History: Timeline

Timeline of important events in history ,concerning CyberPunk?, technology and computers

1888 IBM International Business Machines is founded

1921 First use of the word "robot" by Karel Čapek in his science fiction play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

1928 Early use of the term "punk" to signify a criminal

1942 Isaac Asimov, introduces the "Three Laws of Robotics" in his short story "Runaround"

1948 "Cybernetics" coined by Norbert Wiener George Orwell's "1984" published

1955 The Naked Lunch published

1960 The term "cyborg"was created by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline to refer to their conception of an enhanced human being who could survive in extraterrestrial environments

1968 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep published

1971 A Clockwork Orange released

1972 From the Rise of Dr. Adder to the Fall of Johnny Mnemonic K.W. Jeter completes Dr. Adder (Spring)

1973 "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" published in New Dimensions 3 Gravity's Rainbow published composition of the first Hacker Jargon File

1975 Shockwave Rider published (John Brunner) Microsoft founded

1976 The Ramones release first album; punk begins

1977 Apple Computers founded (April) Never Mind the Bullocks - Here's the Sex Pistols released; punk gets notorious The Clash release first album; punk gets serious Gibson publishes his first short story, "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" Sterling publishes his first novel Involution Ocean One of the earliest BBS boards, Access-80, which ran on a TRS-80 model 1 and was developed by Charles Oropallo was lanched

1978 Generation X, with Billy Idol on lead vocals, releases first album

1979 The Clash release London Calling

1980 City Come A-Walkin' published The Artificial Kid published

1981 Spacetime Donuts published "The Gernsback Continuum" published in Universe 11 True Names published

1982 Software published (Jan.) Blade Runner released Tron released A program called Elk Cloner, written for Apple II systems, is credited with being the first computer virus to appear "in the wild"—that is, outside the single computer or lab where it was created Joan Vinge writes Psion

1983 Gibson, Sterling and Shiner visit Rudy Rucker in Lynchburg after Balticon; Virginia hasn't been this hip since Thomas Jefferson was alive War Games released The short story "Cyberpunk" by Bruce Bethke published in Amazing Science Fiction Stories; this is, allegedly, the first use of the term anywhere (Nov.) The 414s gain fame as a group of friends and computer hackers who break into dozens of high-profile computer systems, including ones at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sloan-Kettering? Cancer Center and Security Pacific Bank

1984 Neuromancer published; "cyberspace" coined Dr. Adder published Frontera published ( Lewis Shiner's first novel) Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution published In Japan, robots kill four humans in seperate incidents Terminator released FidoNet? is founded as a non-commercial BBS network 1984 by Tom Jennings of San Francisco 2600 begins publication VPL Research Inc. founded by Jason Lanier Gardner Dozois, reviewing "hot new writers" for The Washington Post, refers to a group called "cyberpunks". The name sticks (Dec. 30)

1985 Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix published 20 Minutes into the Future (aka Max Headroom) released John Shirley's Eclipse Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto" published in Socialist Review (Apr.) Japanese translation of Neuromancer published (July) "Cyberpunks" panel convenes at the National SF Convention in Austin. Panelists are Rudy Rucker, John Shirley, Bruce Sterling, Lou Shiner, Pat Cadigan and Greg Bear (Aug. 31) Blood Music , by Greg Bear. Brazil released

1986 Burning Chrome published Hardwired published "Pakistani Brain" virus infects IBM computers world-wide (Jan.) Rudy Rucker's "What is Cyberpunk?" appears in REM #3 (Feb) William Gibson's Count Zero (Mar) Norman Spinrad's "The Neuromantics" published in IASF (May) John Shirley confounds the elders at the Science Fiction Research Association panel "Cyberpunk or Cyberjunk" (June 28) Cheap Truth ceases publication (Aug) Michael Swanwick's "A User's Guide to the Post Moderns" published in IASF (Nov) Mirrorshades published (Dec) Interzone reprints "the New Science Fiction" by Vincent Omniaveritas (Winter) The first PC virus, a boot sector virus called (c)Brain is created The first successfully cloned mammal; Soviet scientists Chaylakhyan, Veprencev, Sviridova, Nikitin had mice "Masha" cloned

