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Biopunk Dystopias: Genetic Engineering, Society and Science Fiction
Biopunk Dystopias' contends that we find ourselves at a historical nexus, defined by the rise of biology as the driving force of scientific progress, a strongly grown mainstream attention given to genetic engineering in the wake of the Human Genome Project (1990-2003), the changing sociological view of a liquid modern society, and shifting discourses on the posthuman, including a critical posthumanism that decenters the privileged subject of humanism. The book argues that this historical nexus produces a specific cultural formation in the form of "biopunk", a subgenre evolved from the cyberpunk of the 1980s. The analysis deals with dystopian science fiction artifacts of different media from the year 2000 onwards that project a posthuman intervention into contemporary socio-political discourse based in liquid modernity in the cultural formation of biopunk. Biopunk makes use of current posthumanist conceptions in order to criticize contemporary reality as already dystopian, warning
that a future will only get worse, and that society needs to reverse its path, or else destroy all life on this planet. As Rosi Braidotti argues, "there is a posthuman agreement that contemporary science and biotechnologies affect the very fibre and structure of the living and have altered dramatically our understanding of what counts as the basic frame of reference for the human today" (40). The proposed book analyzes this alteration as directors, creators, authors, and artists from the field of science fiction extrapolate it from current trends.
that a future will only get worse, and that society needs to reverse its path, or else destroy all life on this planet. As Rosi Braidotti argues, "there is a posthuman agreement that contemporary science and biotechnologies affect the very fibre and structure of the living and have altered dramatically our understanding of what counts as the basic frame of reference for the human today" (40). The proposed book analyzes this alteration as directors, creators, authors, and artists from the field of science fiction extrapolate it from current trends.
- GenresScience Fiction
279 pages, Hardcover
Published December 9, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 7, 2024
Read this for my seminar essay. Great referencing, really helped me map out our current knowledge of the post-human condition and how we got here in theoretical terms.
August 11, 2025
A much-needed analysis, yet some parts seem outdated already.
Biopunk feels like this "everywhere and nowhere"-genre, it appears in many discussions but lacks the clear canon of establishing works and conventions of other punk- and scifi-subgenres.
Which is odd, because interest in it has been growing a lot over the last years, as we discuss if algorithms and online-propaganda "bioprogram" us. The AI vs. Human competition has entered the center of the mainstream and self-optimization through fitness, diet and cosmetic surgery is one of the most popular life philosophies right now.
This analysis offers an attempt at defining such genre conventions, at least, and offers a good theory based around the concept of liquid modernity. While Schmeink's arguments for the influence of the latter make a lot of sense, I sometimes felt like it's overdoing it a bit. I'd call it the "simulacric tendency" of media analysis: every trope, arc, theme, etc. is a symbol for something else if viewed from a certain perspective, which in turn symbolizes yet another thing, which in turn...
Sci-Fi is just as often trying to innovate and create its own set of rules and symbols: There are zombie films which obviously reflect the post-9/11 fears of the western world. But there are also zombie films which are nothing more than a thought experiment on societal collapse.
Still, Schmeink makes a lot of good points and expertly goes through a variety of works which mirrored the state of Biopunk around the end of the 2010's very well.
As I've stated above, the genre has evolved somewhat ever since, at least in the video game sector: Cruelty Squad notoriously put the term back on the map ( also described as "economic body horror" sometimes), as did other ventures like Wrought Flesh, or Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator.
All three examples dive deep into the modularization of the human body, and the implications for individuality, sensory perception, etc., and drive the genre into new areas yet unexplored by this analysis. I would love to hear Schmeink's thoughts on them, though.
Biopunk feels like this "everywhere and nowhere"-genre, it appears in many discussions but lacks the clear canon of establishing works and conventions of other punk- and scifi-subgenres.
Which is odd, because interest in it has been growing a lot over the last years, as we discuss if algorithms and online-propaganda "bioprogram" us. The AI vs. Human competition has entered the center of the mainstream and self-optimization through fitness, diet and cosmetic surgery is one of the most popular life philosophies right now.
This analysis offers an attempt at defining such genre conventions, at least, and offers a good theory based around the concept of liquid modernity. While Schmeink's arguments for the influence of the latter make a lot of sense, I sometimes felt like it's overdoing it a bit. I'd call it the "simulacric tendency" of media analysis: every trope, arc, theme, etc. is a symbol for something else if viewed from a certain perspective, which in turn symbolizes yet another thing, which in turn...
Sci-Fi is just as often trying to innovate and create its own set of rules and symbols: There are zombie films which obviously reflect the post-9/11 fears of the western world. But there are also zombie films which are nothing more than a thought experiment on societal collapse.
Still, Schmeink makes a lot of good points and expertly goes through a variety of works which mirrored the state of Biopunk around the end of the 2010's very well.
As I've stated above, the genre has evolved somewhat ever since, at least in the video game sector: Cruelty Squad notoriously put the term back on the map ( also described as "economic body horror" sometimes), as did other ventures like Wrought Flesh, or Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator.
All three examples dive deep into the modularization of the human body, and the implications for individuality, sensory perception, etc., and drive the genre into new areas yet unexplored by this analysis. I would love to hear Schmeink's thoughts on them, though.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews