IT Legends: Technology's Most Pioneering and Innovative Heroes

William Gibson: The Father of Cyberpunk Who Revolutionized Science Fiction We often take for granted the idea of cyberpunk as a genre of science fiction — stories that focus on a near future where technology, artificial intelligence, and cybernetics are key players in the development of culture and identity. But without the imagination and daring of William Gibson, it's unlikely cyberpunk even would have come into existence. One of the few sci-fi authors of his generation to truly understand the potential of computers, Gibson was instrumental in the development of the genre now known as cyberpunk. Before William Gibson, science fiction had been mainly about space adventure. It focused on distant places, far away galaxies, and huge interplanetary warfare. Gibson, though, took the genre in a totally different direction — one that dealt mainly with computers, virtual reality, and a near-future's ethical and social issues. In the course of creating cyberpunk stories, Gibson also...