drive.google.com/file/d/0ByV5-S712cg8Tk1vQWVFZVM5S28/view?resourcekey=0-f0n8tTyFknuKmWvLl6gYFQ Idk why I forgot about this, here’s a link to a PDF version of All Tomorrows for those interested.
@@joaonobre-franco4437 Scott Westerfeld is the author, it's loosely early/pre ww1 era with the allies generally having biopunk weapons and the central powers using diesel-punk walkers and zeppelins.
when I first found Biopunk I was playing halo reach, I was up to the Piller of Autumn mission and decided to look more at the hunter in that level, only to find it wasn't a robot or mech but a colony of worms. This at the time was something I had never seen before, and it was not only fascinating but actively engaging which led me to biological horror like dead space certain SCPs. I think I was around 8/10 now I'm in my 20's. whenever I design a new mech, ship or robot I think of how I can add some form of biological component. My latest little creation is a type of regenerative "bio armor plating" for heavy vehicles, it will work fine for about 2 years before it needs to be replaced, beyond that the armor has a higher chance of mutating, ranging from growing outside of its normal configuration to going full on Flood style horror bullshit (still needs more work in my opinion). Luv the vid BTW :]
@@TheBoss.-tq2vm sorry no, I'm a very private person. but I might make a TH-cam channel when I get better at designing/animating in blender. until then I just got books full of shitty drawings and plans for short animations using said designs. :']
@@raipe125 I don't play lancer but its mechs are sick AF. and I FUCKING LOVE HORUS, Manticore, Pegasus, Litch, Gorgon, Balor, Minotaur, Goblin, and Hyra are at that sweet spot between normal science and NHP Bullshit. But mourning cloak that shit is scary "once per round you may Fucking murder some unfortunate dipshit who forgot the buddy system" Robin and Zephyer.
I draw mechs for fun and was inspired by the 40k race that were made of maggots. I usually try to incorporate bio-nano bots that attach to each other to become muscle mass.
that was my thought, if the flood is than the infested is, warframes are, and orokin technology with kuva and the elongated arm and blue skin means it has elements, the problem is warframe is so big it has other themes too
The technocyte virus is a fun little twist: it's your standard "infestation" plague, only it doesn't see a meaningful difference between the organic and inorganic. It can twist and mutate metal and machine just as easily SPOILERS: And in fact, this property is where the warframes themselves came from. The orokin were able to master and cultivate the infestation, in order to grow the perfect melding between man and machine: the warframe. They're beyond even bio-punk, with steel skin and mechanical organs. The only step up is the transcendence of the tenno themselves, who go beyond physical limitations and are connected to the void itself, their biology transcending even time and dimension
Biopunk hasn't yet flourished into it's own identity as it currently exists, like Cyberpunk did, by just being elements in other genre and narratives. Corporate corruption, cybernetics and the exploration of man or machine all existed prior to Neuromancer and it's ilk but wasn't combined in such a way as to stand out as a distinct framework to hang a story or aesthetic on. I've seen half-hearted stabs at trying to find Biopunk an identity, but books like Ribofunk ended up just taking cyberpunk tropes and giving them a biotech paintjob. What it did help to explore was the notion of bio-enginerred slaves and how we draw ethical lines between human and animal. The arbitary definitions of biology by which we determine the value or rights of living beings. Or if we even consider something alive as "living". This naturally leads into very sensitive topics of abortion, gender, animal rights and so on which mainstream media won't touch or will just fall in line behind the existing political tides. If Cyberpunk explores the nature of humanity in relation to it's technology then capitalism is an ideal lens as the two go hand in hand. But Biopunk can't attain its own identity by asking the same questions by the same methods and the kind of topics it is in a unique position to explore aren't something society is currently mature enough to handle. This is why it currently exists as a shallow excuse for body horror and the misuse of biotechnology trope. Easy and familiar concepts that don't make people think too hard or introduce questions with difficult answers.
A book I read recently, The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, feels to me like a pretty robust example of biopunk. All the technology is organic, with almost no synthetic elements. As for what its themes are, since it's the only book so far in what is bound to be a series, it's a bit difficult to glean, but I could maybe see it as the viral nature of corruption?
I’d say biopunk would be exploring nature in a way. It’s not about capitalism or human constructs but about the raw cruelty and often beauty of nature, it’s not necessarily a perversion of nature but it’s nature itself taken to an extreme. It’s about the connection to nature rather then the concept of humanity
@@blademasterzero Biopunk, just like cyberpunk, can embrace many themes but the -punk surfix means that it must be about humanity and subculures. In essence it must be a subversive narrative in our socety about subversive idea and individals within a fictional society. Rebellion must be the central theme. That is why you can't just call everything with technology cyberpunk. Likewise you can't call everything with biotechnology biopunk.
This is why an SCP - Apotheosis game would rule. A bunch of Sarkist Cultists trying to ascend into Godhood. Taking each other on as well as the SCP themselves and thier various MTFs. Becoming something monstrous to manipulate all flesh and enslave it.
My first Biopunk game was Prototype Games and it made me crazy about the Thing-like abilities such as the ability to absorb and consume biomass and shapeshifting abilities.
Honestly bio-punk is tied with technomancy for first place in the “most untapped potential” discussion when it comes to power systems. Both being interesting discussions on what an optimal built could truly mean
Exactly my thought! Giger is pure biopunk. Suprised that the Aliens (and prequel Prometheus) movie franchises weren’t never mentioned either. Those all featured Giger’s art.
If you think about it, most superheroes, marvel especially are horror. A man whose body is melded with that of a spider, an alien parasite. a man whose flesh can turn to ice or a man who cannot die from the bones that poison the metal claws that erupt from his hands
If you want to see that horror come to life look at Marvel Ruins; it is dark and horrific to both a horrifying and comedic degree (the author literally said (I think, could be wrong) that they wrote it as a kind of dark comedy of just "what if everything was fucked?" and they meant it more to poke fun a bit at how "doom and gloom" things were, basically he made it as edgy as possible to be dark comedy and the only reason people really don't get that vibe is because the artists basically took it blunt and made stuff genuinely horrifying... if I'm wrong please someone correct me, I know I probably am.)
Surprisingly, Shadowrun, a game known for Cyberpunk setting is also a Biopunk game, there are both Cyber and Bio mods. And the Cyberpunk universe setting also has Biomods, but the video games and tabletop don’t really highlight them either. I love to make characters for the tabletop using biomods to highlight the other aspect of those worlds.
Yeah it weirds me that cyberpunk has barely any biological augs when 2 of the top10 corporations are biology-based and are interlocked into a symbiotic relationship, yet despite this they both want to kill the other.
@@Lampolukearen’t they the companies from which the mods for Exotics come from as well?? So maybe it’s just cause of the time they came out with the game they decided not to, maybe more next game
@@thejestor9378 idk about the videogame, but the TTRPG reached 4e months before covid and there are barely any campaigns about the two (actually I believe that there are zero, but I'm not sure)
Id like to note that Biopunk doesn't necessarily needd to be exclusively made of flesh, or at least human flesh. An entire building made of coral and lit by controlled mushroom is biopunk, a submarine made out of a whale, plants used weapons and tools etc. It needs to use a living thing to be under Biopunk
The Tilaxu from Dune are very biopunk, although Dune overall has a light biopunk feel to it as to make up for the lack of automation or advanced computing in general human capabilities were studied and put to their fullest potential--and then some due to various drugs (Spice included) and breeding programs. Another work that I'd argue has biopunk aspects is Babylon 5. Throughout the series the most advanced technologies are based in "organic technology" (what we'd call biotechnology today). The Vorlons and Shadows extensively use biotechnology but in very different ways: the Vorlon technology is biological but ordered in a very mechanical way, while Shadow technology is immensely creepy, has core instincts, and is designed to easily integrate with and infiltrate other systems.
There is a Bio-punk Web Novel named "TWIG" by author Wildbow all about a world where The British empire having learned the secrets of Dr Frankenstein and used them to forge Monsters of War for Conquest. It's set in a Victorian time and the Main Character is an engineered superweapon youth, part of a team who are essentially the Scooby Gang if they were horrifying Assassin Children. It is one of my favorites, and deals with themes of transhumanism, dealing with how people hurt each other and themselves to force themselves into the molds society pushes us into, and how that those molds twist as well.
