I really love working conventions. I have such a great time sitting at my table, chatting with folks about my work and their interests. It’s absolutely thrilling when someone gets really excited about what I’ve written.

I’ve also noticed one question comes up here and there: What is cyberpunk?

The oldest and most basic definition of cyberpunk is “high technology, low society.” The first part of this means that the tech is often bleeding-edge, futurist stuff. Cybernetic limbs. Computer-enhanced senses. VR way before VR actually existed. Immersive internet experiences. You get the idea. The “low society” portion is about the criminal element, the underworld, the fringes of society. Often, this part of society is living in the shadow of greedy, corporate overlords.

A list of some of cyberpunk’s biggest titles reinforces this:

• Neuromancer by William Gibson

• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

• Cyberpunk 2077 (franchise)

• Shadowrun (franchise)

• Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow

• Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro

Now, some of these elements have become changeable as time has gone on. I’ve seen some articles refer to works like my Jayu City series as post-cyberpunk. Why? While my work has the high technology, the low society bit is missing. (It’s there, I just haven’t really gotten to it much yet. You’ve seen The Mist and Mistwalkers, so…just you wait.)

Part of redefining cyberpunk for the 21st century is defining how we think about “low society.” The classic definition has been about the criminal element, but really, “low society” is about the counterculture. Hence the “punk” part of cyberpunk. Counterculture isn’t just about committing crimes, but about fighting the system. In the case of right now in the United States, the system is a fascist wannabe dictator and his oligarch cronies.

LGBTQIA+ people are the counterculture. People of color are the counterculture. People who speak a language other than English are the counterculture. People who don’t worship the golden calf of the current president are the counterculture. And the line keeps moving. The current president has already deported an innocent man to a hellish prison in El Salvador. He has mused deporting other American citizens there as well.

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So when debating the definition of cyberpunk, it’s really about how we define “punk.” Cyberpunk in the 21st century is still high on technology, but the punk part is about fighting the power, fighting for equity, and fighting against oppression.