A Cyberpunk Manifesto v3.0 (2007)¶

Introduction¶

“If you would have a thought controlled, wearable computer that you can fully customize, would that computer be an integral part of your consciousness ?” Hail to the ordinary nerds, who don’t walk the streets often, being 24 hours a day online, phreaking, hacking, tweaking, etc. Being Cyberpunk, being other than normal people. Seeing what normal people just do not see. The digital life in biological senses of the mainframe, defined as the global world we life in. Labeled as nerd, weirdos, punks, freaks.... Technology freaks, that understand all systems, labeled as freaks/weirdos by society. Knowing more as common people do, hacking systems for fun, digitally overloading their mind with good information... etc... People like us, loving tech and having more friends online as in their own town/city, searching and learning technology to use it in other ways as it was meant to be, searching other means of system liberation, fighting against corporate oppression and censorship, freedom of information wars...

Long live the Cybero-revolution, long live the techno-anarchists, long live the hackers and the crackers...

Vision¶

The world “they” want to give us is a toxic ball of disease, a living corpse ravaged by pollution and malignant complacency. The world “they” want to give us is only meant to serve them, to keep themselves and their closest friends in power, to keep the human cattle complacent and ignorant of alternatives, to exploit and destroy the planet and to suffocate those who can change this world for the better. “They” want the masses to remain docile as sheep, so “they” create “entertainment” to brainwash the masses into a slumber. “They” will do anything to keep themselves in power and suppress anything that may threaten it, including “eternal damnation” at the hands of their schizophrenic fantasy for “God” upon those who disagree.

Who are “they” ? “They” are the companies, countries and individuals who seek domination by addicting the human cattle to certain concepts: oil, drugs, religion, mind numbing “technology” and “popular culture”. “They” are once powerful monopolies, defrocked and shattered for refusing to play fair, who are trying to resurrect their former corrupt glory by conspiring with Big Brother to rob us of our freedom and privacy. “They” are Internet-based companies with many tentacles who are buying every smaller company on the net looking to control all net content. “They” are mindless media companies who repeatedly vomit the same garbage for “entertainment” to numb the cattle into submission, and then use “copyright laws” to force Internet companies into oblivion and extend their control over the either. “They” are the actors, musicians, and artists who conspire with the media companies to spread the vomit, and then whore themselves for unworthy political causes. “They” are lunatics and perverts who ram their “theology” down our throats and expect us to have blind faith in their “God” even though their “God” is an outdated illusion. “They” are idiots, too stupid to walk and chew gum at the same time, who manage to become national leaders not by the will of the people, but by luck of circumstances and a political climate favorable for them. “They” are the reason why the world is in such bad shape, and why Cyberpunks are fighting back.

Cyberpunks refuse to be cattle, to jump on bandwagons, to be “one of the crowd”. Cyberpunks see through the deception of modern culture, and they fight against it. Cyberpunks are the ones brave enough to deliver their message, to stand before the crowds, the government, the church and the industry and say “YOU ARE WRONG !” Cyberpunks accept the ostracism, because they already rejected “society’s” ways for something better. Sometimes, it’s a lonely fight, but Cyberpunks are in virtually every society, every country, and when they come together they are a force “they” must deal with.

Technology¶

Advancements in technology keeps us busy, keeping up-to-date with latest tech, almost like old Cyberpunk (pre 2000) turns real in 21th century terms, like 2006 and beyond. Bio-implants, VR wars, techno-information warfare. Future wars not fought with armies, but with computer systems. Current technology makes us Cyberpunks adapt to it, and even (like always) think one step beyond. Thinking 20 years in the future, creating new things with current technology, inventing other means to use a device, changing the original senses of an apparatus, to create a new complex electronic system, like hacking a phone, to turn it into a infra-red TV remote. IV. Politics

The war against global big time corporations, like Unilever, Shell, Microsoft, Google, Gillette and others, still rages on. Oppression by corporations using the puppet government as their worktool, to keep the people dumb, is not an option for Cyberpunks. We are anarchist/revolutionary anti-system people. We think for ourselves, and do not need some big guy/woman have to tell us what we may think. Fighting corporations, by hacking their systems, spreading viruses, mind-probes, DDOS attacks are now common in 2007. The things described in books like Neuromancer and other Cyberpunk novels wrote (as being SF in those 80s/90s days), became todays reality. 2006+ years (21th century) gets more digital, and so do the governments, by creating Identification protocols to control their humans/people. Cyberpunks still rage war against ID protocols, by becoming unknown, nerds, with big brains, hacking things, etc. V. Sociology

Cyberpunks tend to be individuals that do not fit in any system or group. They are mostly very intelligent people, who see beyond the explicit. They witness the absurdity of the culture, parody it, mash and transform it. They use the tools of society to witness against it, to document its ignorant self-destructive tendencies and to indite it; sharing their knowledge to a select group, often cursed/hated by system folks. Having more friends on the digital internet/ultranet than in their own town/city. Sharing more knowledge digitally on the net-highway, than via embodied interaction. Spending more time to get more technological knowledge/information than to socialize is not uncommon.

History¶

Cyberpunks change their ideas, music, fashion, etc. from time to time. In the 80s, they had more synth oriented music, more old-fashion tech, etc. Now in 21th century, we have the global broadband internet, satellite mobile/GSM phones, VR, etc. We adapt to the tech, and the tech adapts to us. We are symbiotic, both biological as technological. Our Cyberpunk movement advances as time goes by. We learn, and we grow more powerful. As we are the soldiers of the technology frontier, not known by the system, but still alive. Cyberpunk, coined by Bruce Bethke and realized by William Gibson, that which once was Science Fiction is now turning into reality. When Cyberpunk fans get their hands on current tech, there will be a huge rise of Cyberpunk fans worldwide, who realize that Cyberpunk is not only not a fairytale, but is also a hi-tech movement that goes beyond the imagination of the original writers of Cyberpunk novels.

Freedom¶

Cyberpunks encourage the ultimate freedom of thought. Our quest for free access to all information has no boundaries. We are those who need to understand before accepting anything of the media feed. We are the bug in the source code, the probability of (r)evolution that threatens rigid systems. Nobody can control us, and that’s why we’re chased. We do not belong to the Society they want to create. Skilled programmers, utopian dreamers, artists or office workers, we are the ones who resist, living in the datanet where there’s no law applicable, bypassing all the frontiers; cyberworld is where we belong. We’re the children of cyberspace, we can do all we want, we look towards the future, trying to think of new technologies, spreading our ideas in the vast ocean of information. We aren’t just the aggregators of information nor the static target audience nor the ultimate consumer. For us information is not an intangible stream of data. It as as much a part of us, as we are of it. It runs through our minds, just like blood and oxygen. To hold information or use it for oppression against us is like denying air to breathe. Yet we are also the ultimate brain surgeon, capable of removing any filth “they” would like to embedding us.