrial Age. The Information Age formed by capitalizing on computer microminiaturization advances, library expansion was calculated in 1945 by Fremont Rider to double in capacity every 16 years, if sufficient space were made available. He advocated replacing bulky, decaying printed works with miniaturized microform analog photographs and he did not foresee the digital technology that would follow decades later to replace analog microform with digital imaging, storage, and transmission media. Automated, potentially lossless digital technologies allowed vast increases in the rapidity of information growth, moores law, which was formulated around 1965, calculated that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. Connectivity between computers within companies led to the ability of workers at different levels to access greater amounts of information. The worlds technological capacity to store information grew from 2.6 exabytes in 1986 to 15.8 in 1993, over 54.5 in 2000 and it is estimated that the worlds capacity to store information has reached 5 zettabytes in 2014. This is the equivalent of 4,500 stacks of printed books from the earth to the sun. In the 1990s, the spread of the Internet caused a sudden leap in access to, technology was developing so quickly that a computer costing $3000 in 1997 would cost $2000 two years later and $1000 the following year. In terms of capacity, there are two measures of importance, the number of operations a system can perform and the amount of information that can be stored, the number of synaptic operations per second in a human brain has been estimated to lie between 10^15 and 10^17. While this number is impressive, even in 2007 humanitys general-purpose computers were capable of performing well over 10^18 instructions per second, estimates suggest that the storage capacity of an individual human brain is about 10^12 bytes. On a per capita basis, this is matched by current digital storage, eventually, Information and Communication Technology—computers, computerized machinery, fiber optics, communication satellites, Internet, and other ICT tools—became a significant part of the economy. Microcomputers were developed and many businesses and industries were changed by ICT. Nicholas Negroponte captured the essence of these changes in his 1995 book and his book discusses similarities and differences between products made of atoms and products made of bits. In essence, a copy of a made of bits can be made cheaply and quickly. The Information Age has affected the workforce in several ways and it has created a situation in which workers who perform easily automated tasks are forced to find work that is not easily automated. Workers are also being forced to compete in a job market. Lastly, workers are being replaced by computers that can do their jobs faster and this poses problems for workers in industrial societies, which are still to be solved. However, solutions that involve lowering the time are usually highly resisted
14.
William Gibson
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William Ford Gibson is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Gibson notably coined the term cyberspace in his short story Burning Chrome and these early works have been credited with renovating science fiction literature after it had fallen largely into insignificance in the 1970s. In the 1990s, Gibson composed the Bridge trilogy of novels, which explored the sociological developments of urban environments, postindustrial society. These works saw his name reach mainstream bestseller lists for the first time and his more recent novel, The Peripheral, returned to a more overt engagement with technology and recognizable science fiction concerns. In 1999, The Guardian described Gibson as probably the most important novelist of the past two decades, while the Sydney Morning Herald called him the prophet of cyberpunk. His work has been cited as an influence across a variety of disciplines spanning academia, design, film, literature, music, cyberculture and his family moved frequently during Gibsons youth owing to his fathers position as manager of a large construction company. In Norfolk, Virginia, Gibson attended Pines Elementary School, where the lack of encouragement for him to read was a cause of dismay for his parents. While Gibson was still a child, a little over a year into his stay at Pines Elementary. His mother, unable to tell William the bad news, had someone else inform him of the death, tom Maddox has commented that Gibson grew up in an America as disturbing and surreal as anything J. G. Ballard ever dreamed. A few days after the death, Gibsons mother returned them from their home in Norfolk to Wytheville, at the age of 12, Gibson wanted nothing more than to be a science fiction writer. He spent a few years at basketball-obsessed George Wythe High School. Becoming frustrated with his academic performance, Gibsons mother threatened to send him to a boarding school, to her surprise. He resented the structure of the boarding school but was in retrospect grateful for its forcing him to engage socially. On the SAT exams, he scored 148 out of 150 in the section but 5 out of 150 in mathematics. In 1967, he elected to move to Canada in order to avoid the Vietnam war draft, at his draft hearing, he honestly informed interviewers that his intention in life was to sample every mind-altering substance in existence. Gibson has observed that he did not literally evade the draft, as they never bothered drafting me, after the hearing he went home and purchased a bus ticket to Toronto, and left a week or two later. He elaborated on the topic in a 2008 interview, After weeks of nominal homelessness, Gibson was hired as the manager of Torontos first head shop, a retailer of drug paraphernalia. He found the citys community of American draft dodgers unbearable owing to the prevalence of clinical depression, suicide
15.
Bruce Sterling
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Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author known for his novels and work on the Mirrorshades anthology. This work helped to define the cyberpunk genre, Sterling, along with William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner, and Pat Cadigan, is one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement in science fiction. In addition, he is one of the chief ideological promulgators. This has earned him the nickname Chairman Bruce and he was also one of the first organizers of the Turkey City Writers Workshop, and is a frequent attendee at the Sycamore Hill Writers Workshop. He won Hugo Awards for his novelettes Bicycle Repairman and Taklamakan and his first novel, Involution Ocean, published in 1977, features the world Nullaqua where all the atmosphere is contained in a single, miles-deep crater. The story concerns a ship sailing on the ocean of dust at the bottom and it is partially a science-fictional pastiche of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. From the late 1970s onwards, Sterling wrote a series of set in the Shaper/Mechanist universe. The Mechanists use a great deal of computer-based mechanical technologies, the Shapers do genetic engineering on a massive scale, alastair Reynolds identified Schismatrix and the other Shaper/Mechanist stories as one of the greatest influences on his own work. In the 1980s, Sterling edited the science fiction critical fanzine Cheap Truth under the alias of Vincent Omniaveritas and he wrote a column called Catscan for the now-defunct science fiction critical magazine SF Eye. He contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound, Sampling Digital Music and he also contributed, along with Lewis Shiner, to the short story Mozart in Mirrorshades. From April 2009 through May 2009, he was an editor at Cool Tools, since October 2003 Sterling has blogged at Beyond the Beyond, which is hosted by Wired. His most recent novel is Love Is Strange, a Paranormal Romance, the Viridian Design home page, including Sterlings Viridian Manifesto and all of his Viridian Notes, is managed by Jon Lebkowsky at http, //www. viridiandesign. org. The Viridian Movement helped to spawn the popular bright green environmental weblog Worldchanging, worldChanging contributors include many of the original members of the Viridian curia. Sterling has a habit of coining neologisms to describe things that he believes will be common in the future, in the December 2005 issue of Wired magazine, Sterling coined the term buckyjunk. Buckyjunk refers to future, difficult-to-recycle consumer waste made of carbon nanotubes, in his 2005 book Shaping Things he coined the term design fiction which refers to a type of speculative design which focuses on world building. In July 1989, in SF Eye #5, he was the first to use the slipstream to refer to a type of speculative fiction between traditional science fiction and fantasy and mainstream literature. In December 1999 he coined the term Wexelblat disaster, for a disaster caused when a natural disaster triggers a secondary, in his book Zeitgeist, he introduced the term Major consensus narrative as an explanatory synonym for truth. In August 2004 he suggested a type of device that, through pervasive RFID and GPS tracking, can track its history of use
16.
