Origin of the word ‘CyberFunk'
Updated: Jun 16
Every era has its form of warfare.
Some fought with weapons.
Others fought with protest, music, art, and expression.
Today, the battlefield is information.
Algorithms shape attention.
Distraction spreads faster than truth.
Most people don’t even realize they’re being influenced in real time.
That is the foundation of CyberFunk Cowboys.
BEYOND THE ALGORITHM
The name was born from a conversation about resistance.
In 2022, I attended the Austin Justice Coalition’s Black Art Matters: Cyberfunk festival in Austin, Texas as an art vendor. The event centered around Black art, Afrofuturism, music, activism, and community. One of the featured speakers was Angela Davis. During her discussion, she reflected on the meaning of the word “funk.”
She explained that funk was more than music. It represented a period of unrest, struggle, and expression during the 1970s. At a time when oppression, war, injustice, and political tension weighed heavily on people, many artists and activists responded through movement, creativity, music, dance, and emotional release. People danced, sweated, created, and expressed themselves until things got “funky.”
That stayed with me.
Because today feels different… but also strangely familiar.
We are no longer fighting solely through physical spaces. We are navigating a world shaped by algorithms, misinformation, surveillance, artificial intelligence, digital manipulation, and constant distraction. Information moves faster than understanding. Truth competes with distortion. Entire systems are designed to influence behavior before people even realize it’s happening.
To me, this era is “CyberFunk.”
A cybernetic age where people are trying to make sense of what’s real while fighting to preserve identity, creativity, and human connection inside systems designed to overwhelm them. A time where many people are misinformed, manipulated, distracted, or too exhausted to question what they consume.
CyberFunk Cowboys was created from that realization.
The “cowboys” represent those navigating unstable territory without a clear map. Much like the overlooked Black cowboys of American history who adapted, survived, and moved through harsh environments, these characters exist in a future where the battlefield is psychological, technological, and deeply human.
That’s why the series focuses so heavily on amplification.
Artificial intelligence in CyberFunk Cowboys does not create good or evil. It amplifies what already exists. Fear becomes control. Resentment becomes destruction. Vision becomes leadership. Creativity becomes liberation.
The Njozi armor reflects that idea. Each piece amplifies a different human force, revealing who a person truly is underneath the systems surrounding them.
CyberFunk Cowboys is ultimately about surviving the technological warfare without losing yourself inside it.
Not just through violence.
But through awareness.
Through C reativity.
Through Community.
Through Righteousness.
Through Peace.
Through Faith.
Through Salvation.
Through Spirit.
Through Truth.
That is where the name came from.
Not just cyber.
Not just funk.
But the collision between resistance, identity, technology, and expression in a world struggling to remember what is real.
Photos by:@montiniquemonroe
Bucks County Beacon
Time Magazine
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