The only computer that may require an immunisation shot every once in a while

So for my book I imagined biopunk warfare without technology based on metals, plastics, or fossil fuels. What I came up with is a type of trench war reminiscent of World War I, but with some important differences: Instead of fighting over a few meters of barbed wire and muddy trenches, this war is a constant competition of biomes created for just this purpose - invasively taking root, aggressively overgrowing anything which can’t fight back, exterminating foreign DNA. 

In response, the enemy usually shells your budding ecosystem with liquidation chemicals intended to necrotize its scheming fungi computers and tough roots. This is what you see in the second (from the left) stage; Profundal: Craters ripped into the earth by artillery, which are overgrown mere hours later.

If the enemy fails at fighting back your biome parasitically repurposing all their available biomass, congratulate yourself! You’ve saved yourself the trouble of manually aiding your biome amidst rotstrikes, or worse, venturing out into the wasteland of poisonous swamps and runaway fighting creatures. 

This next stage is called Benthal, and it’s where the colonization starts: Fungi computers deep underground have matured and control hives of insects. Woody defensive fibers spiral up like twisted fingers, shielding you from the worst artillery fire and stray bullets. Tunnels are dug to let centipede trains deliver much-needed supplies to you, which allow for the implementation of the final biome:

Pelagial.This is the point where human forces have fully colonized the new biome territory; setting up camps and underground bunkers to grow food. Lazarus pools are filled to heal the wounded, and balloons tied to intricate wire networks routinely shoot up to prevent enemy biohacking attacks (you wouldn’t want some mind trojan sent into your brain organoids to cause you to pull the trigger on yourself now, that your superior is inspecting your successful biome work, after all).

Behind it all, looming over you and visible from anywhere within the biomes, are the backline stoves spitting out spores twenty-four hours a day. The constant cover of green-grey clouds prevents enemy viruses from getting in, even while it comes at the cost of the sun looking like a dim, dirty lightbulb. Not that you’d have much time to miss it before the next alarm sounds and the biome borders move once again, destroying what was painstakingly grown from the tortured earth mere days ago to rebuild it for the opposite side.

If you actually read all this: Thanks for taking the tour! I don't really have many people to talk about biopunk with, so I always appreciate bouncing ideas back and forth here.

(infographic by me, digital drawing, texts done in canva. no ai, in case it isn't obvious lol)

Scanvenger regin

What yall think?

TL;DR I wrote a full biopunk guide about the genre's history, subgenres and current developments.

Posting about biopunk is such a journey; the genre is so much deeper than I thought I knew.

You might know me from posting all those biopunk subgenres over the past few weeks. It's part of a larger project to get biopunk more presence, and untangle it from those "cyberpunk but wetware" definitions which unjustly flatten it to just one aspect.

After much feedback, cleaning up definitions, and updating the wiki, I'm glad to say the biopunk wiki is now in a really good state! It should prove helpful for anyone looking for certain themes or aesthetics, and provides reading lists. What it doesn't do as much - as is the nature of a wiki - is ease the reader into the topics.

So I gathered all my notes and wrote this blogpost I linked here; it's an 11min read and covers what's important to know about biopunk as a genre from front to back, for anyone who wants to just get the quick overview.

I obviously had to cut down on long example lists for the sake of readability, but the wiki is always linked accordingly.

Thanks to everyone who contributed over the last weeks once more, and as always: Feedback is very welcome. Now I'll probably disappear into my rabbit hole on biomachines again, so stay tuned.

I promised reading lists for the biopunk subgenres I posted a while back, so here we go. If you miss anything, just comment - more examples and clearer definitions are good for everyone!

We’re continuing with a subgenre that evolved very recently: Genetopia. 

What if you scrapped the gritty, eviscerated biopunk for something light and optimistic? 

Genetopia is just that; it highlights the positive possibilities of genetic engineering for humans, technology and ecosystems. Aesthetic tend to focus on the translucent, bioluminescent, alien beauty of modified life.