John Shirley
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John Shirley is an American writer, primarily of fantasy and science fiction and songwriting. He has also written one novel, a western, about Wyatt Earp, Wyatt in Wichita. Shirley has written novels, short stories, TV scripts and screenplays, as a musician, Shirley has fronted his own bands and written lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult and others. An extensive compilation of songs by John Shirley, Broken Mirror Glass was released by Black October Records, John Shirley was born in Houston, Texas and grew up largely in the vicinity of Portland, Oregon. His earliest novels were Transmaniacon and Dracula In Love for Zebra Books, and City Come A-Walkin and he also wrote the A Song Called Youth cyberpunk trilogy for Warner Books, re-released as an omnibus in 2012 by Prime Books. 2012 saw his novel of apocalypse, Everything Is Broken released by Prime Books. In 2013 PM Press released Shirleys New Taboos, Shirley has also written 18 song lyrics recorded by Blue Öyster Cult. His one nonfiction book is Gurdjieff, An Introduction to His Life and he currently lives in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife, Micky Shirley. John Shirley has three sons, twins Byron and Perry and their younger brother Julian. Byron is a captain and yacht broker, Perry is a journalist, teacher. Julian is a Bay Area-based underground rapper and producer of hip-hop, trap, chiptune and he is sometimes called as Juji or Young Bios. The A Song Called Youth cyberpunk trilogy, Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra and his tie-in novels include the best-seller Bioshock, Rapture. His best known work is the film The Crow, for which he was the initial writer. He also wrote scripts for Deep Space Nine and Poltergeist, The Legacy and he was nominated for an Emmy in the Prime Time Animation category for an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Shirley’s great subject is the ease with which we modern Americans have learned to look away from pain. The opening line of his novel “Demons” states the theme succinctly, it’s a horror story, I guess, but it’s also funny, weirdly erotic and, in a way that horror almost never is, tragic. Shirleys cyberpunk novels are City Come A-Walkin and the A Song Called Youth trilogy, avant-slipstream critic Larry McCaffery called him a postmodern Edgar Allan Poe. Bruce Sterling has cited Shirleys early story collection Heatseeker as being a seminal work in itself
17.
Rudy Rucker
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Rudolf von Bitter Rucker is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of fiction and non-fiction, he is best known for the novels in the Ware Tetralogy. Until its closure in 2014 he edited the science fiction webzine Flurb, Rucker was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the great-great-great-grandson of the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, Rucker attended St. Xavier High School before earning a B. A. in mathematics from Swarthmore College in 1967 and M. S. and PhD degrees in mathematics from Rutgers University. Rucker taught at the State University of New York at Geneseo from 1972 to 1978, thanks to a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Rucker taught math at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg from 1978 to 1980. He then taught at Randolph-Macon Womens College in Lynchburg, Virginia from 1980 to 1982, inspired by an interview with Stephen Wolfram, Rucker became a computer science professor at San José State University in 1986, from which he retired in 2004. A mathematician with philosophical interests, he has written The Fourth Dimension, Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension, and Infinity and the Mind. Princeton University Press published new editions of Infinity and the Mind in 1995 and in 2005, as his own alternative to cyberpunk, Rucker developed a writing style he terms transrealism. Many of Ruckers novels and short stories apply these ideas, one example of Ruckers transrealist works is Saucer Wisdom, a novel in which the main character is abducted by aliens. Rucker and his publisher marketed the book, tongue in cheek and his earliest Transrealist novel, White Light, was written during his time at Heidelberg. This Transrealist novel is based on his experiences at SUNY Geneseo and his novels also put forward a mystical philosophy that Rucker has summarized in an essay titled, with only a bit of irony, The Central Teachings of Mysticism. Rucker attended Swarthmore College, where he was roommates with Kenneth Turan his freshman year, in 1967, Rucker married Sylvia Rucker. On July 1,2008, Rucker suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, thinking he may not be around much longer, this prompted him to write the book Nested Scrolls, his autobiography
18.
Michael Swanwick
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Michael Swanwick is an American science fiction author. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he began publishing in the early 1980s, Michael Swanwicks fiction writing began with short stories, starting in 1980 when he published Ginungagap in TriQuarterly and The Feast of St. Janis in New Dimensions 11. Both stories were nominees for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story in 1981 and his published novels are In the Drift, a look at the results of a more catastrophic Three Mile Island incident, which expands on his earlier short story Mummers Kiss. His short fiction has been collected in Gravitys Angels, Moon Dogs, Tales of Old Earth, Cigar-Box Faust and Other Miniatures, The Dog Said Bow-Wow, a novella, Griffins Egg, was published in book form in 1991 and is also collected in Moon Dogs. He has collaborated with authors on several short works, including Gardner Dozois. Swanwick has written about the field as well, both essays were collected together in The Postmodern Archipelago 1997. A book-length interview with Gardner Dozois, Being Gardner Dozois, was published in 2001 and he is a prolific contributor to the New York Review of Science Fiction. Swanwick wrote a monograph on James Branch Cabell, What Can Be Saved From the Wreckage, which was published in 2007, and a short literary biography of Hope Mirrlees, Hope-in-the-Mist, which was published in 2009
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Pat Cadigan
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Pat Cadigan is an American science fiction author, whose work is most often identified with the cyberpunk movement. Her novels and short stories all share a theme of exploring the relationship between the human mind and technology. Cadigan was born in Schenectady, New York, and grew up in Fitchburg, Cadigan met her first husband Rufus Cadigan while in college, they divorced shortly after she graduated from KU in 1975. Heinlein, while working for fantasy writer Tom Reamy at his Nickelodeon Graphics typesetting. Following Reamys death in 1977, Cadigan went to work as a writer for Kansas Citys Hallmark Cards, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, she also edited the small press fantasy and science fiction magazines Chacal and later Shayol with her second husband, Arnie Fenner. Cadigan sold her first professional science fiction story in 1980, her success as an author encouraged her to become a writer in 1987. She emigrated to London in the UK with her son Rob Fenner in 1996 and she became a UK citizen in late 2014. Her second novel, Synners, expands upon the same theme, Cadigan has won a number of awards. Clarke Award both in 1992 and 1995 for her novels Synners and Fools, robert A. Heinlein in part dedicated his 1982 novel Friday to Cadigan after becoming her friend, following her being the guest liaison to him for the 34th Worldcon in Kansas City. In the 1960s Cadigan and a childhood girlfriend invented a secret life in which we were twins from the planet Venus. The Beatles came to us for advice about their songs and how to deal with fame and other important matters, Cadigan says. On occasion, they would ask us to use our highly developed shape-shifting ability to become them, the Venusian twins had other superpowers, that they would sometimes use to help out Superman, Wonder Woman and other heroes, she said. Mike Resnick, Tor 1992 Home by the Sea, A Whisper of Blood, ed. me Driving through a Cloud with Pat Cadigan at Clarkesworld Magazine, January 2014
20.