Over the years, I've noticed that biopunk is a unique subgenre that's incredibly easy to comprehend but very difficult to convey effectively without becoming absurd. Unlike most other punk genres, which have a real-world basis to be plausible, biopunk doesn't. And this is one of its greatest strengths and weaknesses. For one thing, it means that the possibility of the biopunk subgenre being as creatively diverse as it can be exists, though it also means that the likelihood of breaking an audience's emersion is extremely high. The best way to counter this seems to be to minimise the scope and only go full crazy at high peaks in the stories that they're used within; the subgenre can benefit from limited uses of its astetic and themes. Much like it did in the early Resident Evil games or Bioshock, these two uses of the biopunk subgenre also demonstrate the two extremes of its misuse too: Resident Evil pushed the idea to such extremes that it literally broke the series, while Bioshock outright removed it despite the subgenre being a part of the series' name itself.
actually bio punk does have a basis in reality we've been domesticating and breeding other animals and plants for 100,000 years. Biopunk just takes that to it's logical extreme.
I strongly disagree with your definition of biopunk and all *punks for that matter. You even mentioned the obvious reason in your brief "Not all biomechanical engineering counts as biopunk". If it doesn't, then there must be a different, more basic definition. IMO, a more "proper" way to define any "punk" would be by mentioning its antithesis - order. Any "punk" is a corresponding "order" in heavy decline. Each and every order is built around some basic solution to a problem. To solve any problem on a scale of, at least, country, you have to ensure it with a pretty strict order with massive administration and buerocracy that would preserve and enforce solution. Such a system always tends to preserve itself no matter what. Eventually it goes into conflict with external factors and declines, giving birth io antithesis of itself - "punk". Thus the dichotomies like "cybernetics - cyberpunk", "nuclear energy - atomic-punk", "genetic engineering - biopunk" etc emerge.
5:46 trauma team doesn’t turn off or repossess cybernetic augments if your insurance lapses. Now if you are fired from a corporation, your cybernetics can be shut off if you got them through your employment package
I know cyberpunk has a post version where cyberpunk is examined in a neutral lens a good example would be Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex where the world is closer to our own it’s not perfect but it’s not a dystopia either. I want to see a post Biopunk where genetic manipulation is normalized but not to the horrific degree that Bio-punk is traditionally associated with and asking what the evolution of humanity is and when do we stop being humanity and become something else.
I think the movie Titan has some notes of what you're describing. It's about forcing evolution on humans so they colonize the stars. Not a stelar watch, but a good concept
For those interested, I'd recommend taking a look at the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld; It's a story set on the cusp of WWI with a HUGE dose of both Bio-Punk and Diesel-Punk, as well as being a great read!
Not exactly sure what Demon Punk would be, but would Dorohedoro be part of it? Though that might be Sorcerer Punk or Occult Punk with the latter being a broader umbrella that could probably encompass both Sorcerer and Demon.
No no, let 'em cook. Dorohedoro is DEFINITELY some kind of demon-adjacent punk. The only thing it could possibly be missing is a religious angle, but with all the literal devils just casually interacting with humans and sorcerers, it at least deserves a name like Devilpunk. Devils and demons definitely have some minor differences I think. I think D&D's approach explains it best - demons are feral, chaotic and damn near animalistic, devils are calm, imposing and take the time to make you sign away your rights voluntarily. Therefore, Dorohedoro at least fits somewhere near this kind of vibe.
I'd go as far as to argue that Bioshock 1 is biopunk, Bioshock 2 is Atompunk and Bioshock Infinite is Steampunk. My reasoning for 1 being biopunk is the emphasis on plasmid use and its effects on the Splicers in Rapture. Of the series, it's the only game we get to see Splicers up close in cutscenes and they look NASTY, as well as the effects on Jack's body. For example; Insect Swarm turns Jack's hand into a living beehive with insects crawling in and out of the open, honeycomb-like wounds on his hand, Winter's Bite turns Jack's hand into a piece of living ice, complete with icicles that poke out from under his skin, leaving wounds etc.
My first exposure to Biopunk was probably Baoh The Stranger. A anime OVA based on a short lived manga series by the guy who did JoJo. In it a evil organization creates a parasite that turns the host into a ultimate being. Said being goes up against other mutants, cyborgs and psychics. I loved it and still love the genre. The only other biopunk I can KIND of think of that I watched was either Project Arms & Guyver. While Guyver may be considered more sci fi then Biopunk since it involves Alien, but I think it fits because it involves a LOT of genetic engineering. The origin of humanity being base materials for bioweapons created by a society who themselves were genetically engineered by a even more advanced society I felt was always fascinating.
I'm making a fictional universe in which I'll be setting the books I'll write in the future. The universe is a soft sci-fi with inspiration taken from Warhammer 40k, HALO, CoD, Titanfall, Gears of War, and BattleTech. One of the main beligirents are the Xurug, a savage alien race bioengineered for conquest and destruction. Their aesthetic is a mixture of dieselpunk and biopunk in that they create bulky and ugly machines out of various metals and power and control them via biomechanical connection. This video helps me a lot. Thank you
@@Buster-McTunder Basically. They were created by a race known as the Bae'Kloren for entertainment and experimentation. But when their empire collapsed, the Xurug infected their leftover technology and used it to spread across the galaxy. But they're not a hive mind per se. I've outlined 4 different types so far. One are just mindless beasts who base their existence on instinct and devour any world in their path. One believe themselves to be conquerors and form a society based on expansion and assimilation. One are fanatics, who treat their abilities as perfection and form a cult around it. And one simply don't care about any of this and choose to live their lives in debauchery. Their origins are based on the specific sects of their creators but I've already babbled too much 😅
Resident evil, A.K.A. Biohazard in japan, was my first experience with bio horror, and its just made me love bio mutations and viruses as a horror theme, including biopunk, the original alien/aliens films as well did an excellent job at enthralling me with the disgusting things that HR Geiger created, his architecture mixed with biological mass is amazing. also noone mentioned it that i saw, BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei is an EXCELLENT biopunk story, his art is also top tier. his architecture is phenomenal as well, and his story telling akin to a souls game. HIGHLY recommend it to any biopunk fans its an amazing manga series that doesnt get enough attention.
Sadly people overlook the Biohazard/Resident Evil series as a biopunk because of the "zombies" but said zombies were created from Umbrella's experiments into biotechnology.
why is there no gameplay of the top games for the genre? Wrought Flesh, Cruelty Squad Eternal cylinder or the older classic like evolva ? also the very rare desopunk like Desolation (recently died off humanity)
IDK about kamen rider but the Guyver is EASILY biopunk the protagonist discover a biomechanical suit of power armor and uses it to fight a megacorporation that turn humans into mutated monsters said megacorp even takes over the world in early half of the series as such the police and military are quickly replaced by the zoanoids
I have to say I much prefer Biopunk - where many other Punks fall into easily repetitive styles and themes, Biopunk reaches you everywhere from Scorn to Bioshock to Warframe and even more. There's just so much you can do when all of life is your canvas, and the vitae of creation is your fuel. The best part is it doesnt have to be all greys and bronzes and such, life is naturally complementary to plenty of color if you wish
The prototype series is where i first discovered the genre of biopunk. I thought the designs of alex and james' powers were so cool, I just didn't know how to describe the style/genre it at the time.
This is pretty good video. My favorite biopunk setting is the splicers from palladium books. It’s a interesting take on a post apocalypse setting where humanity is fighting a super intelligent ai and just when they where about to win the ai unleashed a nanobot plague that infects all metal on earth to make it attack any human that touches it. Humanity had to get creative with plastic, acid, and most importantly bioengineering. It’s pretty cool and has living power armor called host suits.
