At first glance, the word "cyberpunk" brings to mind images of a disheveled, caffeine-driven hacker sitting in front of a computer amongst the mess of his or her ignored room. At least, that is the image that comes to my mind. Timothy Leary draws a different, more respectable picture of a cyberpunk in his essay, "The Cyberpunk: The Individual as Reality Pilot."

In this essay, Leary defines the word "cyber" from two different roots. The first is from the Greek word kubernetes, meaning "pilot," which led to the word "cybernetics." The idea of a cyber person or cyberpunk being a "pilot" is a somewhat unnerving idea. This person is leading society down a cyberpath that he or she has built. Leary sees this as a good thing, though. He says, "Mariners of those ancient days had to be bold and resourceful [... and] were forced to develop independence of thought" (366) because of the lack of navigational tools. This suggests that cyberpunks or pilots are forced to think differently and independently, which seems to be more of a compliment. He goes on to say, "The Greek word kubernetes, when translated to Latin, comes out as gubernetes. This basic verb gubernare means to control the actions or behavior, to direct, to exercise sovereign authority, to regulate, to keep under, to restrain, to steer" (367). This definition is a bit different from the Greek word "pilot." There is more control implied, and it sounds like a dictator position rather than a free and forward thinking person. A pilot leads and a guberbare controls.

Aside from the history lesson of the word "cyber," Leary hails cyberpunks as being "pilots of the species." He admits that the term is risky and can be a negative word because of the modern idea of a punk. Wiemker describes the word punk as having "its roots in Anglo-American language and means miserable, worthless, waste or muck. Additionally, the term 'Punk' denotes a youth movement that began at the end of the 70s and which refused civil norms, arising before the background of increasing economic and social crises" (1). Nevertheless, Leary calls these youth "inventors, innovative writers, technofrontier artists, [...] elegant hackers, [...] media explorers, [... and] all those who boldly package and steer ideas out there where no thoughts have gone before" (369).

Cyberpunks follow a code: "Think for yourself; question authority." Leary also followed this code in the early 1960s, when he coined the phrase "Tune in, Turn on, Drop out." His experimentation with LSD and "development of innovative group therapy techniques" (Riche 2) put him in the forefront of the cultural revolution. Until his death, Leary was an advocate for the technological revolution because he felt that the computer was "a device for processing thoughts and ideas" (Riche 2) and an appliance that could "help the individual think for him or herself" (3).

If cyberpunks are individuals as reality pilots, as Leary believes them to be, then there should be a change in attitude about the word "punk." Although Leary says that words and letters "don't mean anything" (Riche 2), in today's society, words are what conjure up images, memories, smells and emotions. Instead of trying to change society and the way it thinks, it might be a better idea to change the word used to describe these pilots. That's just an idea to make part of this technological transition easier for those who find the change hard to accept.

Leary, Timothy. "The Cyberpunk: The Individual as Reality Pilot." CyberReader. Ed. Victor J. Vitanza. 2nd ed. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. 364-372.

Riche, Daniel. "The Cyberpunks Reinvent Science Fiction." 26 Sept. 2001. <http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/Leary-cpunk.html>.

Weimker, Markus. "Cyberpunks: A Sociological Analysis with Special Interest in the Description of Their Online Activities." Cybersociology: Magazine for Social-Scientific Researchers of Cyberspace. U of Aachen RWTH Germany. 26 Sept. 2001. <http://members.aol.com/Cybersoc/4cyberpunk.htm#cp5>.
 

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