Science fiction
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Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
21.
Cyberpunk derivatives
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A number of cyberpunk derivatives have become recognized as distinct subgenres in speculative fiction. Scholars have written of these subgenres stylistic place in postmodern literature, cyberpunk is nonetheless regarded as a successful genre, as it ensnared many new readers and provided the sort of movement that postmodern literary critics found alluring. Furthermore, author David Brin argues, cyberpunk made science fiction more attractive and profitable for mainstream media, biopunk emerged during the 1990s and focuses on the near-future unintended consequences of the biotechnology revolution following the discovery of recombinant DNA. Unlike cyberpunk, it not on information technology but on biorobotics. As in postcyberpunk however, individuals are usually modified and enhanced not with cyberware, nanopunk refers to an emerging subgenre of speculative science fiction still very much in its infancy in comparison to other genres like that of cyberpunk. The genre is similar to biopunk, but describes a world in which the use of biotechnology is limited or prohibited, currently the genre is more concerned with the artistic and physiological impact of nanotechnology, than of aspects of the technology itself. Still, one of the most prominent examples of nanopunk is Crysis video game series, and much lesser famous examples is Generator Rex and Transcendence. As new writers and artists began to experiment with ideas, new varieties of fiction emerged. Lawrence Person wrote in an essay he posted to the Internet forum Slashdot in 1998, Many writers who grew up reading in the 1980s are just now starting to have their stories and novels published. To them cyberpunk was not a revolution or alien philosophy invading science fiction, persons essay advocates using the term postcyberpunk to label the new works such writers produce. It is rather characteristic for postcyberpunk to portray a utopia or to blend elements of both extremes into a more mature societal vision. Rafael Miranda Huereca states, In this fictional world, the unison in the hive becomes a power mechanism which is executed in its form, not from above the social body. The body responds back to power, communicates with it, supplies the information that power requires, more importantly, power does not only control the body, but also designs, produces, creates it according to its own objectives. Thus, human body is re-formed as a result of the transformations of the relations between communication and power, the Daemon novels by Daniel Suarez could be considered postcyberpunk in that sense. In addition to themes of its ancestral genre postcyberpunk might also combine elements of nanopunk and biopunk, good examples of postcyberpunk novels are Neal Stephensons The Diamond Age and Bruce Sterlings Holy Fire. In television, Ghost in the Shell, Stand Alone Complex has been called the most interesting, in 2007, SF writers James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel published Rewired, The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology. Like all categories discerned within science fiction, the boundaries of postcyberpunk are likely to be fluid or ill defined. The word steampunk was invented in 1987 as a reference to some of the novels of Tim Powers, James P. Blaylock
22.
Cybergoth
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Cybergoth is a subculture that derives from elements of goth, raver, and rivethead fashion. Unlike traditional goths, Cybergoths primarily listen to music more often than rock music. While the term Cybergoth was coined in 1988 in the United Kingdom, by Games Workshop, for their roleplaying game Dark Future, valerie Steele quotes Julia Borden, who defines cybergoth as combining elements of industrial aesthetics with a style associated with Gravers. Gravers hybridized the British Raver look and the NYC ClubKid look with a freak show spin and this fusion between New York and London styles began in 1999. Cybergoth fashion combines rave, rivethead, and goth fashion, as well as drawing inspiration from other forms of science fiction. The style sometimes features one starkly contrasting bright or neon-reactive theme color, such as red, blue, neon green, chrome, or pink, set against a basic, black gothic outfit. Matte or glossy black materials such as rubber and shiny black PVC can be mixed and matched in an effort to create a more artificial look, the most common use of a theme color is in the hair or eye make-up. Artificial, extended hair or falls are used to create this added effect. Falls can be made of materials, ranging from yarn to fluorescent tubing to electrical wiring. Companies that specialize in the style include Cyberdog, DANE, Pen & Lolly Clubwear, Lip Service, Cybergoth style incorporates extravagant hair pieces and styles, including synthetic dreadlocks, hair extensions and so on. These hair pieces can be made of a variety of materials, from hair to synthetic kanekelon hair, plastic tubing, tubular crin, rubber and foam strips, belts. Club Kids Cyberculture Cyberdelic Medical fetishism PVC clothing Media related to Cybergoth at Wikimedia Commons
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Goth subculture
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The goth subculture, which is found in many countries in the 2010s, began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. Notable post-punk groups that presaged that genre are Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, the goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify. Its imagery and cultural proclivities indicate influences from the 19th century Gothic literature along with horror films, the goth subculture has associated tastes in music, aesthetics, and fashion. The music of the goth subculture encompasses a number of different styles, including rock, industrial, deathrock, post-punk, darkwave, ethereal wave. Styles of dress within the range from deathrock, punk and Victorian styles, or combinations of the above, most often with dark attire, pale face makeup. The scene continues to draw interest from a large audience decades after its emergence, in Western Europe, there are large annual festivals, mainly in Germany. That same year, Velvet Underground with a track like All Tomorrows Parties, in the late 1970s, the gothic adjective was used to describe the atmosphere of post-punk bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, Magazine and Joy Division. In March 1979, in his review of Magazines second album Secondhand Daylight, Kent noted that there was a new sense of authority in the music. The term was applied to newer bands such as Bauhaus who had arrived in the wake of Joy Division and Siouxsie. Bauhauss first single issued in 1979, Bela Lugosis Dead, is credited as the starting point of the gothic rock genre. In 1979, Sounds described Joy Division as Gothic and theatrical, in February 1980, Melody Maker qualified the same band as masters of this Gothic gloom. Critic Jon Savage would later say that their singer Ian Curtis wrote the definitive Northern Gothic statement and they may have taken the goth mantle from a 1981 article published in UK rock weekly Sounds, The face of Punk Gothique, written by Steve Keaton. In a text about the audience of UK Decay, Keaton asked, with Bauhaus flying in on similar wings could it be the next big thing. The term Batcaver was then used to describe old-school goths, independent from the British scene, in the late 1970s and early 1980s in California, deathrock developed as a distinct branch of American punk rock, with acts such as Christian Death and 45 Grave. Near the peak of this first generation of the scene in 1983. The popularity of 4AD bands resulted in the creation of a similar U. S. label, Projekt, which produces what was colloquially termed ethereal wave, a subgenre of dark wave music. The 1990s saw further growth for some 1980s bands and the emergence of new acts, as well as new goth-centric U. S. record labels such as Cleopatra Records. According to Dave Simpson of The Guardian, in the 90s, goths all, as a result, the goth movement went underground and mistaken for cyber goth, Shock rock, Industrial metal, Gothic metal, Medieval folk metal and the latest subgenre, horror punk
24.
