Virtual spaces contained within computers had
previously been explored in a number of science-
fiction novels from the mid-1960’s onward, and many
aspects of Gibson’s scenario had been anticipated by
Vernor Vinge’sTrue Names(1981), but Gibson’s no-
tion of cyberspace acquired an iconic significance.
(An alternative term used inNeuromancerbut not
original to it—“the matrix”—subsequently acquired
a similar charisma by virtue of its use in cinema.)
Neuromancerwas published shortly after the National
Science Foundation’s academically oriented net-
work CSNET (founded in 1980) was connected to
the Defense Department’s ARPANET with the aid of
the Transmission-Control Protocol/Internet Proto-
col (TCP/IP) and just before the establishment of
the NSFNet in 1985 laid down the backbone of the
Internet, which would become
the host of all the sites forming
the World Wide Web.
Neuromancer’s timeliness en-
abled it to capture the imagination
of the engineers and users devel-
oping such systems, who were al-
ready forming the nucleus of a
new “cyberculture.” Many of the
enterprising young hobbyists re-
cruited by the companies blossom-
ing in California’s Silicon Valley
were enthusiastic to conceive of
themselves as ultra-cool innovative
nonconformists; cyberpunk litera-
ture gave them a label to apply to
this ideal and a definitive set of
hero myths—or, more accurately,
antihero myths. In cyberpunk lit-
erature, cyberspace became a new
frontier to replace the Wild West,
one whose particular type of law-
lessness would work to the advan-
tage of nerds instead of gunsling-
ers. Such fiction offered a new kind
of escapist imagery in which the
obsolete mythology of the seem-
ingly abortive space age was re-
placed by a nascent mythology in-
volving the use of technology to
achieve a transcendent break-
through to freedom from the bur-
dens of the flesh.
The “uploading” of minds from
the brain’s “wetware” to a much
vaster and more durable silicon
matrix quickly became the holy
grail of a “posthumanist” or “trans-
humanist” movement founded
in the late 1980’s by such propa-
gandists as F. M. Esfandiary (also
known as FM-2030) and Max MoreThe Eighties in America Cyberpunk literature 267
Selected Cyberpunk Fiction of the 1980’sAuthor Title Type of BookDate
PublishedGreg Bear Blood Music Novel 1985
David Jay Brown Brainchild Novel 1988
Pat Cadigan Mindplayers Novel 1987
Patterns Short stories 1989
William Gibson Neuromancer Novel 1984
Count Zero Novel 1986
Burning Chrome Short stories 1986
Mona Lisa Overdrive Novel 1988
Marc Laidlaw Dad’s Nuke Novel 1985
Rudy Rucker Software Novel 1982
Wetware Novel 1988
Lewis Shiner Frontera Novel 1984
John Shirley City Come a-Walkin’ Novel 1980
Three-Ring Psychus Novel 1980
Eclipse Novel 1985
Eclipse Penumbra Novel 1988
Heatseeker Short stories 1988
Bruce Sterling The Artificial Kid Novel 1980
Schismatrix Novel 1985
Islands in the Net Novel 1988
Crystal Express Short stories 1989
Bruce Sterling,
editorMirrorshades: A
Cyberspace AnthologyShort-story
collection 1986
Michael Swanwick Vacuum Flowers Novel 1987
Vernor Vinge True Names... and
Other Dangers Short stories 1982
The Peace War Novel 1984
Marooned in Realtime Novel 1986
Threats... and
Other Promises Short stories 1989