My favourite example of bio punk is a movie called “Crimes of the future”, and it is unique for aesthetic or even sexual approach to many “body horror” themes It was made by David Cronenberg and received mediocre reviews by media, but I strongly suggest to give it a shot for it’s cinematography, actor performance, visual and special effects, but be mindful that movie is more arthouse than anything else
You mentioned Star Wars and I have to say that there was a concept in Legends with Invaders from Different Galaxy called Yuuzhan Vong and they were very like those creatures from Warhammer 40K you mentioned before. Their weapons, ships and technology was based on Organic Symbiosis beings that they use in their invasion. They were disgusted by non organic Technology and were so dangerous that even Luke Skywalker had a problem dealing with them and he was already a Jedi Grand Master at that time.
all the adam mechanic in bioshock is very biopunk using as reference that adam is collected from little girls that are compatible with sea slugs, thats very biopunk
I was thinking the same thing but regarding Dead Space, I was expecting a mention due to the bio mass collection aspect, similar to Tyranids in a way... Punk wise, maybe in opposition to something like Firefire/serinty (on a tech scale perhaps)
I remember reading the Leviathan novel series (by Scott Westerfield) when I was a pre-teen, it was about a biopunk Britain (and its allies) that goes to war with a steampunk Germany (and its allies), in an alternate universe World War 1. From what I remember, I thought it was very good, and had a lot of unique concepts, like Britain's airships that were giant fleshy whales full of hydrogen gas. Plus each book included a few very cool illustrations, depicting the steampunk mecha and biological abominations.
You should definitely look into the Yuuzang Vong since they have the Biopunk feel but they're in Star Wars. they are probably the coolest part in the old Star Wars canon.
Regarding the star wars bit... unfortunately i think some people at lucas film would heavily disagree with the whole star wars not being cyberpunk thing. Just look at the fucking Kenobi show...
Both are cool af to me. It’d be cool if we saw a character with the mercer virus from prototype be able to temporarily assimilate technology systems with their biomass and use them seemlessly
I think this is more of the aesthetic of biopunk instead of what biopunk really is (like anti-establishment which is the punk part, and other themes). Also you should def check out HR giger, amazing video!❤
The movie Existenz has weapons and tools made of flesh. Not sure if its counts as biopunk. There are some old less known games that has biopunk elements: Wrought Flesh (indie-shooter with replacement of limbs), Genesis Rising (RTS with bioengineered spaceships), Evolva (action about genetic warriors).
The almost out of early acess shooter game 'Ripout' fits the bill reasonably well. All the way into symbiotic organisms that can still operate independently. The general theme seems to be how extreme situations easily push people to poor decisions that ultimately backfire on them. (Oh boy did The Cell turn out badly.)
Would the strogg from quake be a combination of both bio and cyber punk? They both take biological and add cybernetic parts to them, but it also takes machines and adds biological parts to them.
Thought of another BioPunk factions. The Simic Combine of Magic: The Gathering, magical biologist that want to evolve. There's also the phyrexians, but those things are made of a living metal so who knows.
I hope to see you cover more of these sub-genres in the future. Trying to fit stories into linear categories of science fiction, fantasy, noir and all others just doesn’t cut it anymore. There’s lots of ways for a setting to be crafted and handled and you’re spreading the good word on that. Keep it up 👍
Prototype is my favorite story with biopunk, but I also love the Venom comics and most Symbiote stories by marvel ( I count it as a separate biological orgasm attaches to a host and gives them enhanced abilities or effects their body, sometimes giving them a healing factor or outright having the Symbiote replace a damaged body part like missing legs.) I also enjoy a handful of the Resident Evil games and the cgi canon films. One thing I’m curious about: would you count frankenstein’s monster as biopunk? Victor played with a bunch of different body parts and chemicals to create a new organism.
Bio Punk is the stuff I am into. Tokyo Ghoul, I really love the designs characters have with their vampiric, black and red aesthetics. Along with the concept of Red Child Cells, Kagunes (Predatory Organs) and more.
Dorohedoro. I think it at least deserves an honorable mention. Definitely a lot going on that feels like biopunk, even though the technology aspect is nowhere near the same. Magical technology, powered by magic produced biologically, used to oppress the lower class with magic that often results in body horror. Sounds pretty biopunk to me.
Bio-booster armour guyver was one of the og biopunk ips. It's where warframe got it's vibes from. Lot of japanese superheroes got a lot more gribbly after it came out for a bit.
The one thing I wanna say about Scorn is that it was suppose to have a LOT more content to it, but because the developers are from Serbia, there was obvious struggles in even getting the game made let alone to the extent that they wanted it to be at. They did release a digital artbook which did feature a lot of the cut content and their intentions, alongside explanations to the story the game tries its best to portray. It may not be the best, but it certainly had the passion behind it.
Now that I think about it, the Manga Toriko is kinda biopunk. (To a certain degree at least. Some of the powers do come across as something far more inspired by Ki than anything else, lol. But Gourmet cells and the abilities resulting from them are biopunk for sure.) Then there's also the Palladium Books RPG "Splicers", which is basically "Guyver vs Terminator, the TTRPG", where the resistance's main force is made of biological power armor wearing soldiers, and customising said power armors as you level up is a core part of the TTRPG's mechanics.
very sad you didn’t talk about slave zero x - granted, it was a very small indie release from february this year, but it’s an incredible example of biopunk! almost every character is fused with a biomechanical armor called a Slave, and the main character has to learn how to bond with his sentient prototype slave. the art direction is incredible, and it’s worth playing the game solely for the visuals!
Might be my favorite punk, the idea of technology so advance you cannot tell the difference from biology. I think Warframe would be one of the best light Biopunk examples, most of the technology you see is living tissue, just hard to tell until you open the carcass
Ok but the question in all of our minds really is... Could you run DOOM on a BioPunk BioComputer? Would it run it directly on your brain? Or would a screen made out of Octopus-like skin be needed to simulate the pixels on the game?
I’ve seen some incredible Chaos Knight conversions for Warhammer and man do they look cool. I don’t remember the creator but I’ve seen a guy on IG who made a Cerastus Knight blended with a Great Unclean one. Not quite the same but the metal frame becoming overrun by the decaying flesh looks awesome.
I recommend the Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfield. And if you're looking for pseudo-biopunk and body horror in a cartoon then I suggest Generator Rex.
We gotta admire the biopunk elements even the Korean Game Company Shift Up made. The Raptures in Nikke are a vicious techno-organic race, and The Naytiba in the game Stellar Blade is this evolved race of humans who stripped themselves of ethics and leaving only strength and animalistic tendencies as their traits to supposedly achieve their goal of surpassing the human race. This race, in particular, is written well in my opinion, in that the very first one, The Elder Naytiba, (Adam) was the only member of their species that didn't abandon his humanity and logic only to unite with an android to help restore the human race. As of yet, there might have been no other biopunk races capable of choosing morally "good" choices, save this one(unless you count Kerrigan and her remaining brood and the Primal Zerg that was placed under her control in SC II). Maybe they were inspired so much by the Zerg,(we all know Starcraft's pretty BIG in Korea) that's why they created such awesome races. Altho to an extent it's not a race that is 100% inherently Biopunk, everything organic, I'm just more intrigued more with how they decided the Naytiba could just be capable of doing good(altho shown by only one Person or Being). I, for one, welcome this type of narrative.
I have to say before watching the video: I loved biopunk more than cyberpunk since the day I was introduced to Prototype series. Transcending the limits of unchanging metal through ever evolving & self-mending flesh (that you don't need any expertise to fix) is much more appealing.
I think an example of biopunk being in a setting that itself is not biopunk, is the Tzimizte of Vampire The Masquerade. The world of darkness as a whole is filled to the brim with punk, but the Flesh crafting Bloodline of Tzimitze definitely feels biopunk.
As a weeb it is my duty to recomend Biomega from the creator of BLAME!, it begins like a zombie apocalypse type thing but evolves into undeniable biopunk, its not particularly heavy on the writting but the art is amazing
Honestly I think the most established example of biopunk is probably just warframe. The concept of an alien species now extinct that body hopped like it was changing wardrobes, so to tailor it's suits it would infest a human target, push it to the brink all while integrating machinery into the body and letting the infested host grow around and adapt to said machinery. Cure the host, tweak the suit some, and reinfest it again until the twisted horror is perfect for whatever intended purpose it had. Then when they slide their minds into it, the once human mind will vanish in place of the new host mind. They also made a species of human clones morbidly imperfect and degrading rapidly and somewhat have a similar story to the OG decepticons story.
Biopunk is the oldest of all SciFi subgenres, first explored in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I'd love to see it return to its roots. Right now it's barely an aesthetic draped over other ideas.
Well no, Cyberpunk invented the "Punk" genre we just retroactively apply the label onto works like Frankenstein. So the ideas may be old, but the original story was not written with Biopunk in mind.
