steam punk v.s cyberpunk

[abc123]

which do you prefer i personally like steam punk because well i dont actually now i guess i just like that whole Victorian thing what do you think

[mikeejimbo]

Amusing coincidence: Earlier today I was thinking along these lines. Specifically I was thinking "What if the Steampunk aficionados and Cyberpunk aficionados had a fight? I imagine the Cyberpunk fans would win, unless the Steampunk fans could launch an EMP - but could you build a Steampunk nuke??"

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be what this thread is about.

[Moff Chumley]

Cyberpunk and subgenres.

[Ravens_cry]

Easy. A long ,long time ago, there an actual natural nuclear reactor, because at that time the uranium 235 concentration was enough to to enable it.
I am not making this up.
Now either make it so that is how the world is still, or have some time traveller, time travel being steampunk thanks to HG Wells, bring some forward an voila, you have something that could potentially make a bomb out of. Some say Nuclear power doesn't really fit with steampunk, but I say humbug. Nuclear power as we use it in nuclear power plants to day IS steam power, driving turbines rather then some reciprocating engine, but steam power nonetheless. Also. the mix of nuclear power and the disgustingly lax safety standards of the Victorian era and you have a recipe for disaster. Wonderful, wonderful disaster.
As for the actual topic at hand, I am a bit meh about either. VR, despite cyberpunk driving it into our skulls that it would be the Next Big Thing, is a specialized technology at best. Steampunk has a wonderful look, but really doesn't offer much in the way of new ideas, the driving force of Science Fiction. Like I have said before, it often feels like an aesthetic more then an actual genre; a skin, a surface layer.

[Emperor Ing]

Naturally occuring nukes?!

On topic, i'm kinda torn on the topic. On one hand, I like the imagery of Techpriests and bionic limbs and stuff, on the other hand, STEAMPUNK!! You can never go wrong with Steampunk. At all.

[Ravens_cry]

Naturally occuring nukes?!

On topic, i'm kinda torn on the topic. On one hand, I like the imagery of Techpriests and bionic limbs and stuff, on the other hand, STEAMPUNK!! You can never go wrong with Steampunk. At all.

Don't worry, the world is too old for it to happen again, at least on this planet.

[Eldan]

That would actually be an interesting idea for a SciFi story...
You have various interplanetary power blocks, and in the middle, a neutral colony on a fairly neutral planet. Suddenly, the colony is nuked. An investigator has to convince various politicians that it was a natural occurrence...

[mikeejimbo]

Played by Anne Hathaway, and assisted by her ex-cop boyfriend played by Joey Laurence??

[IonDragon]

Cyberpunk. Very, very cyberpunk. I like the steampunk look, and I understand the draw, but I'm much more interested in getting that USB 7.0 implanted behind my ear.

[golentan]

I prefer Steampunk. Cyberpunk tends to fall a little too much into the dystopian side of things, and there's a general feeling in such works in my experience that there are no new frontiers, only squabbling over who gets the old ones. I like the steampunk aesthetic and sense of adventure far more, even if it doesn't have as many "what ifs."

[Moff Chumley]

Read Charles Stross, Accelerando. Not traditional cyber-punk, but the same spirit. Not dystopian at all, though.

[golentan]

Read Charles Stross, Accelerando. Not traditional cyber-punk, but the same spirit. Not dystopian at all, though.

I may do that. A quick search makes it sound interesting.

[IonDragon]

I may do that. A quick search makes it sound interesting.

Neuromancer by William Gibson, considered the father of cyberpunk has several new frontiers as major themes. In fact, the primary focus of his first two books is artificial intelligences emerging and evolving. Unless of course you mean physical exploration. If that's the case, there is a little bit, but it's more of reclaiming old places that have been abandoned. But really, isn't that what most exploration is anyway?

While it's true most cyberpunk tends to feel that technology has reached a stagnant level, William Gibson did most of his writing before the '90s and so from his first book to his third (a mere 10 years or so) technologies have gone from cutting edge to completely obsolete relics.

Here's a peek at the book.

[golentan]

Neuromancer doesn't have new frontiers, it has new growth in the old ones. People aren't pushing out, they're looking inward: that's what cyberspace is. Navel contemplation. Everything there was put there, not found. Now, someone wants to get into another person's head, that's interesting. And I always have had a soft spot for the roguish knave who sneaks into the houses of the mighty for adventure and profit. But... it's something different. It's not something new, or even something lost.

Plus, technology isn't a frontier, it's a tool. And AIs aren't a locale or a tool, they're children. It's fun to help them through their childhood, and it's more fun when they grow up and leave the house and you can feel proud of them, but that's neither here nor there. Yah can't live your life vicariously through them, and yah can't claim credit for their actions.