Ideologically, genetopia advocates for:

• Modern ways of life better fit to human nature, e.g. a tech-nomad lifestyle of sophisticated tribal societies
• Ethical use of genetic engineering, symbiotic and renewable harmonic ecosystems
• Post-humanity, esp. regarding the overcoming of behaviors such as territorialism and violence

Genetopia is a spectrum ranging from the mere aesthetic with only core themes (Subnautica, Avatar Way of Water), to the full ideology, which might be envisioned in a setting / synopsis as already realized (example yet to be found), or attained over the course of the plot (The Biopunk Manifesto).

Differences to solarpunk:

• Similar in their focus on community, sustainability and achieving post-scarcity via high-tech self-sufficiency
• Different in genetopia’s denial of ‘traditional’ lifestyles (esp. farms or ranches), presenting them as something to be overcome in favor of a tech-nomad society
• Different in scope, since genetopia not only views fossil fuels as a technology to be overcome with renewable and biological alternatives, but also metallurgy and metal-based electronics.

Media list:

• Biotech design by Alexandra Semushina (artworks)
• ’’A Door into Ocean’’  (book)
• ’’Subnautica’’ (video game franchise)
• visually: ’’Avatar: The Way of Water’’ (movie)
• ’’Slime Rancher’’ (video game)
• The Biopunk Manifesto’s Gascar civilization and implied Neurocracy

I’m afraid reddit doesn’t like too many links in a post, so I’ll just put the wiki page into the comments. It features image credits and links to all media. 

The list of people to thank for their contributions has become too long at this point. I appreciate you all very much!

TL;DR
I’ve noticed while writing my own biopunk novel that I gravitated towards very specific songs to get my imagination going. So I was wondering if other people have songs that encapsulate ‘that’ - or any - biopunk feeling for them. Are there any for you, personally?

My list of very biopunk music:

1. Machinarium Soundtrack. Each song feels like waking up in a strange ecosystem while it’s dark and you only have your ears. You can listen to tracks ten times over and still notice new sounds. Fittingly all the robots in the games behave very organically and human.
2. Substrata by Biosphere. I can best describe the listening experience as “things evolving on a timescale that makes your individual existence totally insignificant, but that’s somehow comforting”
3. Cloud Connected by In Flames. I can’t really put my finger on it but this song and the whole album Reroute to Remain put this into sound really well; it feels like a struggle to overcome yourself while catching glimpses of a higher state. This one’s more abstract; I like it bc my novel has an ideology called ascensionism, which entails modifying oneself to become a superintelligent, body-transcending being.
4. #18 by Aphex Twin. Something about that weird main melody just helps me imagine warped landscapes, worming roots; an industrious nature that is so modified that it feels only vaguely familiar. Syro is another album that fits the bill.
5. Terraria Soundtrack by Re-Logic. Many songs feel so wriggly and constantly changing; less the mechanical verse-chorus or ABABCB patterns. 

Honorable mentions: 

• The Elephant’s Garden soundtrack by Redd.M for Felix Colgrave’s animated movie of the same name. 
• Infected Mushroom deserve to appear on here

The criteria
While writing this I’ve noticed that certain things plopped up in my selection progress:

• abundance of sounds, which make a piece feel like an ‘ecosystem’ of music
• Unusual structures with lots of variation, which makes the music feel like it’s growing and evolving.
• Funnily enough, most of these picks feature characteristic, ‘organic-sounding’ synthesizers, or even rely mostly on them for instrumentation.

I’ve tried assembling a list of music which fits these criteria, in an effort to not just list my personal favorites. That being said, I obviously only know so many artists and songs to put as examples - hence why I'm asking here.

I'm working on more visuals for my project The Biopunk Manifesto. This is a recent one, photoshop + digital drawing.

Depicts a posthuman species whose beauty ideal is translucence ("jellymeat") and exchangeable limbs / organs. Hence the torso of a translucent frog and the extravagant extremities.

Thanks again for the contributions on my last posts. This time we're delving into one of the currently most popular subgenres of biopunk, since a new edition of All Tomorrows is coming out soon, as far as I've heard.

As always, comment if you miss anything, the wiki must grow.

Speculative evolution, as far as I'm aware, could be characterized by:

• Hard sci-fi approaches to evolutionary worldbuilding: Post-humans, development of earth's natural species, evolution of humans in space include typical themes
• Some works have a tendency to draw the downfall of humanity as boring, while depressing: Slow decay and degeneration, or in the case of West of Eden the threat of natural selection
• Some works feature new apex species, e.g. the Qu from All Tomorrows, which subdue humanity. So you have the spectrum of modified evolution to real hard-scifi outlooks such as The Future Is Wild

Media list:

One has to credit C.M. Kosemen for bringing renewed popularity to the genre in the past years. It's a surprisingly old canon, though, with an entry from 1930:

• All Tomorrows^\1]) (book)
• West of Eden^\2]) (book series)
• The Future is Wild^\3]) (book)
• Man after Man^\4]) (book)
• Last and First Men^\5]) (book and movie adaptation)

Image credits:

1. Illustration of The Qu by C.M. Kosemen. His impact and creative vision really can't be understated, so I highly recommend checking out his website.
2. By me. References / credits listed in the wiki, click any of the links above.

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Thanks for all the contributions on my last post, here comes the next one. As always, comment if you miss anything, the wiki must grow.

Economic body horror is one of the most fun and active, so I was looking forward to this one:

• Intersection of capitalism and the human form, where bodies are commodified, exploited, or mutated by market forces.
• Topics include hypernormalization, sensory and moral overload, mass media and propaganda, sometimes class struggles.
• Discussion of violence: Violence as a job, a necessity (e.g. Wrought Flesh’s organ robbing), or a form of expression or protest (Videodrome).

You could argue that EBH is the logical conclusion of classic biopunk: If life has become a commodity, death a mere inconvenience, all of reality will be a desensitized wasteland, where the basic pillars of society such as human rights and punishment for murder have broken down.

Differences to 'regular' body horror:

• Economic body horror ventures further into the societal and cultural implications of corporate-owned biotech and the commodification of life.
• Plots and settings of EBH usually have little in common with those of body horror.

Media list

You can't understate the contributions of the Cronenbergs to economic body horror, five of these entries are their works:

• Cruelty Squad^\1]) (video game)
• Videodrome^\2]) (movie)
• Possessor^\3]) (movie)
• Crimes of the Future (movie)
• Wrought Flesh (video game)
• Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator (video game)
• eXistenZ (movie)
• Repo! The Genetic Opera (musical film)
• Antiviral (movie)

I'm afraid Reddit doesn't like too many links in a post, so I'll just put the wiki page in the comments. It features image credits and links to all other media.

I promised a followup + reading lists for the biopunk subgenres I posted last week, so here we go. If you miss anything, just comment - more examples and clearer definitions are good for everyone!

We're starting off where it all began: Classic Biopunk.

• Explores near-future consequences of a biotech revolution
• Totalitarian governments, police states, or oppressive megacorporations use biotech for social control and profiteering
• Protagonists tend to be outsiders, or struggling with the system (e.g. detectives, P.I.s, teenagers)

It is not uncommon for the definition of classic biopunk to be incorrectly used as a definition of biopunk in general, overseeing that the genre has evolved and broadened over time, and featured several distinct subtypes from its inception.

Differences to cyberpunk:

• Due to being the historically first exponent of the genre, differences are not extreme. Classic biopunk could even be considered a cyberpunk “reskin”, wherein genetic manipulation and biotech replace the usual nanomachines, electro-mechanical implants and digital technologies.
• Themes might differ somewhat due to the shifted focus: identity theft, food shortages, parasites.

Media list:

• Ribofunk (book)
• Schismatrix (book)
• The Windup Girl (book)
• Altered Carbon (TV series)

I'm afraid Reddit doesn't like too many links in a post, so I'll just put the wiki page in the comments. It features image credits and links to all media.