1987 Science Fiction Eye premiers with all cyberpunk issue Robocop released Akira released Pat Cadigan's Mindplayers published Effinger releases When Gravity Fails

1988 In England, Max Dowhham's "Cyberpunk: the Final Solution" published in Vague Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net published Mississippi Review entire issue published devoted to cyberpunk; academic colonization of the Movement begins in earnest Metrophage published Shatter graphic novel published Going GaGa? begins publication bOING bOING begins publication Wetware published (Apr) The Internet worm strikes (Nov) William Gibson's Mona Lisa Overdrive published (Nov)

1989 Mondo 2000 begins publication Neuromancer: The Graphic Novel published he Cuckoo's Egg published Semiotext(e):SF published Cherry comix special cyberpunk issue published Crystal Express published Tetsuo:The Iron Man released Timothy Leary interviews William Gibson Phrack #24 distributed containing the E911 document hacked from BellSouth? (Feb. 24)

1990 The Difference Engine published Hardware released EFF founded Secret Service raids Steven Jackson Games in Austin (Mar. 1) Harper's Magazine publishes "Is Computer Hacking a Crime?", a transcript of a WELL conference during which Phiber Optik hacks the TRW database and distributes John Barlow's credit history (Mar.) Operation Sun Devil (May 7-9) Paul Di Filippo's "Ribofunk" published in bOING bOING #2 (Winter) In England, The Hardcore special "Cyberpunk is Dead" issue published (Winter) Shirley finishes the Eclipse trilogy (with Eclipse Corona ) Total Recall released Synners , by Cadigan

1991 The debut of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a publicly available service on the internet Storming the Reality Studio published Synners published Terminator 2 released The Silicon Man published Linus Torvalds starts working on the Linux kernel while attending the University of Helsinki Transreal! published Effinger finishes his cyberpunk trilogy with The Exile Kiss U.S. intelligence agents reportedly cripple Iraqi air defense computers with a virus during the Gulf War (Jan) Lewis Shiner announces in the Op-Ed? pages of the New York Times that he has resigned from cyberpunk (Jan.7) Steven Jackson Games sues the Secret Service (May 1) "Michelangelo" virus media panic begins (Dec.)

1992 EFF moves to Washington D.C. and is immediately compromised The Hacker Crackdown published Snow Crash published Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge published Lawnmower Man released "Michelangelo" doomsday; nothing happens (Mar. 6) Jaron Lanier loses his patents to his creditors (Nov) Future Sex begins publication (Nov)

1993 Wired begins publication Virtual Light published Fringe Ware Review begins publication Time Magazine "Cyberpunk" cover story; real cyberpunks outraged (Feb. 8) Court rules in favor of Steven Jackson Games, Secret Service ordered to pay damages (Feb.) Wild Palms premiers (May 16) Billy Idol's new album Cyberpunk released; real cyberpunks outraged (July) Flame Wars; The Discourse of Cyberculture published Baird starts the Crashcourse trilogy

1994 The Hacker and the Ants published Data Trash published Cyberia published "VNS Manifesto" published in Unnatural: Techno-theory for a Contaminated Culture Phiber Optic begins serving a 13 month sentence for computer intrusion and conspiracy (Jan.) In Paris, "Cyber SM" gives first public demonstration of virtual sexuality, S&M style (Jan.) Line Noiz e-zine distributes results of its opinion poll "Does Cyberpunk Still Exist?"; no conclusions, as usual (Aug. 12) Western news media reports two thirds of Russian computer users have encountered viruses, 85% of those viruses were Russian made (Nov.)

