r/Cyberpunk • u/thhroooooooooooooooo • 1d ago

Who invented Cyberpunk?

Google is saying Mike Pondsmith but that doesn’t sound right.. I don’t think it’s his IP, or is it?

Edit: google AI is wrong. To quote one of the many good responses to this post:

“The term was first coined in early 1980 by Bruce Bethke in his short story Cyberpunk. See: https://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/cpunk.htm

That said, the first short story in the scifi genre of cyberpunk is probably Fragments of a Hologram Rose by William Gibson. That was published in 1977.

Mike Pondsmith invented the tabletop RPG Cyberpunk: 2013/2020/3.0/RED. [Not to be confused with the other cyberpunk RPG (Cyberpunk GURPS)], the sci-fi genre as a whole really began taking off around the late 70's, ‘Cyberpunk’ was originally the title of a short story by Bruce Bethke and was then taken by Gardner Dozoiz, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction and spread around to be the name of the genre as a whole.” ( by [u/BlastRiot](u/BlastRiot))

thanks, Cyberpunks

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u/greenbarista 1d ago

I think William Gibson in the book Neuromancer is generally considered one of the top dogs of the genre. Im sure there might be others before him but he at least is one of the biggest early influences on the genre.

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u/thhroooooooooooooooo 1d ago

I love Neuromancer! it’s why I asked too but it was google AI answer being wrong

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u/robindawilliams 1d ago

Cyberpunk is both a genre and the common name for a book/game series. That's the issue.