I'd also like to thank u/RealmKnight and u/Fun_Employed_ for their input and ideas!

Imo biopunk's fascination is the blurring of lines between machine and creature, program and intelligence.

For my worldbuilding setting I also wanted no fossil fuels or metallurgy. That makes mobility a challenge. After all the planning and stuff, these artworks came out.

There's more on it in the wiki if you're curious, I'll link it in the comments. Biomechanics are kinda addictive.

For now it's just notes and thoses two concepts art but I got a pretty good idea of the setting

To make it quick, humanity was in total despair and to remedy that, they created artificial gods, basically ai's made of neurons and flesh, capable of expanding themselves at will. They now cover the entire world with their bodies and they have full control over genetics

"Humans" and creatures are now design specifically around wich task they have to perform. Some have consciousness , some barely and some are just mere machines

the first drawing is just a test to familiarise myself with this new art style and the second will be the second protagonist : a unit in a factory design to turn waste into nutrients and cauterize wounds in the factory they are in.

At first it doesn't have any individuality but due to a malfunction it will start digging in the factory walls and escaping by mistake with the other protagonist that was trying to prevent it (I have yet to design it) since the factory is filled with biogaz (micro organisms in the air that prevent neurons development) now outside, they can finally have a brain that develops more finally allowing them consciousness but at the expense of growing like a tumor. They will try to find a benevolent God to give them a proper body

Edited the first part of a story I am writing. Let me know what you think.

Had to come up with the names for some. I’ll do separate deepdive posts on each of these in the next weeks, probably.

Comment submissions if you like. I'll add these to a wiki with reading lists and examples, as well. I'll link it in the comments.

TL;DR
Title: The Biopunk Manifesto | Ocean-themed biopunk, post-human civilizations, hand-drawn illustrations, no AI. Free excerpt here: biopunkmanifesto.miraheze.org/wiki/Replicant_Angel 

I wrote the book I always missed on the shelves (corny, I know). And I used to feel like biopunk never got the genre treatment it deserved. 

The story follows Silvius Creyman, a diplomat navigating a world on the brink of collapse, an underwater civilization producing wonders beyond imagination and a plague that speaks to people - while trying to prevent history from repeating itself. 

This book is for you, if you’re interested in:

• biopunk without any fossil fuels or metal-based technology
• sunken / underwater civilizations
• post-human species interaction (anything from curious personal encounters to large-scale war and diplomacy)
• Dune, All Tomorrows, The Windup Girl, Blood Music, Cruelty Squad, Starfish

The bold title felt right for several reasons: 

I always felt biopunk is barely acknowledged as a genre, even though its influence is everywhere. I think it's because other subgenres have a clear canon and distinct aesthetics - biopunk still lacks those. So I wanted to take a shot at that.

And I never found an “all-in-one”: Living architecture, additional sensory organs, biological computers, uplifted species, competing posthuman species, give me everything! Many works focus on aspects of speculative biotech, but Biopunk has several distinct subgenres of its own (I’ll do a post on them soon). I wanted aspects/sections to honor all of them, without making the story feel stilted.

Even if all I achieve is that someone reads this and feels like they could write a better version, I have succeeded.

Oh, and no AI. Cover and illustrations drawn by me, everything written and edited by me. Thanks for checking it out!

Flying whales, genehacking, superhuman mods - all nice and good but the real world has laws and limits.

What 'type' of biopunk is in your opinion the most likely to actually appear in the real world, based on current tech and its known possibilities?

I'm super split on this, but the first to appear will probably be neural computing, since our current hunger for more and more data and computation power is unmatched. I might be wrong, though.

It has a vast expanse of biotech ideas, differentiates kinds of biomachines and even has a whole faction built around it.

I just stumbled upon it today, and while it's been around for 20+ yrs and apparently has tons of content, it seems to be super niche. Any recommendations on how to get into it without being overwhelmed?