1995 Diamond Age published EFF retreats to San Francisco The Cyberpunk Handbook published; cynical opportunism reaches new low Wired UK edition begins (March) Microsoft's Windows 95 launched Synthetic Pleasures released The Net released Hackers released The first macro virus for Microsoft Word is discovered From Australia, geekgirl debuts on the Net (Jan.) Kevin Metnick arrested by the FBI for numerous computer crimes (Feb. 15) Italian police raid BITS Against the Empire BBS accusing the computer group of subversion (Feb. 28) The Steampunk Trilogy published (Apr.) VR 5 premiers (May 24) Virtual Futures conference meets at Warwick University (May 26-28) Baird finishes her first trilogy with Psykosis Strange Days released Ghost in the Shell released Johnny Mnemonic released (May 26)

Post-Johnny Mnemonic

Arthur & Marilouse Kroker publish "Johnny Mnemonic: The Day Cyberpunk Died" in Ctheory (Jun.) K.W. Jeter's Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human published-- to the consternation of all (Oct.) Western news sources identify Bulgaria as the leading exporter of computer viruses

1996 Escape Velocity; Cyberculture at the End of the Century published FutureSex? goes online Ramones break up Ribofunk! collection published (Mar.) Datableed - the second Virtual Futures conference meets (May) Sex Pistols reunion tour begins at Hollola, Finland (June 21) Holy Fire Published (July) Idoru published (Sept.) Kyoko Date, the virtual girl, activated Hacking the Future by Arthur & Marilouise Kroker published Clinton signs Communications Decency Act into US law (Feb. 8) Wired magazine, as a preliminary action to a planned IPO, files a prospectus with the SEC valuing itself at $447 million - 17 times greater than its actual revenues. Much derision follows in the financial press (May 30) Wired magazine's IPO tanks (Oct. 24) Blade Runner 3: Replicants Night by K.W. Jeter published — for no good reason (Nov) Vinge ends up with a trilogy — Dreamfall is published Dolly the sheep, a clone

1997 A Cyberpunk Manifesto published by Christian As. Kirtchev (Feb 14 1997) Freeware published (April) Rudy Rucker finishes his trilogy with Freeware. Wired UK edition folds (Feb) US Supreme Court rules Communications Decency Act unconstitutional (Jun 26) Blade Runner computer game released by Westwood (Nov) First authorized Russian translation of Neuromancer (Neiromant) published by Terra Fantastica Armitage III: Poly Matrix (Film/Anime) released Gattaca released

1998 William Gibson's and Tom Maddox's episode, "Kill Switch" premiers on The X-Files? (Feb 15) Burning Chrome stage adaptation opens in Chicago (Feb 6)

1999 The Matrix released Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties released The Millenium bug problem

2000 William Gibson's and Tom Maddox's second episode "First Person Shooter" on The X-Files?

2001 Metropolis (Film/Anime) released

2002 Minority Report released Armitage III: Dual Matrix (Film/Anime) released

2003 William Gibson's Pattern Recognition published Neal Stephenson's Quick Silver published The Matrix Relaoded released The Matrix Revolutions released The Internet-based virtual world, "Second Life" is released

2004 MyDoom? virus spread on Internet, expected to have infected 250.000 computers in a single day The biggest Chinese PC producer Lenovo announces its plan to purchase IBM's global PC business, making it the third largest world PC maker after Dell and Hewlett-Packard? Little Nicky, was the first cat cloned for commercial reasons

2005 Surgeons in France carry out the first human face transplant At the World Expo 2005 in Japan, robotic child-minders and receptionists were demonstrated to visitors alongside android medics and entertainers. Scientists develope an IQ test for artificially intelligent machines and create a program capable of developing its own language IBM announces an ambitious effort to create a complete map of the neural circuitry of the human brain, using a supercomputer Sony files a patent describing a device that would transmit sensory data directly into the brain Cellphone viruses start to appear A reconfigurable chip made from living bacteria is invented Nanowires capable of powering tiny nano-engines Researchers discover a way to use micro-organisms to construct nano-circuitry US military develop the electromagnetic pulse gun, a microwave weapon and a rifle capable of firing electric bullets

2006 Invention of a working invisible cloak A electrode cap that lets users type messages on a screen using thought alone and a brain implant that enabled a paralysed man to check his email and control a robotic arm were both demonstrated in 2006 On December 28, 2006, the FDA approved eating meat from cloned animals

2007 Microsoft's "Windows Vista" launced

Original page/base data taken from the Duke of Hell webpage, further add-ons, made by volunteers of CyberPunkReview.com|CyberPunkReview]