Cyberculture
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Cyberculture or computer culture is the culture that has emerged, or is emerging, from the use of computer networks for communication, entertainment, and business. Since the boundaries of cyberculture are difficult to define, the term is used flexibly and it can also embrace associated intellectual and cultural movements, such as cyborg theory and cyberpunk. The term often incorporates an implicit anticipation of the future, the Oxford English Dictionary lists the earliest usage of the term cyberculture in 1963, when A. M. Hilton wrote the following, In the era of cyberculture, all the plows pull themselves and this example, and all others, up through 1995 are used to support the definition of cyberculture as the social conditions brought about by automation and computerization. However, what both the OED and the American Heritage Dictionary miss is that cyberculture is the culture within and this cyberculture may be purely an online culture or it may span both virtual and physical worlds. This is to say, that cyberculture is an endemic to online communities, it is not just the culture that results from computer use. Another way to envision cyberculture is as the electronically enabled linkage of like-minded, Cyberculture was influenced at its genesis by those early users of the internet, frequently including the architects of the original project. These individuals were often guided in their actions by the hacker ethic, while early cyberculture was based on a small cultural sample, and its ideals, the modern cyberculture is a much more diverse group of users and the ideals that they espouse. Numerous specific concepts of cyberculture have been formulated by such authors as Lev Manovich, Arturo Escobar, however, most of these concepts concentrate only on certain aspects, and they do not cover these in great detail. Manifestations of cyberculture include various human interactions mediated by computer networks and they can be activities, pursuits, games, places and metaphors, and include a diverse base of applications. Some are supported by specialized software and others work on commonly accepted internet protocols, examples include but are not limited to, First and foremost, cyberculture derives from traditional notions of culture, as the roots of the word imply. In non-cyberculture, it would be odd to speak of a single, in cyberculture, by extension, searching for a single thing that is cyberculture would likely be problematic. The notion that there is a single, definable cyberculture is likely the complete dominance of early cyber territory by affluent North Americans, writing by early proponents of cyberspace tends to reflect this assumption. The ethnography of cyberspace is an important aspect of cyberculture that does not reflect a unified culture. It is not a monolithic or placeless cyberspace, rather, it is numerous new technologies and capabilities, used by diverse people and it is malleable, perishable, and can be shaped by the vagaries of external forces on its users. For example, the laws of physical world governments, social norms, the architecture of cyberspace, as with physical world cultures, cybercultures lend themselves to identification and study. There are several qualities that cybercultures share that make them warrant the prefix cyber-, some of those qualities are that cyberculture, Is a community mediated by ICTs. Is culture mediated by computer screens, relies heavily on the notion of information and knowledge exchange
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Virtual community
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Some of the most pervasive virtual communities are online communities operating under social networking services. The term virtual community is attributed to the book of the title published by Howard Rheingold in 1993. The books discussion ranges from Rheingolds adventures on The WELL, computer-mediated communication and social groups, Technologies cited include Usenet, MUDs and their derivatives MUSHes and MOOs, Internet Relay Chat, chat rooms and electronic mailing lists. Rheingold also points out the benefits for personal psychological well-being, as well as for society at large. Virtual communities all encourage interaction, sometimes focusing around a particular interest or just to communicate, Community members are allowed to interact over a shared passion through various means, message boards, chat rooms, social networking sites, or virtual worlds. The traditional definition of a community is of geographically circumscribed entity, Virtual communities are usually dispersed geographically, and therefore are not communities under the original definition. Some online communities are linked geographically, and are known as community websites, however, if one considers communities to simply possess boundaries of some sort between their members and non-members, then a virtual community is certainly a community. Virtual communities resemble real life communities in the sense that they provide support, information, friendship and acceptance between strangers. In the seventeenth century, scholars associated with the Royal Society of London formed a community through the exchange of letters. Community without propinquity, coined by urban planner Melvin Webber in 1963, Virtual communities are used for a variety of social and professional groups, interaction between community members vary from personal to purely formal. For example, a distribution list operates on an informational level. The explosive diffusion of the Internet since the mid-1990s fostered the proliferation of virtual communities in the form of social networking services, Online communities depend upon social interaction and exchange between users online. This interaction emphasizes the reciprocity element of the social contract between community members. Concerns with a virtual communitys tendency to promote less socializing include, verbal aggression and inhibitions, promotion of suicide, however, studies regarding the health effects of these communities did not show any negative effects. There was a high rate of participants in the study. The health-related effects are not clear because of the lack of thoroughness, rather, recent studies have looked into development of health related communities and their impact on those already suffering health issues. These forms of social networks allow for open conversation between individuals who are going through similar experiences, whether themselves or in their family. Such sites have in fact grown in popularity, so much so that now many health care providers are forming groups for their patients and these sites prove especially useful when related to rare medical conditions
26.
David Brin
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Glen David Brin is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards and his Campbell Award-winning novel The Postman was adapted as a feature film and starred Kevin Costner in 1997. Brins nonfiction book The Transparent Society won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association, Brin was born in Glendale, California in 1950. His Jewish ancestors came from Poland, from the area around Konin and his grandfather was drafted into the Russian army and fought in the Russian-Japanese War of 1905. In 1973, Brin graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in astrophysics, at the University of California, San Diego, he earned a Master of Science in applied physics in 1978 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in space science in 1981. Brin is a 2010 fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and he helped establish the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. He serves on the board of NASAs Innovative and Advanced Concepts group and frequently does futurist consulting for corporations. Brin consults and speaks for a variety of groups interested in the future, ranging from Defense Department agencies. He has also been a participant in discussions at the Philanthropy Roundtable, Brin has a very active side career in public speaking and consultation. He appears frequently on science or future related television shows such as The Universe, Life After People, Alien Encounters, Worlds of Tomorrow, and many others. He briefly was a regular on the design show The Architechs in which five geniuses were challenged to solve a major problem in 48 hours. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for the Museum of Science Fiction, exceptions include the graphic novel The Life Eaters, in which Norse gods assist the Nazis. Earth and Existence were notable near future extrapolations that explore 30 year trends, about half of Brins works are in his Uplift Universe. These have twice won the international Science Fiction Achievement Award in the Best Novel category, temptation appeared in Robert Silverbergs anthology Far Horizons, All New Tales from the Greatest Worlds of Science Fiction and is set after the events in the Infinitys Shore. Aficionado was published in the limited-edition collection Tomorrow Happens, and is a prequel to the novels. This story was published as Life in the Extreme in Popular Science Magazine Special Edition. Both stories are freely available on Brins website. Brin has stated that he intends to return to the universe at some point
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Unintended consequences
