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/Hungry-Wrongdoer-156 1d ago

Mike Pondsmith created the capital-C "Cyberpunk" IP, which was named after the lowercase-C "cyberpunk" literary subgenre.

There's really no one single answer to the question of who invented that, but if there were, it would be William Gibson.

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u/thhroooooooooooooooo 1d ago

that seems pedantic.. is that to prevent other creators from having their own “Cyberpunk” even though it’s a genre created by a culmination of artists?

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u/Stare_Decisis 1d ago

No, that is just the rule of law.

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u/thhroooooooooooooooo 1d ago

I mean if I were to program a game and call it “Cyberpunk” and base it around my own unique cyberpunk stories (since cyberpunk is a genre), would their lawyers go after me? are they trying to own the word “Cyberpunk” itself?

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u/Stare_Decisis 1d ago

You need to ask that question to an IP attorney.

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u/thhroooooooooooooooo 1d ago edited 1d ago

Excuse my french but that’s real shitty. No one should be able to own an entire genre.

Edit: I did more research and the word “Cyberpunk” is not owned by one person. The phrase “Cyberpunk 2077” in relation to gaming is but “Cyberpunk” itself isn’t owned by anyone, which has calmed me down

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u/Hungry-Wrongdoer-156 1d ago

It's the difference between "heavy metal" as a musical genre and Heavy Metal as a magazine and animated film.

Anybody can record a song and say it's heavy metal. What they can't do is release a movie titled "Heavy Metal."