Warhammer40k’s obliterater virus fits this perfectly And perturabo the traitor primach also currently is going for a form using this concept @8:24 the entire warhammer plot summed up
The book “Starfish” by Peter Watts has quite neat bio punk elements, author was a marine biologist and it’s shows But generally book and subsequent series can’t qualify as pure bio- or cyberpunk, it is really good sci-fi, and by many deserves to be called “hard science fiction”
Farscape has elements of biopunk. The ship, Moira, gets pregnant by a Peacekeeper ship and gives birth to a shuttle named Talon. It made an interesting story line in the show.
It's worth noting that the geiger-esque interpretation of biopunk is not the only means it manifests as. By all definitions, any setting which is reliant exclusively on biological processes to function with the capability of willfully molding those biological life-forms being the pre-requisite. As such, there are a few other mentions worth including: First, the spider-software series of games "Geneforge" is a more fantasy-based biopunk. There are the geigarian living machines, but generally the day-to-day functions are reliant on living tools and shaper-made creatures. If that sounds familiar, it's because technically pokemon could be classified under this umbrella, as possibly the most sanitized variant of it. Really, this genre's primary questions are "When given the tools and skills to play god as the basis of our technology, what does that look like?" for the aesthetic. Where as the actual, philisophical questions are somewhere between solar punk and cyberpunk. What makes us human? Not in the sense of "how much can we strip away and replace" But "how much can we evolve before we stop being human?" What is our relationship with nature? We have the tools to largely dominate it at the moment, but biopunk helps to really get under the skin of that particular point. Lastly: Is progress worth all costs? The aesthetic is also great for tales of desperation in the same way dieselpunk is. Rather than dealing with dwindling resources, you're dealing with being OUT of resources, and having to figure out other means to tackle problems with the things you have left. Most regular people aren't going to build a cathedral of flesh (VTM crew knows) for the fun of it. They'll need a good reason. Personally, I think the main problem right now is that it's getting type-cast under "horror". With a secondary problem that a lot of the creators that would tackle this particular topic with the nuance it needs to find it's footing are more drawn to solarpunk's optimism.
Since you mentioned Tyranids. Something I find kind of funny about it.. Is that they are basically Nurgle's favorite species. Though it kind of causes a massive problem for all other beings since Nurgle and the Tyranids both just keep getting stronger due to what Nurgle likes to do. ( He creates and tests new diseases on the Tyranids, they always beat said diseases and get stronger, but so does Nurgle and his diseases. )
Actually the opposite because the Tyranids aren’t a disease. Nurgle likes to do some cold brew yes but he is also the incarnation of entropy and stagnation. The Tyranids hyper evolution would make him incredibly angry.
@@Buster-McTunderYou can find it with some of Nurgles stuff but also in a fair amount of stuff regarding the Genestealer cults. One of the big snafus done by them basically allowed Nurgle to infect the main hive for a while. Tyranids eventually beat it but it, but it resulted in a new, really nasty plague that Nurgle can use. Forgot the name of it but its one of the newer plagues that can be used by Nurgle. ( Even though its been in the lore for some time now. )
@@Buster-McTunderForgot to also mention* The same bit of lore talks about how Tyranids deal with stuff like diseases and so forth.. They basically make microscopic Tyranids. Its one of the reasons why Nurgle has a hard time infecting the Tyranids but it also kinds of helps Nurgle. I want to say a youtuber named Bricky covered it before but I am not 100% sure on it. But there are a few books that explain/talk about it that are all considered cannon to 40k.
Thank you for this video. Ive always found Biopunk to be extremely interesting, but I've never been able to pin it and just chalking it up as body horror.
I personally love biopunk. In a world that is seemingly wanting to progress towards a more cyberpunk species, I personally think biopunk is the better option. I love the topics cyberpunk and biopunk bring to the philosophical table because both are likely possibilities in our future as a species and by looking at works that tackle those settings now will force us to better understand the possibilities of fiction becoming reality and the dangers associated with that.
Theres a fan theory about Monster Hunter that it's set in a post biopunk future on another planet colonized by their ancient ancestors who were very advanced in space travel and genetic engineering, but something happened and people forgot their origins. Only remembering that whatever happened it was bad and caused by being careless with and abusing the environment, leading to the Hunters Guild rising to enforce a way of life which was good for humans but also respected the environment more.
This reminded me of a game called Brute Force, it was such a great game where you play a squad of commandos that were killed and brought back multiple times with cloning tech to fight xenos seems pretty biopunk to me.
drive.google.com/file/d/0ByV5-S712cg8Tk1vQWVFZVM5S28/view?resourcekey=0-f0n8tTyFknuKmWvLl6gYFQ
Idk why I forgot about this, here’s a link to a PDF version of All Tomorrows for those interested.
very interesting
Another great example of biopunk is a book series named leviathan
By what author? I find a few online and I'm curious
@@joaonobre-franco4437 Scott Westerfeld is the author, it's loosely early/pre ww1 era with the allies generally having biopunk weapons and the central powers using diesel-punk walkers and zeppelins.
Oh yeah watched some arts from the book artists love his artworks
Hits both bio and diesel with a hint of steam, it really is all around fantastic
I love those books my dad bought them for me when I was 13 I had never heard of them before but I my god they were great
when I first found Biopunk I was playing halo reach, I was up to the Piller of Autumn mission and decided to look more at the hunter in that level, only to find it wasn't a robot or mech but a colony of worms. This at the time was something I had never seen before, and it was not only fascinating but actively engaging which led me to biological horror like dead space certain SCPs. I think I was around 8/10 now I'm in my 20's. whenever I design a new mech, ship or robot I think of how I can add some form of biological component. My latest little creation is a type of regenerative "bio armor plating" for heavy vehicles, it will work fine for about 2 years before it needs to be replaced, beyond that the armor has a higher chance of mutating, ranging from growing outside of its normal configuration to going full on Flood style horror bullshit (still needs more work in my opinion). Luv the vid BTW :]
Do you have a website where you share your designs?
@@TheBoss.-tq2vm sorry no, I'm a very private person. but I might make a TH-cam channel when I get better at designing/animating in blender. until then I just got books full of shitty drawings and plans for short animations using said designs. :']
you play lancer? try horus
@@raipe125 I don't play lancer but its mechs are sick AF. and I FUCKING LOVE HORUS, Manticore, Pegasus, Litch, Gorgon, Balor, Minotaur, Goblin, and Hyra are at that sweet spot between normal science and NHP Bullshit. But mourning cloak that shit is scary "once per round you may Fucking murder some unfortunate dipshit who forgot the buddy system" Robin and Zephyer.
I draw mechs for fun and was inspired by the 40k race that were made of maggots. I usually try to incorporate bio-nano bots that attach to each other to become muscle mass.
Humanity Lost graphic novel is a great example of Biopunk cuz it's basically just a Biopunk version of Star Wars....
Hmanity Lost is great
Warframe kinda fits biopunk genre. There is literally flash walls used as material in orokin towers
I think Warframe overall fits perfectly between biopunk and cyberpunk. The Best of both worlds.
Yay meat mechs game
The totality of orokin technology and arquitecture is living tissue, technology so advanced is unrecognizable from biology
that was my thought, if the flood is than the infested is, warframes are, and orokin technology with kuva and the elongated arm and blue skin means it has elements, the problem is warframe is so big it has other themes too
The technocyte virus is a fun little twist: it's your standard "infestation" plague, only it doesn't see a meaningful difference between the organic and inorganic. It can twist and mutate metal and machine just as easily
SPOILERS:
And in fact, this property is where the warframes themselves came from. The orokin were able to master and cultivate the infestation, in order to grow the perfect melding between man and machine: the warframe. They're beyond even bio-punk, with steel skin and mechanical organs.
The only step up is the transcendence of the tenno themselves, who go beyond physical limitations and are connected to the void itself, their biology transcending even time and dimension
Cyberpunk, Solarpunk and Biopunk; also known as Terrans, Protoss and Zerg
Biopunk hasn't yet flourished into it's own identity as it currently exists, like Cyberpunk did, by just being elements in other genre and narratives. Corporate corruption, cybernetics and the exploration of man or machine all existed prior to Neuromancer and it's ilk but wasn't combined in such a way as to stand out as a distinct framework to hang a story or aesthetic on.
I've seen half-hearted stabs at trying to find Biopunk an identity, but books like Ribofunk ended up just taking cyberpunk tropes and giving them a biotech paintjob. What it did help to explore was the notion of bio-enginerred slaves and how we draw ethical lines between human and animal. The arbitary definitions of biology by which we determine the value or rights of living beings. Or if we even consider something alive as "living". This naturally leads into very sensitive topics of abortion, gender, animal rights and so on which mainstream media won't touch or will just fall in line behind the existing political tides.