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In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the ones foreseen and intended by a purposeful action. The term was popularised in the century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton. Unintended consequences can be grouped into three types, Unexpected benefit, A positive unexpected benefit, Unexpected drawback, An unexpected detriment occurring in addition to the desired effect of the policy. Perverse result, A perverse effect contrary to what was originally intended and this is sometimes referred to as backfire. The idea of unintended consequences dates back at least to John Locke who discussed the consequences of interest rate regulation in his letter to Sir John Somers. The idea was discussed by Adam Smith, the Scottish Enlightenment. However, it was the sociologist Robert K. Merton who popularized this concept in the twentieth century and he emphasized that his term purposive action. Concerned with conduct as distinct from behavior and that is, with action that involves motives and consequently a choice between various alternatives. Mertons usage included deviations from what Max Weber defined as social action, instrumentally rational. Merton also stated that no blanket statement categorically affirming or denying the practical feasibility of all social planning is warranted, akin to Murphys law, it is commonly used as a wry or humorous warning against the hubristic belief that humans can fully control the world around them. As a sub-component of complexity, the nature of the universe—and especially its quality of having small. Likewise the creation of no-mans lands during the Cold War, in such as the border between Eastern and Western Europe, and the Korean Demilitarized Zone, has led to large natural habitats. The sinking of ships in shallow waters during wartime has created many artificial coral reefs, in medicine, most drugs have unintended consequences associated with their use. For instance, aspirin, a reliever, is also an anticoagulant that can help prevent heart attacks and reduce the severity. The existence of beneficial side effects also leads to off-label use—prescription or use of a drug for an unlicensed purpose, famously, the drug Viagra was developed to lower blood pressure, with its main current use being discovered as a side effect in clinical trials. The implementation of a profanity filter by AOL in 1996 had the consequence of blocking residents of Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire. The accidental censorship of innocent language, known as the Scunthorpe problem, has been repeated, in 1990, the Australian state of Victoria made safety helmets mandatory for all bicycle riders. The risk of death and serious injury per cyclist seems to have increased, research by Vulcan, et al. found that the reduction in juvenile cyclists was because the youths considered wearing a bicycle helmet unfashionable
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History of biotechnology
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Biotechnology is the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of materials by biological agents to provide goods and services. From its inception, biotechnology has maintained a relationship with society. Although now most often associated with the development of drugs, historically biotechnology has been associated with food, addressing such issues as malnutrition. The history of biotechnology begins with zymotechnology, which commenced with a focus on brewing techniques for beer, by World War I, however, zymotechnology would expand to tackle larger industrial issues, and the potential of industrial fermentation gave rise to biotechnology. However, both the protein and gasohol projects failed to progress due to varying issues including public resistance, a changing economic scene. These debates gained exposure in 1975 at the Asilomar Conference, where Joshua Lederberg was the most outspoken supporter for this field in biotechnology. By as early as 1978, with the development of human insulin, Lederbergs claims would prove valid. Each new scientific advance became an event designed to capture public support. The field of genetic engineering remains a topic of discussion in todays society with the advent of gene therapy, stem cell research, cloning. While it seems only natural nowadays to link pharmaceutical drugs as solutions to health and societal problems, Biotechnology arose from the field of zymotechnology or zymurgy, which began as a search for a better understanding of industrial fermentation, particularly beer. Beer was an important industrial, and not just social, commodity, in late 19th-century Germany, brewing contributed as much to the gross national product as steel, and taxes on alcohol proved to be significant sources of revenue to the government. In the 1860s, institutes and remunerative consultancies were dedicated to the technology of brewing, the most famous was the private Carlsberg Institute, founded in 1875, which employed Emil Christian Hansen, who pioneered the pure yeast process for the reliable production of consistent beer. Less well known were private consultancies that advised the brewing industry, one of these, the Zymotechnic Institute, was established in Chicago by the German-born chemist John Ewald Siebel. The heyday and expansion of zymotechnology came in World War I in response to needs to support the war. Max Delbrück grew yeast on an immense scale during the war to meet 60 percent of Germanys animal feed needs, compounds of another fermentation product, lactic acid, made up for a lack of hydraulic fluid, glycerol. On the Allied side the Russian chemist Chaim Weizmann used starch to eliminate Britains shortage of acetone, the industrial potential of fermentation was outgrowing its traditional home in brewing, and zymotechnology soon gave way to biotechnology. With food shortages spreading and resources fading, some dreamed of a new industrial solution, the Hungarian Károly Ereky coined the word biotechnology in Hungary during 1919 to describe a technology based on converting raw materials into a more useful product. He built a slaughterhouse for a thousand pigs and also a farm with space for 50,000 pigs
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Recombinant DNA
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Recombinant DNA is possible because DNA molecules from all organisms share the same chemical structure. They differ only in the sequence within that identical overall structure. Recombinant DNA is the name for a piece of DNA that has been created by the combination of at least two strands. Recombinant DNA molecules are called chimeric DNA, because they can be made of material from two different species, like the mythical chimera. R-DNA technology uses palindromic sequences and leads to the production of sticky, the DNA sequences used in the construction of recombinant DNA molecules can originate from any species. For example, plant DNA may be joined to bacterial DNA, in addition, DNA sequences that do not occur anywhere in nature may be created by the chemical synthesis of DNA, and incorporated into recombinant molecules. Using recombinant DNA technology and synthetic DNA, literally any DNA sequence may be created and introduced into any of a wide range of living organisms. Proteins that can result from the expression of recombinant DNA within living cells are termed recombinant proteins, when recombinant DNA encoding a protein is introduced into a host organism, the recombinant protein is not necessarily produced. Expression of foreign proteins requires the use of specialized expression vectors, molecular cloning is the laboratory process used to create recombinant DNA. It is one of two widely used methods, along with polymerase chain reaction, used to direct the replication of any specific DNA sequence chosen by the experimentalist, there are two fundamental differences between the methods. One is that cloning involves replication of the DNA within a living cell, while PCR replicates DNA in the test tube. The other difference is that cloning involves cutting and pasting DNA sequences, formation of recombinant DNA requires a cloning vector, a DNA molecule that replicates within a living cell. The choice of vector for molecular cloning depends on the choice of host organism, the size of the DNA to be cloned, the DNA segments can be combined by using a variety of methods, such as restriction enzyme/ligase cloning or Gibson assembly. These steps are described in detail in a related article. Following transplantation into the host organism, the foreign DNA contained within the recombinant DNA construct may or may not be expressed and that is, the DNA may simply be replicated without expression, or it may be transcribed and translated and a recombinant protein is produced. Specific changes to the host organism may be made to improve expression of the ectopic gene, in most cases, organisms containing recombinant DNA have apparently normal phenotypes. Significant exceptions exist, and are discussed below, gross phenotypic changes are not the norm, unless the recombinant gene has been chosen and modified so as to generate biological activity in the host organism. In some cases, recombinant DNA can have deleterious effects even if it is not expressed, one mechanism by which this happens is insertional inactivation, in which the rDNA becomes inserted into a host cells gene
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Totalitarianism
