Biopunk

This article is about dystopian cyberpunk and science fiction subgenre. For real-life citizen science and advocacy movement, see Do-it-yourself biology.

Biopunk (a portmanteau of "biotechnology" or "biology" and "punk") is a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on biotechnology. It is derived from cyberpunk, but focuses on the implications of biotechnology rather than mechanical cyberware and information technology. Biopunk is concerned with synthetic biology. It is derived from cyberpunk and often involves bio-hackers, biotech megacorporations, and oppressive organizations that engineer DNA. Most often keeping with the dark atmosphere of cyberpunk, biopunk generally examines risks and downsides of genetic engineering and illustrates potential perils of biotechnologies.

Description

Cover of Ribofunk by Paul Di Filippo, a seminal biopunk story collection.

Illustration of the world of The Windup Girl, one of the defining works of the genre. In it, populations are starving, dependent on genetically-modified food from megacorporations, except for Thailand which still has viable seeds and fends off frequent plagues.

Biopunk is a subgenre of science fiction closely related to cyberpunk that focuses on the near-future (most often unintended) consequences of the biotechnology revolution following the invention of recombinant DNA. Biopunk stories explore the struggles of individuals or groups, often the product of human experimentation, against a typically dystopian backdrop of totalitarian governments or megacorporations which misuse biotechnologies as means of social control and profiteering. Often, the fruits of biotechnology, such as human enhancement and extended longevity, are not evenly distributed and are controlled by corporations. Unlike cyberpunk, it builds not on information technology, but on synthetic biology. Like in postcyberpunk fiction, individuals are often modified and enhanced not with cyberware, but by genetic manipulation. A common feature of biopunk fiction is the "black clinic", which is a laboratory, clinic, or hospital that performs illegal, unregulated, or ethically dubious biological modification and genetic engineering procedures.

Many features of biopunk fiction have their roots in William Gibson's Neuromancer, one of the first cyberpunk novels. One of the prominent writers in this field is Paul Di Filippo, though he called his collection of such stories ribofunk, a blend of "ribosome" and "funk". Di Filippo suggests that precursors of biopunk fiction include H. G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau; Julian Huxley's The Tissue-Culture King; some of David H. Keller's stories, Damon Knight's Natural State and Other Stories; Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth's Gravy Planet; novels of T. J. Bass and John Varley; Greg Bear's Blood Music and Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix. The stories of Cordwainer Smith, including his first and most famous Scanners Live in Vain, also foreshadow biopunk themes. Another example is the New Jedi Order series published from 1999 to 2003, which prominently feature the Yuuzhan Vong who exclusively use biotechnology.

See also

• List of biopunk works
• Climate fiction
• Cyberpunk derivatives
  • Nanopunk
  • Dieselpunk
  • Steampunk
  • Solarpunk
• Genetic engineering in fiction
• Grinder (biohacking)
• Human enhancement
• Transhumanism

External links

• Hackteria.org, a community for bio-artists