Biopunk: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 07:12, 29 January 2007
Biopunk a portmanteau word, combining "biotech" and "punk", used to describe a science fiction genre that focuses on biotechnology.[1] More recently, the term has also been used to denote a techno-progressive movement advocating open access to genetic information.[2][3]
Biopunk in science fiction
Biopunk is a sub-genre of cyberpunk fiction, which describes the underground side of the biotech revolution that is said to have started to have an impact in the last decade of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century. Biopunk stories explore themes of individuals or groups, often struggling with marginalization or against persecution, and their appropriation of various biotechnologies for subversive ends, against a backdrop of totalitarian governments or megacorporations which abuse these same technologies as means of social control. Unlike cyberpunk, it builds not on information technology but on biology. Like in postcyberpunk fiction, individuals are usually modified not with cyberware, but by human genetic engineering.[1]
One of the prominent writers in this field is Paul Di Filippo, though he called his collection of such stories ribofunk, with the first element being taken from the full name of RNA, ribonucleic acid.[4][1]
Books
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Comics and manga
- Creeper miniseries by Steve Niles and Justiniano
Films
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Television
Anime
- Texhnolyze
- Broly, Cooler, Frieza and the Androids in Dragon Ball Z
- Roujin Z
Computer and video games
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Biopunk movement
A growing number of scientists, artists and cultural critics are organizing to create public awareness of how human genomic information, produced by bioinformatics, gets used and misused. On the basis of a presumed parallel between genetic and computational code, science journalist Annalee Newitz has called for open-sourcing of genomic databases. [2][3] Biological Innovation for Open Society is a prominent manifestation of the biopunk movement.
Self-described "transgenic artist" Eduardo Kac uses biotechnology and genetics to create provocative works that concommitantly revel in scientific techniques and critique them. In what is probably his most famous work, Alba, Kac collaborated with a French laboratory to procure a green-fluorescent rabbit; a rabbit implanted with a green fluorescent protein gene from a type of jellyfish in order for the rabbit to fluoresce green under ultraviolet light.[2] The members of the Critical Art Ensemble have written books and staged multimedia performance interventions around this issue, including The Flesh Machine (focusing on in vitro fertilisation, surveillance of the body, and liberal eugenics) and Cult of the New Eve (analyzing the pseudoreligious discourse around new reproductive technologies). Georgia Tech professor Eugene Thacker leads the Biotech Hobbyist collective, and has written extensively on the field.
Sociologist James Hughes has identified the biopunk movement as a current within the democratic transhumanist ideology and movement.[5]
Biopunk as biohacker
Biopunk is also a synonym for biohacker, which is a term used to describe hobbyists who experiment with DNA and other aspects of genetics. A biohacker is similar to a computer hacker who creates and modifies computer software or computer hardware as a hobby, but should not be confused with a bioterrorist whose sole intent is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants.
References
- ^ a b c Quinion, Michael (1997). "World Wide Words: Biopunk". Retrieved 2007-01-26.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) Cite error: The named reference "Quinion 1997" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ a b c Newitz, Annalee (2001). "Biopunk". Retrieved 2007-01-26.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) Cite error: The named reference "Newitz 2001" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ a b Newitz, Annalee (2002). "Genome Liberation". Retrieved 2007-01-26.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) Cite error: The named reference "Newitz 2002" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ Fisher, Jeffrey (1996). "Ribofunk". Retrieved 2007-01-26.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Hughes, James (2002). "Democratic Transhumanism 2.0". Retrieved 2007-01-26.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help)
External links
- DNAhack.com, a website for "amateur genetic engineering"
- Biological Innovation for Open Society, home of BioForge, sponsored by CAMBIA
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