[IonDragon]

The re-exploration of old frontiers may have been in one of the other books, but I was pretty sure it was in Neuromancer... It was when they went up to the basically empty space station. Not New Zion, the other one. It could have been the remnants of Villa Straylight. Yeah, that's probably what I was thinking of. Was that in Idoru? I'd thought Idoru stayed mostly planet side.

[abc123]

what i wood like to see is a time travel story steam punk in the future and cyberpunk in the past than time travelers from both times try to figure out what happen to cause this

with some comic elements

[Lady Tialait]

It is said that I like Cyberpunk, Playgrounders...I like Cyberpunk...NO! I LOVE Cyberpunk.

Steampunk just falls short for me.

[Cobra_Ikari]

I like steampunk when it is an imaginitive way to recreate current technology or simulate the effects thereof using a much lower level of technology. I quite hate it when it's the current world with gears and pipes slapped on everywhere. And everything does not have to be that sort of antique brass color, either. -_-

Cyberpunk can be interesting, too.

[Eldan]

Well, I was recently on a Steampunk trip when I built a mechanized warhammer fantasy army, but generally, Cyberpunk is cooler. And, well, usually actually has something to say, instead of just being a particular look.

Edit: Though "Terminal World" was good and kinda steampunk-ish.

[Malfunctioned]

I think I quite enjoy both of them the same really.

However in my opinion there is something that supercedes them both.

Dieselpunk.

[Erts]

Cyberpunk explores what could be, steampunk explores what could have been. I prefer the future to the past.
Not that there isn't good steampunk that I've read (there is,) but I just love cyberpunk.
Also, I don't like how we glorify the Victorian Era. Not to bring politics into the discussion, but it was a time of exploitation all over the world, repression for all members of society, (putting anti-masturbation devices on the mentally disabled... Good plan), and destruction of many cultures around the world in the name of greed. Sure, it was amazing and romantic how science took such a large role, and yes, things did look pretty cool, but at it's core, the Victorian Era was a pretty miserable place to live in for the average person.

[mikeejimbo]

...the Victorian Era was a pretty miserable place to live in for the average person.

See, that's what puts the 'punk' into 'steampunk'.

[Erts]

See, that's what puts the 'punk' into 'steampunk'.

Well, not in the sense people mean it. They mean punk as "new, fresh, interesting," not "miserable, boring, and short", as life pretty much was.

[Ravens_cry]

Actually, a lot of early punk, especially the first, cyberpunk, was people raging against a big impersonal heavily corporate controlled world 20 minutes into the future. That's where the punk came from, a man (or woman) sticking it to the Man. Of course now it's a bit different, the punk part has lost a lot of it's original meaning, but that's where it started.

[Faulty]

I prefer Steampunk. Cyberpunk tends to fall a little too much into the dystopian side of things, and there's a general feeling in such works in my experience that there are no new frontiers, only squabbling over who gets the old ones. I like the steampunk aesthetic and sense of adventure far more, even if it doesn't have as many "what ifs."

May I suggest Snow Crash to you? It's cyberpunk and has the dystopian elements in there but with a wonderful sense of humour. The main characters are a half-black/half-asian free lance hacker, expert swordsman and ex-mafia employed pizza delivery boy and a skate board riding punk courier who harpoons cars with a magnet to get around, and involves everything from linguistics to Sumerian mythology. Man, I love that book.

[Drakevarg]

Steampunk. Gotta love the clothes.

I.
Want.
A.
Top.
Hat.

[Maximum Zersk]

Personally, I prefer Steampunk to Cyberpunk, but I prefer Clockpunk to Steampunk.

Think about it, just before the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Highwaymen, of Leather Longcoats, and of endless Clockpunk.

Then you mix the two together and add some Alchemypunk and Dieselpunk and you have a recipe for awesomeness.

[IonDragon]

If we start getting into the WAY subgenres, I like genepunk. Because it's my body, and if I want to have walrus tusks and a mane, I should be allowed to. But still mostly cyberpunk. As one of the many who spends most of their time on the computer by choice, I just love the idea of being fully immersed in it. I can't tell you how many times I've been frustrated by the limitations of computer in/outs. Speech and written language are the two slowest methods of communicating data, and the only ways to send information to the computer (practically) are typing, or using something like Dragon, Naturally Speaking that will transcribe your voice into text.

[Morph Bark]

Well, not in the sense people mean it. They mean punk as "new, fresh, interesting," not "miserable, boring, and short", as life pretty much was.

Thanks to homo homini lupus life is nasty, brutish and short anyway.

That being said, I'd love me some super-mixpunk.

[Malfunctioned]

Thanks to homo homini lupus life is nasty, brutish and short anyway.

That being said, I'd love me some super-mixpunk.

See, now I'm resisting the urge to start another short-lived homebrew project. This is time for the Storyteller/NWoD system.

Blankpunk: The Mixing.

You play as citizens of either a Cyber/Diesel/Bio/Steam/Dungeonpunk universe who has been sucked into our own.

No, bad Malfunctioned! Bad!