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Totalitarianism is a political system in which the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible. A distinctive feature of totalitarian governments is an ideology, a set of ideas that gives meaning. The concept of totalitarianism was first developed in the 1920s by the Weimar German jurist, and later Nazi academic, Carl Schmitt, Schmitt used the term, Totalstaat, in his influential work on the legal basis of an all-powerful state, The Concept of the Political. The concept became prominent in Western political discourse as a concept that highlights similarities between Fascist states and the Soviet Union, the term was later assigned a positive meaning in the writings of Giovanni Gentile, Italy’s most prominent philosopher and leading theorist of fascism. He used the term “totalitario” to refer to the structure and goals of the new state, according to Benito Mussolini, this system politicizes everything spiritual and human, Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state. Churchill was then a backbencher MP representing the Epping constituency, in a radio address two weeks later Churchill again employed the term, this time applying the concept to a Communist or a Nazi tyranny. And went on to say Democracy is not an end but a means to the conquest of the new state, when the time comes, either parliament submits or we will eliminate it. G. Wells, Henry Miller or twopenny color postcards, every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it. During a 1945 lecture series entitled The Soviet Impact on the Western World, only the blind and incurable could ignore the trend towards totalitarianism, said Carr. Isabel Paterson, in The God of the Machine, used the term in connection with the Soviet Union, in The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt argued that Nazi and State communist regimes were new forms of government, and not merely updated versions of the old tyrannies. According to Arendt, the source of the appeal of totalitarian regimes is their ideology, which provides a comforting, single answer to the mysteries of the past, present. For Nazism, all history is the history of race struggle, once that premise is accepted, all actions of the state can be justified by appeal to Nature or the Law of History, justifying their establishment of authoritarian state apparatus. In addition to Arendt, many scholars from a variety of academic backgrounds, each one of these describes totalitarianism in slightly different ways. Is only concerned with power and as long as that is not contested it gives society a certain degree of liberty. Authoritarianism does not attempt to change the world and human nature, in contrast, a totalitarian regime attempts to control virtually all aspects of the social life, including the economy, education, art, science, private life, and morals of citizens. The officially proclaimed ideology penetrates into the deepest reaches of societal structure and it also mobilizes the whole population in pursuit of its goals. Friedrich and Brzezinski argue that a system has the following six, mutually supportive, defining characteristics. Single mass party, typically led by a dictator, system of terror, using such instruments as violence and secret police
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Biotechnologies
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Depending on the tools and applications, it often overlaps with the fields of bioengineering, biomedical engineering, biomanufacturing, molecular engineering, etc. For thousands of years, humankind has used biotechnology in agriculture, food production, the term is largely believed to have been coined in 1919 by Hungarian engineer Károly Ereky. Modern usage also includes genetic engineering as well as cell and tissue culture technologies, as per European Federation of Biotechnology, biotechnology is the integration of natural science and organisms, cells, parts thereof, and molecular analogues for products and services. Biotechnology also writes on the biological sciences. By contrast, bioengineering is generally thought of as a field that more heavily emphasizes higher systems approaches for interfacing with. Bioengineering is the application of the principles of engineering and natural sciences to tissues, cells and this can be considered as the use of knowledge from working with and manipulating biology to achieve a result that can improve functions in plants and animals. Although not normally what first comes to mind, many forms of human-derived agriculture clearly fit the definition of utilizing a biotechnological system to make products. Indeed, the cultivation of plants may be viewed as the earliest biotechnological enterprise, Agriculture has been theorized to have become the dominant way of producing food since the Neolithic Revolution. Through early biotechnology, the earliest farmers selected and bred the best suited crops, having the highest yields and these processes also were included in early fermentation of beer. These processes were introduced in early Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and India, in brewing, malted grains convert starch from grains into sugar and then adding specific yeasts to produce beer. In this process, carbohydrates in the grains were broken down into alcohols such as ethanol, later other cultures produced the process of lactic acid fermentation which allowed the fermentation and preservation of other forms of food, such as soy sauce. Fermentation was also used in time period to produce leavened bread. Although the process of fermentation was not fully understood until Louis Pasteurs work in 1857, before the time of Charles Darwins work and life, animal and plant scientists had already used selective breeding. Darwin added to body of work with his scientific observations about the ability of science to change species. These accounts contributed to Darwins theory of natural selection, for thousands of years, humans have used selective breeding to improve production of crops and livestock to use them for food. In selective breeding, organisms with desirable characteristics are mated to produce offspring with the same characteristics, for example, this technique was used with corn to produce the largest and sweetest crops. In the early twentieth century scientists gained an understanding of microbiology. Biotechnology has also led to the development of antibiotics, in 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the mold Penicillium
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Social control
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Social control is a concept within the disciplines of the social sciences. Formal means of social control – External sanctions enforced by government to prevent the establishment of chaos or anomie in society, some theorists, such as Émile Durkheim, refer to this form of control as regulation. As briefly defined above, the means to social control can be either informal or formal. Sociologist Edward A. Ross argues that belief systems exert a greater control on human behavior than laws imposed by government, Social control is considered to be one of the foundations of order within society. Roodenburg identifies the concept of control as a classical concept. While the concept of control has been around since the formation of organized sociology. Originally, the concept simply referred to societys ability to regulate itself, however, in the 1930s, the term took on its more modern meaning of an individuals conversion to conformity. Social control theory began to be studied as a field in the early 20th century. The concept of control is related to another concept, which is the notion of social order. Individuals internalize the values of their society, whether conscious or not of the indoctrination, traditional society relies mostly on informal social control embedded in its customary culture to socialize its members. Informal sanctions may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism, and disapproval, in extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion. Informal social control usually has more effect on individuals because the values become internalized. Another example from the movie About a Boy, when a young boy hesitates to jump from a springboard and is ridiculed for his fear. Though he eventually jumps, his behavior is controlled by shame, informal controls reward or punish acceptable or unacceptable behavior and are varied from individual to individual, group to group, and society to society. For example, at a Womens Institute meeting, a disapproving look might convey the message that it is inappropriate to flirt with the minister. In a criminal gang, on the hand, a stronger sanction applies in the case of someone threatening to inform to the police of illegal activity. Theorists such as Noam Chomsky have argued that systemic bias exists in the modern media, the marketing, advertising, and public relations industries have thus been said to utilize mass communications to aid the interests of certain political and business elites. Powerful ideological, economic and religious lobbyists have often used school systems, Social control developed together with civilization, as a rational measure against the uncontrollable forces of nature, which tribal organisations were at prey to, within archaic tribal societies
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Information technology