If Cyberpunk explores the nature of humanity in relation to it's technology then capitalism is an ideal lens as the two go hand in hand. But Biopunk can't attain its own identity by asking the same questions by the same methods and the kind of topics it is in a unique position to explore aren't something society is currently mature enough to handle. This is why it currently exists as a shallow excuse for body horror and the misuse of biotechnology trope. Easy and familiar concepts that don't make people think too hard or introduce questions with difficult answers.
biotechnology is great
@@jmgonzales7701 And very under representted. Try to name a series or franchise where biotech is more prevailent than technology and you'll struggle.
A book I read recently, The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, feels to me like a pretty robust example of biopunk. All the technology is organic, with almost no synthetic elements. As for what its themes are, since it's the only book so far in what is bound to be a series, it's a bit difficult to glean, but I could maybe see it as the viral nature of corruption?
I’d say biopunk would be exploring nature in a way. It’s not about capitalism or human constructs but about the raw cruelty and often beauty of nature, it’s not necessarily a perversion of nature but it’s nature itself taken to an extreme. It’s about the connection to nature rather then the concept of humanity
@@blademasterzero Biopunk, just like cyberpunk, can embrace many themes but the -punk surfix means that it must be about humanity and subculures. In essence it must be a subversive narrative in our socety about subversive idea and individals within a fictional society. Rebellion must be the central theme.
That is why you can't just call everything with technology cyberpunk. Likewise you can't call everything with biotechnology biopunk.
Cruelty squad imo is a biopunk classic
Does he not talk about it in this video?? CS is literally what I think of as my baseline or definition for biopunk
Went down to the comments for this
Wore my divine light severed custom t-shirt whole day
This is why an SCP - Apotheosis game would rule. A bunch of Sarkist Cultists trying to ascend into Godhood. Taking each other on as well as the SCP themselves and thier various MTFs. Becoming something monstrous to manipulate all flesh and enslave it.
My first Biopunk game was Prototype Games and it made me crazy about the Thing-like abilities such as the ability to absorb and consume biomass and shapeshifting abilities.
Prototype was one of my absolute favorite bio punk videogames along BioShock
Prototype is a off brand Venom game
@@chasegriffin5205 Yeah
@@Spillow-C Yes, someone finnaly sees it too!
Honestly bio-punk is tied with technomancy for first place in the “most untapped potential” discussion when it comes to power systems. Both being interesting discussions on what an optimal built could truly mean
Achievement unlocked, talk about biopunk without mentioning H.R. Giger.
Not my favorite punk genre, but one you cant look away from. Great video👍
Exactly my thought! Giger is pure biopunk. Suprised that the Aliens (and prequel Prometheus) movie franchises weren’t never mentioned either. Those all featured Giger’s art.
If you think about it, most superheroes, marvel especially are horror. A man whose body is melded with that of a spider, an alien parasite. a man whose flesh can turn to ice or a man who cannot die from the bones that poison the metal claws that erupt from his hands
Not to mention he has natural bone claws under that
Don't think to hard but.. is one Peice a biopunk?
One piece has all the punks, like Franky is diesel punk and devil fruits are bio punk and nami is solar punk (I think)@@tylamcgilverson3923
@@tylamcgilverson3923I’d say so esp since it has the revolting against the gov n
If you want to see that horror come to life look at Marvel Ruins; it is dark and horrific to both a horrifying and comedic degree (the author literally said (I think, could be wrong) that they wrote it as a kind of dark comedy of just "what if everything was fucked?" and they meant it more to poke fun a bit at how "doom and gloom" things were, basically he made it as edgy as possible to be dark comedy and the only reason people really don't get that vibe is because the artists basically took it blunt and made stuff genuinely horrifying... if I'm wrong please someone correct me, I know I probably am.)
The flesh is weak, so make it stronger 💪💪💪
Surprisingly, Shadowrun, a game known for Cyberpunk setting is also a Biopunk game, there are both Cyber and Bio mods. And the Cyberpunk universe setting also has Biomods, but the video games and tabletop don’t really highlight them either. I love to make characters for the tabletop using biomods to highlight the other aspect of those worlds.
Well Biopunk is an offshoot of Cyberpunk I can see where they intertwine. Just some stories like Scorn go really far into the biotechnichal side of it
@@Buster-McTunder the scrin from command and conquer also the space pirates from Metroid have interesting biopunk.
Yeah it weirds me that cyberpunk has barely any biological augs when 2 of the top10 corporations are biology-based and are interlocked into a symbiotic relationship, yet despite this they both want to kill the other.
@@Lampolukearen’t they the companies from which the mods for Exotics come from as well?? So maybe it’s just cause of the time they came out with the game they decided not to, maybe more next game
@@thejestor9378 idk about the videogame, but the TTRPG reached 4e months before covid and there are barely any campaigns about the two (actually I believe that there are zero, but I'm not sure)
Id like to note that Biopunk doesn't necessarily needd to be exclusively made of flesh, or at least human flesh. An entire building made of coral and lit by controlled mushroom is biopunk, a submarine made out of a whale, plants used weapons and tools etc. It needs to use a living thing to be under Biopunk
The Tilaxu from Dune are very biopunk, although Dune overall has a light biopunk feel to it as to make up for the lack of automation or advanced computing in general human capabilities were studied and put to their fullest potential--and then some due to various drugs (Spice included) and breeding programs.
Another work that I'd argue has biopunk aspects is Babylon 5. Throughout the series the most advanced technologies are based in "organic technology" (what we'd call biotechnology today). The Vorlons and Shadows extensively use biotechnology but in very different ways: the Vorlon technology is biological but ordered in a very mechanical way, while Shadow technology is immensely creepy, has core instincts, and is designed to easily integrate with and infiltrate other systems.
There is a Bio-punk Web Novel named "TWIG" by author Wildbow all about a world where The British empire having learned the secrets of Dr Frankenstein and used them to forge Monsters of War for Conquest. It's set in a Victorian time and the Main Character is an engineered superweapon youth, part of a team who are essentially the Scooby Gang if they were horrifying Assassin Children.
It is one of my favorites, and deals with themes of transhumanism, dealing with how people hurt each other and themselves to force themselves into the molds society pushes us into, and how that those molds twist as well.
Wildbow fan spotted Worm entrance
God dam wildbow made me so invested in worm that feel scared of reading his other works because i feel i would fall down never-ending rabbit hole
WILDBOW MENTIONED
Well, I just found something new to read. Thank you.
I was waiting for someone to mention Twig here. As far as I know, it's one of the most fully realized biopunk stories ever made.
Star Wars Legends EU did have a Biopunk alien race in it. The Yuuzhan Vong.
Oh *GAWD*
I heard the name but didn't know anything further
@@Ramsey276onethe Yuzzhan Vong are biopunk in the extreme, and they're horrifying
@@torunsmok5890 they are AWESOME
Over the years, I've noticed that biopunk is a unique subgenre that's incredibly easy to comprehend but very difficult to convey effectively without becoming absurd. Unlike most other punk genres, which have a real-world basis to be plausible, biopunk doesn't. And this is one of its greatest strengths and weaknesses. For one thing, it means that the possibility of the biopunk subgenre being as creatively diverse as it can be exists, though it also means that the likelihood of breaking an audience's emersion is extremely high.
The best way to counter this seems to be to minimise the scope and only go full crazy at high peaks in the stories that they're used within; the subgenre can benefit from limited uses of its astetic and themes. Much like it did in the early Resident Evil games or Bioshock, these two uses of the biopunk subgenre also demonstrate the two extremes of its misuse too: Resident Evil pushed the idea to such extremes that it literally broke the series, while Bioshock outright removed it despite the subgenre being a part of the series' name itself.
actually bio punk does have a basis in reality we've been domesticating and breeding other animals and plants for 100,000 years. Biopunk just takes that to it's logical extreme.
@@mikerueffer579 Exactly it's not that hard. You can already say Zombies are bio punk
Do you know we have branch of science called biotechnology?
