Follow-up questions - and what are all these other "-punks" - biopunk, steampunk, solarpunk, etc? Why are they all called -punk? And what is post-cyberpunk?
I'd say works like the short story "Emergency Skin" or the 4th book in the Fall Revolution are Solarpunk. Anarchist, eco-friendly, high tech societies.
that last part seems really interesting. Is there anything I can read analyzing old cyberpunk from a socialist lens?
I had the same thought about real time.
That said, I did like interpassivity (as opposed to interactivity), even though interactivity isn't a corporate buzzword anymore
Solarpunk - Everything's recycled, all energy is renewable, and everyone loves gardening and making bracelets out of re-used before-time stuff
Steampunk was originally "imagine you're a luddite rebel smashing a Babbage machine"
I've explained PostCyberpunk elsewhere in the thread as "What if we didn't use all this tech for evil capitalists?"
I think post-cyberpunk tends to refer to a lot of the scifi novels from the 90s that incorporate cyberpunk elements without the focus on themes like transhumanism and anti-capitalism. Basically, cyberpunk once it had been fully commodified.
I was a teenager when I read all of this stuff so I could absolutely be wrong.
Post-cyberpunk is a 1990s literary reaction to cyberpunk, specifically its distrust of collective action, institutions, technology, and optimism for the future, while maintaining a leftward slant. It's kind of noblebright-cyberpunk, where people overthrow the corporations and build socialism or at least social democracy.
Stephenson's The Diamond Age is considered the initial spark of the movement. The Culture is New Space Opera but has Post-Cyberpunk Themes. Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution Quartet as well straddles both. Ghost in the Shell is broadly post-cyberpunk in that it shows functioning institutions even under immense pressure from tech change.
Basically, imagine if all the cool cyberpunk tech happened but was used by a socialist society. Solarpunk is an offshoot.
Punk refers to a particular technological aesthetic brought forward into science fiction. Steampunk is probably the most visually known of these to the general populace, featuring an advanced version of Victorian mechanical technology. Cyberpunk is based on a far future technological aesthetic, usually with a hefty mix of neo 80s fashion. Solarpunk is imagining a technological future of integration with the biosphere. I'm assuming biopunk would feature a future technology centered around manipulating biological organisms.
That’s atompunk but you have few examples besides Star Trek and Meet The Robinsons I guess lol
Cyberpunk is a literary genre characterized by advanced technology (often including transhumanist elements such as the ability to connect one's brain to the Internet), a dystopian aesthetic often described as "high tech, low life," and powerful mega corporations which have largely supplanted nation-states as the dominant political power centers. One of the most significant works in the genre is William Gibson's Neuromancer, which coined the term 'cyberspace.'
So basically the world we live in, but with cooler technogadgets.
but with cooler technogadgets.
Damn the skateboards from Snowcrash sounded pretty freaking sweet.
damn sorta wish there was now. This is what fourth wave will be I guess
One thing to remember is that many people use cool sounding words without knowing what they really mean.
There has to be some element of dystopia in cyberpunk. But it can mean badass tech that looks like it belongs in a sci-fi movie.
I think the only "-punk" words in common currency are cyberpunk and steampunk. I can't even imagine what solarpunk could be.
"Post-" is a cool sounding prefix that's often abused to mean stuff that's new or newish.