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Information technology is the application of computers to store, study, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data, or information, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. IT is considered a subset of information and communications technology, the term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks, but it also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones. Several industries are associated with technology, including computer hardware, software, electronics, semiconductors, internet, telecom equipment. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler commented that the new technology not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology, based on the storage and processing technologies employed, it is possible to distinguish four distinct phases of IT development, pre-mechanical, mechanical, electromechanical, electronic. This article focuses on the most recent period, which began in about 1940, devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, probably initially in the form of a tally stick. Electronic computers, using either relays or valves, began to appear in the early 1940s, the electromechanical Zuse Z3, completed in 1941, was the worlds first programmable computer, and by modern standards one of the first machines that could be considered a complete computing machine. Colossus, developed during the Second World War to decrypt German messages was the first electronic digital computer, although it was programmable, it was not general-purpose, being designed to perform only a single task. It also lacked the ability to store its program in memory, programming was carried out using plugs, the first recognisably modern electronic digital stored-program computer was the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, which ran its first program on 21 June 1948. The development of transistors in the late 1940s at Bell Laboratories allowed a new generation of computers to be designed with reduced power consumption. The first commercially available stored-program computer, the Ferranti Mark I, by comparison the first transistorised computer, developed at the University of Manchester and operational by November 1953, consumed only 150 watts in its final version. Early electronic computers such as Colossus made use of punched tape, a strip of paper on which data was represented by a series of holes. IBM introduced the first hard drive in 1956, as a component of their 305 RAMAC computer system. Most digital data today is stored magnetically on hard disks. Until 2002 most information was stored on analog devices, but that year digital storage capacity exceeded analog for the first time. As of 2007 almost 94% of the data stored worldwide was held digitally, 52% on hard disks, 28% on optical devices and 11% on digital magnetic tape. It has been estimated that the capacity to store information on electronic devices grew from less than 3 exabytes in 1986 to 295 exabytes in 2007. Database management systems emerged in the 1960s to address the problem of storing and retrieving large amounts of data accurately and quickly, one of the earliest such systems was IBMs Information Management System, which is still widely deployed more than 50 years later
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Biorobotics
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Biorobotics is a term that loosely covers the fields of cybernetics, bionics and even genetic engineering as a collective study. Biorobotics is often used to refer to a subfield of robotics. The term is used in a reverse definition, making biological organisms as manipulatable and functional as robots. In the latter sense, biorobotics can be referred to as a discipline of comprehensive genetic engineering in which organisms are created and designed by artificial means. The creation of life from non-living matter for example, would be biorobotics, the field is in its infancy and is sometimes known as synthetic biology or bionanotechnology. In fiction, biorobotics makes many appearances, like the biots of the novel Rendezvous with Rama, biorobotics has made many appearances in works of fiction, often in the form of synthetic biological organisms. The robots featured in Rossums Universal Robots are presented as synthetic biological entities closer to biological organisms than the objects that the term robot came to refer to. The replicants in the film Blade Runner are biological in nature, they are organisms of living tissue, in the novel The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, windups or New People are genetically engineered organisms. The word biot, a portmanteau of biological robot, was coined by Arthur C. Clarke in his 1972 novel Rendezvous with Rama. Biots are depicted as biological organisms created to perform specific tasks on the space vessel Rama. This affects their physical attributes and cognitive abilities, the 1968 East German novel Nabou by Günther Krupkat features an alien biorobot Biomat. Humanoid Cylons in the 2004 television series Battlestar Galactica are another example of biological robots in fictions, almost indistinguishable from humans, they are artificial creations created by mechanical cylons. The authors of the Star Wars book series The New Jedi Order reprised the term biot, the Yuuzhan Vong uses the term to designate their biotechnology. The term bioroid, or biological android, as also used to designate artificial biological organisms. In 1985 the animated Robotech television series popularized the term when it reused the term from the 1984 Japanese series The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross. The term was popularized in the 1988 computer game Snatcher. The term reploid, or replicate-android, is used in the Capcom video game series Mega Man X, another further future form of these robots, seen in Mega Man Zero, have them being so close to humans that they can actually eat, sleep, and reproduce. The only thing setting them apart is their semi-inorganic skeletal systems, the final future of the game series is Mega Man Legends where humans and robots are one being to the point they can actually get together and reproduce offspring without effort
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Synthetic biology
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Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary branch of biology and engineering. Synthetic biology applies these disciplines to build biological systems for research, engineering. Descriptions of synthetic biology depend on how the user approaches it, originally seen as a subset of biology, in recent years the role of electrical and chemical engineering has become more important. For example, one description designates synthetic biology as a discipline that uses engineering principles to design. The definition of synthetic biology is debated, not only among natural scientists and engineers but also in the sciences, arts. One popular definition is designing and constructing biological modules, biological systems, however, the functional aspects of this definition are rooted in molecular biology and biotechnology. In general its purpose can be described as the design and construction of novel artificial biological pathways, organisms or devices, the first identifiable use of the term synthetic biology was in Stéphane Leduc’s publication of Théorie physico-chimique de la vie et générations spontanées and his La Biologie Synthétique. A notable advance in synthetic biology occurred in 2000, when two articles in Nature by Michael B, elowitz and Stanislas Leibler discussed the creation of synthetic biological circuit devices of a genetic toggle switch and a biological clock by combining genes within E. coli cells. Engineers view biology as a technology – a given systems biotechnology or its biological engineering, biomolecular engineering includes approaches which aim to create a toolkit of functional units that can be introduced to present new technological functions in living cells. Genetic engineering includes approaches to construct synthetic chromosomes for whole or minimal organisms, biomolecular design refers to the general idea of de novo design and additive combination of biomolecular components. Each of these share a similar task, to develop a more synthetic entity at a higher level of complexity by inventively manipulating a simpler part at the preceding level. Re-writers are synthetic biologists interested in testing the irreducibility of biological systems, re-writers draw inspiration from refactoring, a process sometimes used to improve computer software. Several key enabling technologies are critical to the growth of synthetic biology, the key concepts include standardization of biological parts and hierarchical abstraction to permit using those parts in increasingly complex synthetic systems. Achieving this is greatly aided by basic technologies of reading and writing of DNA, measurements under a variety of conditions are needed for accurate modeling and computer-aided-design. The most used standardized DNA parts are BioBrick plasmids invented by Tom Knight in 2003. In 2007 it was reported that companies were offering the synthesis of genetic sequences up to 2000 bp long, for a price of about $1 per base pair. Additionally, the CRISPR/Cas system has emerged as a technique for gene editing. It was hailed by The Washington Post as the most important innovation in the synthetic biology space in nearly 30 years, while other methods take months or years to edit gene sequences, CRISPR speeds that time up to weeks
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Body modification
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Body modification is the deliberate altering of the human anatomy or human physical appearance. In its broadest definition it includes plastic surgery, socially acceptable decoration, Body parts that are commonly removed by those practicing body nullification are, penis, testicles, clitoris, labia and nipples. Sometimes people who desire a nullification may be diagnosed with body integrity identity disorder or apotemnophilia and this compresses the collarbone and upper ribs but is not medically dangerous. It is a myth that removing the rings cause the neck to flop. Stretched lip piercings - achieved by inserting ever larger plates, such as made of clay used by some Amazonian tribes. Yaeba - the deliberate misaligning or capping of teeth to give a crooked appearance, disfigurement and mutilation are terms used by opponents of body modification to describe certain types of modifications, especially non-consensual ones. Some surgical procedures that modify human genitals are performed with the consent of the patient. The phrase Genital mutilation is sometimes used to describe procedures that individuals are forced to undergo without their informed consent, the phrase has been applied to involuntary castration, male circumcision, and female genital mutilation. Intersex campaigners say that childhood modification of genitals of individuals with intersex conditions without their consent is a form of mutilation. Many use body modification and self-mutilation interchangeably, in many ways self-mutilation is very different than body-modification. Body modification gives one the feeling of pride and excitement, giving one something to show off to others, alternately, those who self-mutilate typically are ashamed of what theyve done and want to hide any evidence of harm. Those who self-mutilate do so in order to themselves, express internal turmoil. The Official Body Modification Organization Body Modification E-Zine Encyclopedia entry showing various inappropriate uses of ear piercing instruments Nail Art