I strongly disagree with your definition of biopunk and all *punks for that matter. You even mentioned the obvious reason in your brief "Not all biomechanical engineering counts as biopunk". If it doesn't, then there must be a different, more basic definition. IMO, a more "proper" way to define any "punk" would be by mentioning its antithesis - order. Any "punk" is a corresponding "order" in heavy decline. Each and every order is built around some basic solution to a problem. To solve any problem on a scale of, at least, country, you have to ensure it with a pretty strict order with massive administration and buerocracy that would preserve and enforce solution. Such a system always tends to preserve itself no matter what. Eventually it goes into conflict with external factors and declines, giving birth io antithesis of itself - "punk". Thus the dichotomies like "cybernetics - cyberpunk", "nuclear energy - atomic-punk", "genetic engineering - biopunk" etc emerge.
CEO of yapping
@@IkeaShark3937CEO of ruining the vibe
@@evieyak fr
Quite a succient definition. I think i would use this but i know I'll never have a discussion about this topic outside of this channel
Agreed
5:46 trauma team doesn’t turn off or repossess cybernetic augments if your insurance lapses. Now if you are fired from a corporation, your cybernetics can be shut off if you got them through your employment package
What in the dark Eldary fuck did I just hear
Haemonculus covens are 100% this.
You should've mentioned Tsutomu Nihei's works like Abara or Aposimz, they're all about evil corpos and biopunk badass heros
Oh, good thinking. Can't believe I forgot about those works when I'm such a big fan of Nihei's...
thank you. This gona be good read.
I know cyberpunk has a post version where cyberpunk is examined in a neutral lens a good example would be Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex where the world is closer to our own it’s not perfect but it’s not a dystopia either.
I want to see a post Biopunk where genetic manipulation is normalized but not to the horrific degree that Bio-punk is traditionally associated with and asking what the evolution of humanity is and when do we stop being humanity and become something else.
I think the movie Titan has some notes of what you're describing. It's about forcing evolution on humans so they colonize the stars. Not a stelar watch, but a good concept
For those interested, I'd recommend taking a look at the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld; It's a story set on the cusp of WWI with a HUGE dose of both Bio-Punk and Diesel-Punk, as well as being a great read!
Also it's for those alternate history nerds that want something more exaggerated. It's perfect for that too.
Not exactly sure what Demon Punk would be, but would Dorohedoro be part of it? Though that might be Sorcerer Punk or Occult Punk with the latter being a broader umbrella that could probably encompass both Sorcerer and Demon.
Demon Punk would be something like Chainsaw Man, Occult Punk would be something like uh......
No no, let 'em cook. Dorohedoro is DEFINITELY some kind of demon-adjacent punk. The only thing it could possibly be missing is a religious angle, but with all the literal devils just casually interacting with humans and sorcerers, it at least deserves a name like Devilpunk.
Devils and demons definitely have some minor differences I think. I think D&D's approach explains it best - demons are feral, chaotic and damn near animalistic, devils are calm, imposing and take the time to make you sign away your rights voluntarily. Therefore, Dorohedoro at least fits somewhere near this kind of vibe.
I remember thinking dead space couldn't scare me. I played the 1st game and 10 minutes in im cryin'😂
I'd go as far as to argue that Bioshock 1 is biopunk, Bioshock 2 is Atompunk and Bioshock Infinite is Steampunk.
My reasoning for 1 being biopunk is the emphasis on plasmid use and its effects on the Splicers in Rapture. Of the series, it's the only game we get to see Splicers up close in cutscenes and they look NASTY, as well as the effects on Jack's body.
For example; Insect Swarm turns Jack's hand into a living beehive with insects crawling in and out of the open, honeycomb-like wounds on his hand, Winter's Bite turns Jack's hand into a piece of living ice, complete with icicles that poke out from under his skin, leaving wounds etc.
I'd argue that at least one of the games is Decopunk, but that is very close to steam and atom so yeah
With those games, it doesn’t necessarily need to be exclusive. Like with BioShock 1, it’s both dieselpunk and biopunk.
well, when the game has Bio in the name, it kind of sounds obvious in hindsight.
My first exposure to Biopunk was probably Baoh The Stranger. A anime OVA based on a short lived manga series by the guy who did JoJo. In it a evil organization creates a parasite that turns the host into a ultimate being. Said being goes up against other mutants, cyborgs and psychics. I loved it and still love the genre. The only other biopunk I can KIND of think of that I watched was either Project Arms & Guyver. While Guyver may be considered more sci fi then Biopunk since it involves Alien, but I think it fits because it involves a LOT of genetic engineering. The origin of humanity being base materials for bioweapons created by a society who themselves were genetically engineered by a even more advanced society I felt was always fascinating.
I'm making a fictional universe in which I'll be setting the books I'll write in the future. The universe is a soft sci-fi with inspiration taken from Warhammer 40k, HALO, CoD, Titanfall, Gears of War, and BattleTech.
One of the main beligirents are the Xurug, a savage alien race bioengineered for conquest and destruction. Their aesthetic is a mixture of dieselpunk and biopunk in that they create bulky and ugly machines out of various metals and power and control them via biomechanical connection.
This video helps me a lot. Thank you
Sounds a lot like the Swarm in Gears 5
@@Buster-McTunder Basically. They were created by a race known as the Bae'Kloren for entertainment and experimentation. But when their empire collapsed, the Xurug infected their leftover technology and used it to spread across the galaxy.
But they're not a hive mind per se. I've outlined 4 different types so far. One are just mindless beasts who base their existence on instinct and devour any world in their path. One believe themselves to be conquerors and form a society based on expansion and assimilation. One are fanatics, who treat their abilities as perfection and form a cult around it. And one simply don't care about any of this and choose to live their lives in debauchery.
Their origins are based on the specific sects of their creators but I've already babbled too much 😅
@@Buster-McTunderbasically. But there's more to it. Not sure if you want me to go into it here it might take me a while 😅
A movie that some people called Biopunk would be Existenz, where testers tested flesh versions of Playstation DualShock controllers.
Resident evil, A.K.A. Biohazard in japan, was my first experience with bio horror, and its just made me love bio mutations and viruses as a horror theme, including biopunk, the original alien/aliens films as well did an excellent job at enthralling me with the disgusting things that HR Geiger created, his architecture mixed with biological mass is amazing.
also noone mentioned it that i saw, BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei is an EXCELLENT biopunk story, his art is also top tier. his architecture is phenomenal as well, and his story telling akin to a souls game. HIGHLY recommend it to any biopunk fans its an amazing manga series that doesnt get enough attention.
Sadly people overlook the Biohazard/Resident Evil series as a biopunk because of the "zombies" but said zombies were created from Umbrella's experiments into biotechnology.
Bro just let out an ungodly belch and thought yeah that’s going in the video
Guy wanted to show off a bioweapon of his own, I guess, lmao
why is there no gameplay of the top games for the genre?
Wrought Flesh, Cruelty Squad Eternal cylinder or the older classic like evolva ?
also the very rare desopunk like Desolation (recently died off humanity)
A shame he didn't talk about cruelty squad it's pretty much the textbook definition of biopunk
Not sure if it counts as biopunk but Kamen Rider Shin and Guyver are some great biopunk "superheros"
IDK about kamen rider but the Guyver is EASILY biopunk the protagonist discover a biomechanical suit of power armor and uses it to fight a megacorporation that turn humans into mutated monsters said megacorp even takes over the world in early half of the series as such the police and military are quickly replaced by the zoanoids
@@jhonnoilcringeincarnato8593 you should definitely check out Kamen Rider Shin, Kamen Rider in general but Shin if you want that gross biopunk stuff.
I have to say I much prefer Biopunk - where many other Punks fall into easily repetitive styles and themes, Biopunk reaches you everywhere from Scorn to Bioshock to Warframe and even more. There's just so much you can do when all of life is your canvas, and the vitae of creation is your fuel. The best part is it doesnt have to be all greys and bronzes and such, life is naturally complementary to plenty of color if you wish
Bio punk mixed with cyberpunk is so cool, like when Tesuo transforms into that flesh monster in Akira.
The prototype series is where i first discovered the genre of biopunk. I thought the designs of alex and james' powers were so cool, I just didn't know how to describe the style/genre it at the time.
This is pretty good video. My favorite biopunk setting is the splicers from palladium books. It’s a interesting take on a post apocalypse setting where humanity is fighting a super intelligent ai and just when they where about to win the ai unleashed a nanobot plague that infects all metal on earth to make it attack any human that touches it. Humanity had to get creative with plastic, acid, and most importantly bioengineering. It’s pretty cool and has living power armor called host suits.
