Cyberpunk is a genre of
science fiction that focuses on
computers or
information technology, usually coupled with some degree of breakdown in social order. The plot of cyberpunk writing often centers on a conflict among
hackers,
artificial intelligences, and
mega corporations, tending to be set within a near-future
dystopian Earth, rather than the "outer space" locales prevalent at the time of cyberpunk's inception. Much of the genre's "atmosphere" echoes
film noir, and written works in the genre often use techniques from
detective fiction. While this gritty, hard-hitting style was hailed as revolutionary during cyberpunk's early days, later observers concluded that in terms of literature, most cyberpunk narrative techniques were less innovative than those of the
New Wave, twenty years earlier. Primary exponents of the cyberpunk field include
William Gibson,
Bruce Sterling,
John Shirley and
Rudy Rucker. The term became widespread in the
1980s and remains current today.
Leet (written 31337, 1337, and l33t), or Leetspeak, is a written
argot used primarily on the
Internet, which uses various combinations of
alphanumerics to replace
Latinate letters. The term is derived from the word "elite", and the usage it describes is a specialized form of
shorthand.
... that Silvia Bottini, the face of the "First World Problems"
meme, has done makeup for
T-Pain and publicly performed
Ovid?
... that the skeleton panda sea squirt was known on the Internet for its skeleton-like appearance years before its formal description?
... that
Monique Corzilius did not realize that she was the girl featured in the famous "Daisy" advertisement until the 2000s, when she searched for the commercial on the Internet?
... that
David Bowie's 1999 album Hours was the first by a major artist available for download from the Internet?
... that two years after Instagram's Dear White Staffers started out as a small
meme account, it was credited with kickstarting the unionization of U.S.
congressional staff?
This map presents an overview of broadband affordability, as the relationship between average yearly income per capita and the cost of a broadband subscription (data referring to 2011). Source: Information Geographies at the Oxford Internet Institute. (from Internet access)
Image 21The digital divide measured in terms of bandwidth is not closing, but fluctuating up and down. Gini coefficients for telecommunication capacity (in kbit/s) among individuals worldwide (from Internet access)
Image 24Postage stamp of Azerbaijan (2004): 35 Years of the Internet, 1969–2004 (from History of the Internet)
Selected quote
On their own, new technologies do not take sides in the struggle for freedom and progress, but the United States does. We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas. And we recognize that the world’s information infrastructure will become what we and others make of it. Now, this challenge may be new, but our responsibility to help ensure the free exchange of ideas goes back to the birth of our republic.
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