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Human enhancement
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Human enhancement is any attempt to temporarily or permanently overcome the current limitations of the human body through natural or artificial means. Human enhancement technologies are techniques that can be used not simply for treating illness and disability, the expression human enhancement technologies is relative to emerging technologies and converging technologies. It states that future retinal eye implants could enable night vision, neuro-pharmaceuticals will allow people to maintain concentration for longer periods of time or enhance their learning abilities. Augmented reality systems can provide enhanced experiences of real-world situations and he also states that a persons brain and body do not have to be in the same place. Computers, mobile phones, Internet, to enhance cognitive efficiency, exocortex, a theoretical artificial external information processing system that would augment a brains biological high-level cognitive processes. Since the 1990s, several academics have risen to become advocates of the case for human enhancement while other academics have become outspoken critics and he also argues that the concept of enablement needs to be added to the debate over therapy versus enhancement. Although many proposals of human enhancement rely on science, the very notion. Futurist Ray Kurzweil has shown some concern that, within the century, other critics of human enhancement fear that such capabilities would change, for the worse, the dynamic relations within a family. Some believe that the ability to enhance ones self would reflect the goal of human life, to improve fitness. They claim that it is nature to want to better ourselves via increased life expectancy, strength, and/or intelligence. In todays world, however, there are stratification among socioeconomic classes that prevent the less wealthy from accessing these enhancements, the advantage gained by one persons enhancements implies a disadvantage to an unenhanced person. Human enhancements present a debate on the equality between the haves and the have-nots. A modern-day example of this would be LASIK eye surgery, which only the wealthy can afford, the enhancement of the human body could have profound changes to everyday situations. Sports, for instance, would change dramatically if enhanced people were allowed to compete, when considering birth rates into this equation, if there is no decline with increased longevity, this could put more pressure on resources like energy and food availability. A job candidate enhanced with a neural transplant that heightens their ability to compute and retain information, another scenario might be a person with a hearing or sight enhancement could intrude on privacy laws or expectations in an environment like a classroom or workplace. These enhancements could go undetected and give individuals an overall advantage, unfairness in those who receive enhancements and those who do not is a cause for concern. Although it should be noted that already exists within our society without the need for human enhancement. An individual taking a math exam may have a better calculator than another, the long-term physical advantage through genetic engineering or short-term cognitive advantage of nootropics may be part of a greater issue
38.
Cyberware
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Cyberware is a relatively new and unknown field. More formally, Cyberware is technology that attempts to create an interface between machines/computers and the human nervous system, including the brain. Examples of potential cyberware cover a range, but current research tends to approach the field from one of two different angles, interfaces or prosthetics. The first variety attempts to connect directly with the brain, the data-jack is probably the best-known, having heavily featured in works of fiction. It the most difficult object to implement, but it is also the most important in terms of interfacing directly with the mind, in science fiction the data-jack is the envisioned I/O port for the brain. Its job is to translate thoughts into something meaningful to a computer, once perfected, it would allow direct communication between computers and the human mind. Large university laboratories conduct most of the experiments done in the area of neural interfaces. For ethical reasons, the tests are performed on animals or slices of brain tissue from donor brains. The mainstream research focuses on electrical impulse monitoring, recording and translating the many different electrical signals that the brain transmits, a number of companies are working on what is essentially a hands-free mouse or keyboard. This technology uses these signals to control computer functions. These interfaces are sometimes called brain-machine interfaces, the more intense research, concerning full in-brain interfaces, is being studied, but is in its infancy. Few can afford the huge cost of such enterprises, and those who can find the work slow-going, research has reached the level where limited control over a computer is possible using thought commands alone. After being implanted with a Massachusetts-based firm Cyberkinetics chip called BrainGate, the second variety of cyberware consists of a more modern form of the rather old field of prosthetics. Modern prostheses attempt to deliver a natural functionality and appearance, the patient is then taught how to operate the prosthetic, trying to learn how to move it as though it were a natural limb. Crossing over between prostheses and interfaces are those pieces of equipment attempting to replace lost senses, an early success in this field is the cochlear implant. A tiny device inserted into the ear, it replaces the functionality of damaged, or missing. This device comes firmly under the field of prosthetics, but experiments are also being performed to tap into the brain, coupled with a speech-processor, this could be a direct link to the speech centres of the brain
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Gene therapy
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Gene therapy is the therapeutic delivery of nucleic acid polymers into a patients cells as a drug to treat disease. The first therapeutic use of transfer as well as the first direct insertion of human DNA into the nuclear genome was performed by French Anderson in a trial starting in September 1990. Between 1989 and February 2016, over 2,300 clinical trials had been conducted and it should be noted that not all medical procedures that introduce alterations to a patients genetic makeup can be considered gene therapy. Bone marrow transplantation and organ transplants in general have been found to introduce foreign DNA into patients, Gene therapy is defined by the precision of the procedure and the intention of direct therapeutic effects. Gene therapy was conceptualized in 1972, by authors who urged caution before commencing human gene therapy studies, the first attempt, an unsuccessful one, at gene therapy was performed by Martin Cline on 10 July 1980. The first somatic treatment that produced a permanent genetic change was performed in 1993, Gene therapy is a way to fix a genetic problem at its source. The polymers are either translated into proteins, interfere with target gene expression, the most common form uses DNA that encodes a functional, therapeutic gene to replace a mutated gene. The polymer molecule is packaged within a vector, which carries the molecule inside cells, early clinical failures led to dismissals of gene therapy. Clinical successes since 2006 regained researchers attention, although as of 2014, between 2013 and April 2014, US companies invested over $600 million in the field. The first commercial gene therapy, Gendicine, was approved in China in 2003 for the treatment of certain cancers, in 2011 Neovasculgen was registered in Russia as the first-in-class gene-therapy drug for treatment of peripheral artery disease, including critical limb ischemia. Following early advances in engineering of bacteria, cells, and small animals. Two main approaches were considered – replacing or disrupting defective genes, scientists focused on diseases caused by single-gene defects, such as cystic fibrosis, haemophilia, muscular dystrophy, thalassemia and sickle cell anemia. Glybera treats one such disease, caused by a defect in lipoprotein lipase, DNA must be administered, reach the damaged cells, enter the cell and either express or disrupt a protein. Multiple delivery techniques have been explored, the initial approach incorporated DNA into an engineered virus to deliver the DNA into a chromosome. Naked DNA approaches have also explored, especially in the context of vaccine development. Generally, efforts focused on administering a gene that causes a needed protein to be expressed, more recently, increased understanding of nuclease function has led to more direct DNA editing, using techniques such as zinc finger nucleases and CRISPR. The vector incorporates genes into chromosomes, the expressed nucleases then knock out and replace genes in the chromosome. As of 2014 these approaches involve removing cells from patients, editing a chromosome, Gene editing is a potential approach to alter the human genome to treat genetic diseases, viral diseases, and cancer