My favourite example of bio punk is a movie called “Crimes of the future”, and it is unique for aesthetic or even sexual approach to many “body horror” themes
It was made by David Cronenberg and received mediocre reviews by media, but I strongly suggest to give it a shot for it’s cinematography, actor performance, visual and special effects, but be mindful that movie is more arthouse than anything else
On this topic, have you ever read Necroscope series? The Wamphiri are probably the most interesting form of biotechnology I know
I haven’t but in my research on the genre it came up a lot and has definitely been added to my list
@@Buster-McTunder Hope you don't have too many nightmares about Faethor Ferenczy
As a wannabe future biologist, a biopunk inspired, individual centric future is what i hope to work towards after i finish schooling.
You mentioned Star Wars and I have to say that there was a concept in Legends with Invaders from Different Galaxy called Yuuzhan Vong and they were very like those creatures from Warhammer 40K you mentioned before. Their weapons, ships and technology was based on Organic Symbiosis beings that they use in their invasion. They were disgusted by non organic Technology and were so dangerous that even Luke Skywalker had a problem dealing with them and he was already a Jedi Grand Master at that time.
Have you ever read mountains of madness? You might also be interested in the shoggoths
How is Bioshock not on this list? The bee swarm ability is biopunk as FUCK.
It is both Diesel and Bio punk. Basically Video Drome meets The Shining under the sea.
Agreed 💯
all the adam mechanic in bioshock is very biopunk using as reference that adam is collected from little girls that are compatible with sea slugs, thats very biopunk
I was thinking the same thing but regarding Dead Space, I was expecting a mention due to the bio mass collection aspect, similar to Tyranids in a way... Punk wise, maybe in opposition to something like Firefire/serinty (on a tech scale perhaps)
Isn’t it also kinda hydro-punk?
I remember reading the Leviathan novel series (by Scott Westerfield) when I was a pre-teen, it was about a biopunk Britain (and its allies) that goes to war with a steampunk Germany (and its allies), in an alternate universe World War 1. From what I remember, I thought it was very good, and had a lot of unique concepts, like Britain's airships that were giant fleshy whales full of hydrogen gas. Plus each book included a few very cool illustrations, depicting the steampunk mecha and biological abominations.
You should definitely look into the Yuuzang Vong since they have the Biopunk feel but they're in Star Wars. they are probably the coolest part in the old Star Wars canon.
Regarding the star wars bit... unfortunately i think some people at lucas film would heavily disagree with the whole star wars not being cyberpunk thing. Just look at the fucking Kenobi show...
What happened in the Kenobi show? Do you mean the Book of Boba Fett?
@@Buster-McTunder oh yeah thats right i did mean Boba. God they were both so bad they blur together -_-
@@hotashikayaba910 I couldn’t get past ep1 of Kenobi so I was a bit confused 😅
@@Buster-McTunderyo are you interested in doing Guyver biobooster armor vs space marines please I really enjoy your videos.
I would say *Scorn* is more *"SemenPunk".*
Considering how a lot of the biotech is run on, you know...
Both are cool af to me. It’d be cool if we saw a character with the mercer virus from prototype be able to temporarily assimilate technology systems with their biomass and use them seemlessly
Top reference to demonpunk is Doom games.
Prototype mentioned
"our gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside. corpses shift and offer room, a fate you must abide..." -the gravemind, halo 3(the covenant).
I think this is more of the aesthetic of biopunk instead of what biopunk really is (like anti-establishment which is the punk part, and other themes). Also you should def check out HR giger, amazing video!❤
I can’t help but think of bioshock…..the big daddies and little sisters….the warped drugged up inhabitants and the big sisters
The movie Existenz has weapons and tools made of flesh. Not sure if its counts as biopunk.
There are some old less known games that has biopunk elements: Wrought Flesh (indie-shooter with replacement of limbs), Genesis Rising (RTS with bioengineered spaceships), Evolva (action about genetic warriors).
The almost out of early acess shooter game 'Ripout' fits the bill reasonably well. All the way into symbiotic organisms that can still operate independently. The general theme seems to be how extreme situations easily push people to poor decisions that ultimately backfire on them. (Oh boy did The Cell turn out badly.)
Would the strogg from quake be a combination of both bio and cyber punk? They both take biological and add cybernetic parts to them, but it also takes machines and adds biological parts to them.
Thought of another BioPunk factions. The Simic Combine of Magic: The Gathering, magical biologist that want to evolve. There's also the phyrexians, but those things are made of a living metal so who knows.
is always a blast to find small, really well made channels floating in the sea of sameness that youtube is. very good take on the subject.
I hope to see you cover more of these sub-genres in the future. Trying to fit stories into linear categories of science fiction, fantasy, noir and all others just doesn’t cut it anymore. There’s lots of ways for a setting to be crafted and handled and you’re spreading the good word on that. Keep it up 👍
Demon Punk (which isn’t really real) is already next 😈
@@Buster-McTunder Oh nice. I feel like I’ve already got a good idea of what it entails
Prototype is my favorite story with biopunk, but I also love the Venom comics and most Symbiote stories by marvel ( I count it as a separate biological orgasm attaches to a host and gives them enhanced abilities or effects their body, sometimes giving them a healing factor or outright having the Symbiote replace a damaged body part like missing legs.) I also enjoy a handful of the Resident Evil games and the cgi canon films.
One thing I’m curious about: would you count frankenstein’s monster as biopunk? Victor played with a bunch of different body parts and chemicals to create a new organism.
Bio Punk is the stuff I am into. Tokyo Ghoul, I really love the designs characters have with their vampiric, black and red aesthetics. Along with the concept of Red Child Cells, Kagunes (Predatory Organs) and more.
The Edenists from The Nights Dawn trilogy would count a Biopunk.
Dorohedoro. I think it at least deserves an honorable mention. Definitely a lot going on that feels like biopunk, even though the technology aspect is nowhere near the same. Magical technology, powered by magic produced biologically, used to oppress the lower class with magic that often results in body horror.
Sounds pretty biopunk to me.
5:17 Now that's true Biopunk.
Sounded like you were about to start making Dune chants.
only true OGs remember when the title was called *What is Biopunk and Why is it BETTER than Cyberpunk*
Bio-booster armour guyver was one of the og biopunk ips. It's where warframe got it's vibes from. Lot of japanese superheroes got a lot more gribbly after it came out for a bit.
The one thing I wanna say about Scorn is that it was suppose to have a LOT more content to it, but because the developers are from Serbia, there was obvious struggles in even getting the game made let alone to the extent that they wanted it to be at. They did release a digital artbook which did feature a lot of the cut content and their intentions, alongside explanations to the story the game tries its best to portray. It may not be the best, but it certainly had the passion behind it.
Now that I think about it, the Manga Toriko is kinda biopunk. (To a certain degree at least. Some of the powers do come across as something far more inspired by Ki than anything else, lol. But Gourmet cells and the abilities resulting from them are biopunk for sure.)
Then there's also the Palladium Books RPG "Splicers", which is basically "Guyver vs Terminator, the TTRPG", where the resistance's main force is made of biological power armor wearing soldiers, and customising said power armors as you level up is a core part of the TTRPG's mechanics.
Very interesting video, but please check your red light volume clipping, to reduce distortion on your mic Sir. 👊🏼
Never really thought about the genre of "Biopunk". The Red Rising book series has a lot of Biopunk aspects.
very sad you didn’t talk about slave zero x - granted, it was a very small indie release from february this year, but it’s an incredible example of biopunk! almost every character is fused with a biomechanical armor called a Slave, and the main character has to learn how to bond with his sentient prototype slave. the art direction is incredible, and it’s worth playing the game solely for the visuals!
Might be my favorite punk, the idea of technology so advance you cannot tell the difference from biology. I think Warframe would be one of the best light Biopunk examples, most of the technology you see is living tissue, just hard to tell until you open the carcass
Ok but the question in all of our minds really is...
Could you run DOOM on a BioPunk BioComputer?
Would it run it directly on your brain? Or would a screen made out of Octopus-like skin be needed to simulate the pixels on the game?
“If it has a screen, it can run doom”
One of my favorite under appreciated aesthetics is when instead of a person gaining robot parts it's a robot growing flesh parts
I’ve seen some incredible Chaos Knight conversions for Warhammer and man do they look cool. I don’t remember the creator but I’ve seen a guy on IG who made a Cerastus Knight blended with a Great Unclean one. Not quite the same but the metal frame becoming overrun by the decaying flesh looks awesome.
Resident evil is a great example of how biopunk can be both terrifying and absolutely badass.
Biopunk, much like the viruses that make up it's setting, has spread to every genre in some shape or form, it's everywhere.
I recommend the Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfield. And if you're looking for pseudo-biopunk and body horror in a cartoon then I suggest Generator Rex.
The Yu'zahn Vong is the best example of Biopunk
We gotta admire the biopunk elements even the Korean Game Company Shift Up made. The Raptures in Nikke are a vicious techno-organic race, and The Naytiba in the game Stellar Blade is this evolved race of humans who stripped themselves of ethics and leaving only strength and animalistic tendencies as their traits to supposedly achieve their goal of surpassing the human race. This race, in particular, is written well in my opinion, in that the very first one, The Elder Naytiba, (Adam) was the only member of their species that didn't abandon his humanity and logic only to unite with an android to help restore the human race. As of yet, there might have been no other biopunk races capable of choosing morally "good" choices, save this one(unless you count Kerrigan and her remaining brood and the Primal Zerg that was placed under her control in SC II). Maybe they were inspired so much by the Zerg,(we all know Starcraft's pretty BIG in Korea) that's why they created such awesome races. Altho to an extent it's not a race that is 100% inherently Biopunk, everything organic, I'm just more intrigued more with how they decided the Naytiba could just be capable of doing good(altho shown by only one Person or Being). I, for one, welcome this type of narrative.
I have to say before watching the video: I loved biopunk more than cyberpunk since the day I was introduced to Prototype series. Transcending the limits of unchanging metal through ever evolving & self-mending flesh (that you don't need any expertise to fix) is much more appealing.
I think an example of biopunk being in a setting that itself is not biopunk, is the Tzimizte of Vampire The Masquerade. The world of darkness as a whole is filled to the brim with punk, but the Flesh crafting Bloodline of Tzimitze definitely feels biopunk.
For Biopunk stuff for me, it's the setting and how over the top it is. I think there's a balance to be struck that helps being drawn into it.
As a weeb it is my duty to recomend Biomega from the creator of BLAME!, it begins like a zombie apocalypse type thing but evolves into undeniable biopunk, its not particularly heavy on the writting but the art is amazing
If a may recommend a two other franchises of biopunk, Bio booster armor Guyver and Slave zeroX
Honestly I think the most established example of biopunk is probably just warframe. The concept of an alien species now extinct that body hopped like it was changing wardrobes, so to tailor it's suits it would infest a human target, push it to the brink all while integrating machinery into the body and letting the infested host grow around and adapt to said machinery. Cure the host, tweak the suit some, and reinfest it again until the twisted horror is perfect for whatever intended purpose it had. Then when they slide their minds into it, the once human mind will vanish in place of the new host mind. They also made a species of human clones morbidly imperfect and degrading rapidly and somewhat have a similar story to the OG decepticons story.
The Thargoids in Elite Dangerous are also an example of biopunk.
Biopunk is the oldest of all SciFi subgenres, first explored in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I'd love to see it return to its roots. Right now it's barely an aesthetic draped over other ideas.
Well no, Cyberpunk invented the "Punk" genre we just retroactively apply the label onto works like Frankenstein. So the ideas may be old, but the original story was not written with Biopunk in mind.
Warhammer40k’s obliterater virus fits this perfectly
And perturabo the traitor primach also currently is going for a form using this concept
@8:24 the entire warhammer plot summed up
The book “Starfish” by Peter Watts has quite neat bio punk elements, author was a marine biologist and it’s shows
But generally book and subsequent series can’t qualify as pure bio- or cyberpunk, it is really good sci-fi, and by many deserves to be called “hard science fiction”
Farscape has elements of biopunk. The ship, Moira, gets pregnant by a Peacekeeper ship and gives birth to a shuttle named Talon. It made an interesting story line in the show.
It's worth noting that the geiger-esque interpretation of biopunk is not the only means it manifests as. By all definitions, any setting which is reliant exclusively on biological processes to function with the capability of willfully molding those biological life-forms being the pre-requisite. As such, there are a few other mentions worth including: First, the spider-software series of games "Geneforge" is a more fantasy-based biopunk. There are the geigarian living machines, but generally the day-to-day functions are reliant on living tools and shaper-made creatures. If that sounds familiar, it's because technically pokemon could be classified under this umbrella, as possibly the most sanitized variant of it.
Really, this genre's primary questions are "When given the tools and skills to play god as the basis of our technology, what does that look like?" for the aesthetic. Where as the actual, philisophical questions are somewhere between solar punk and cyberpunk. What makes us human? Not in the sense of "how much can we strip away and replace" But "how much can we evolve before we stop being human?" What is our relationship with nature? We have the tools to largely dominate it at the moment, but biopunk helps to really get under the skin of that particular point. Lastly: Is progress worth all costs? The aesthetic is also great for tales of desperation in the same way dieselpunk is. Rather than dealing with dwindling resources, you're dealing with being OUT of resources, and having to figure out other means to tackle problems with the things you have left. Most regular people aren't going to build a cathedral of flesh (VTM crew knows) for the fun of it. They'll need a good reason. Personally, I think the main problem right now is that it's getting type-cast under "horror". With a secondary problem that a lot of the creators that would tackle this particular topic with the nuance it needs to find it's footing are more drawn to solarpunk's optimism.
Alex Mercer and the Prototype games shaped my sense of aesthetics greatly. Shit looks dope.
Since you mentioned Tyranids. Something I find kind of funny about it.. Is that they are basically Nurgle's favorite species. Though it kind of causes a massive problem for all other beings since Nurgle and the Tyranids both just keep getting stronger due to what Nurgle likes to do. ( He creates and tests new diseases on the Tyranids, they always beat said diseases and get stronger, but so does Nurgle and his diseases. )
Actually the opposite because the Tyranids aren’t a disease. Nurgle likes to do some cold brew yes but he is also the incarnation of entropy and stagnation. The Tyranids hyper evolution would make him incredibly angry.
@@Buster-McTunderIts literally in the lore. Go read it.
@@UndyingZombie I haven’t found anything to the contrary in all my research on Tyranids from before; is there a specific source you’re referring to?
@@Buster-McTunderYou can find it with some of Nurgles stuff but also in a fair amount of stuff regarding the Genestealer cults. One of the big snafus done by them basically allowed Nurgle to infect the main hive for a while. Tyranids eventually beat it but it, but it resulted in a new, really nasty plague that Nurgle can use. Forgot the name of it but its one of the newer plagues that can be used by Nurgle. ( Even though its been in the lore for some time now. )
@@Buster-McTunderForgot to also mention* The same bit of lore talks about how Tyranids deal with stuff like diseases and so forth.. They basically make microscopic Tyranids. Its one of the reasons why Nurgle has a hard time infecting the Tyranids but it also kinds of helps Nurgle. I want to say a youtuber named Bricky covered it before but I am not 100% sure on it. But there are a few books that explain/talk about it that are all considered cannon to 40k.
Thank you for this video. Ive always found Biopunk to be extremely interesting, but I've never been able to pin it and just chalking it up as body horror.
I personally love biopunk. In a world that is seemingly wanting to progress towards a more cyberpunk species, I personally think biopunk is the better option. I love the topics cyberpunk and biopunk bring to the philosophical table because both are likely possibilities in our future as a species and by looking at works that tackle those settings now will force us to better understand the possibilities of fiction becoming reality and the dangers associated with that.
One of more obscure examples of Biopunk would be The Bloom from Torment: Tides of Numenera.
Some of the numenara novels are great! I've never seen anyone on the internet or irl mention them before
@@kungfumoosegaming7269 Imagine creating a fantasic setting and writing a book "Love and Sex in the Ninth World")
Theres a fan theory about Monster Hunter that it's set in a post biopunk future on another planet colonized by their ancient ancestors who were very advanced in space travel and genetic engineering, but something happened and people forgot their origins. Only remembering that whatever happened it was bad and caused by being careless with and abusing the environment, leading to the Hunters Guild rising to enforce a way of life which was good for humans but also respected the environment more.
This reminded me of a game called Brute Force, it was such a great game where you play a squad of commandos that were killed and brought back multiple times with cloning tech to fight xenos seems pretty biopunk to me.