Steampunk or Cyberpunk

Clockwork robots or scrapyard robots?

  • Total voters
    64
Steampunk all the way - even though it is a bit weird I love Girl Genius the webcomic, just for the Steampunk elements it has.
 
Laivasse said:
Very hard to decide. I think I find the steampunk aesthetic ever so slightly more appealing, but then I've seen/read more cool cyberpunk stuff than steampunk - Blade Runner, Snow Crash...

Screw it, I'm plumping for cyberpunk.
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If I were forced to choose between the two, I'd also go for cyberpunk because Neal Stephenson made it seem so ridiculously awesome in Snow Crash. Although I'll pass on his whole Sumerian mumbo-jumbo :p.
 
There seems to be confusion over terms.

Cyberpunk is a genre of literature, film and games that focuses on dystopian near-future environments portraying the extreme alteration of society by advances in information technology, cybernetics, robotics, and medicine. The cyberpunk genre usually portrays protagonists as underground, nihilistic heroes who are manipulated by forces beyond their control, and who use their skill with technology to fight back against "the system."

Cyberpunk generally presents a bleak view on future society, and its themes often center around technology dehumanizing society and making people feel disconnected from the world. In this way, Cyberpunk is very similar to earlier genres such as film noir, which portrayed "modern" society corrupted and made morally ambiguous.

There is also a Cyberpunk architectural style and clothing style which took hold in the late 80's and early 90's. Cyberpunk architechture focuses on neon lighting, harsh, angular forms, dark colors, and vast, mechanical support structures. Cyberpunk fashion consists of dark, mismatched colors, visibly worn external technology, punk hairstyles, and often eye coverings such as sunglasses or goggles.

Probably the two most famous cyberpunk films were The Matrix and Blade Runner.

Steampunk is a sub-genre of "alternate history" science fiction, and a subset still of a style called "retro-futurism." It generally tries to emulate the descriptions of early science-fiction writers like Jules Verne or H.G wells by interpreting modern technology as made possible by the technological powers of the 19th century--namely, steam power, large and heavy machinery, and other technological achievements of the day. Steampunk is really just 19th century retro-futurism. Other forms of retro-futurism include Raygun Gothic (1950's retro-futurism eg. Fallout), and 1920's-1940's art-deco futurism (eg. Bioshock).

It will probably be the case that in 50 years or so, cyberpunk will be considered just another genre of retro-futurism, for it tries to represent currently impossible technologies in the terms of our most modern inventions: computers, robots, and the internet. Just as in Jule's Verne's day, people were talking about airships, giant cannons, and steam power, and just as in the 1950's people were talking about atomic power, giant mainframe computers, and flying cars, today's futurists focus on the technologies of today. Someday people will look back at cyberpunk and think it quite quaint.
 
Polaris said:
I love both but still prefer cyberpunk. Cyberpunk works IRL, steampunk unfortunately does not.
As for games I think that Bioshock is not steampunk at all, it is some kind of hybrid between two subgenres - dieselpunk and biopunk. Half-Life 2 certainly have quite a few cyberpunk influences, low life resistance using hi-tech stuff to fight transhumans etc.
Damn, Marc Laidlaw should write some new cyberpunk book.

I would love to write a story with my own new punk subgenre - stempunk, something like biopunk with hi-tech stem cell biotech.

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel...
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I understand where you get that Bioshock is "biopunk" what with the whole gene splicing thing and all, but I had no idea about diesel punk until this thread.

Also, if Bioshock isn't steampunk, then I'd say it's more of a retro-futuristic Art Deco tbh.
I guess it's not steampunk though because Rapture lacks airships, ammirite?

Futhermore, I think you meant to say cyberpunk does not work irl yet, but is more feasible than steampunks airships. Both are still fantasy and the sci-fi geek's wet dream as of today.

BTW, just thought of another steampunk example.....SKY CAPTAIN!


EDIT> theotherguy's right. Both are terms used only in literature. Mostly fiction.

Also theotherguy, you took the terms "art-deco" and "retro-futurism" right out of my mouth.
 
Saturos said:
I guess it's not steampunk though because Rapture lacks airships, ammirite?
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Well, I'm not Bioshock expert but I don't remember steam powered things and purely mechanical stuff in Bioshock, although I may be wrong.

Saturos said:
Futhermore, I think you meant to say cyberpunk does not work irl yet, but is more feasible than steampunks airships. Both are still fantasy and the sci-fi geek's wet dream as of today.
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Are these things real?
Computer networks, artificial worlds - check.
Social problems - check.
Brain implants, cybernetic augmentations - check.
Internet criminality, corporate espionage, cyber-terrorism - check.

Clockwork robots, steam airships, popular corsets? Nope.

The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed.
William Gibson, father of cyberpunk
 
Polaris said:
Well, I'm not Bioshock expert but I don't remember steam powered things and purely mechanical stuff in Bioshock, although I may be wrong.
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Well, the city of Rapture was powered by one huge, almost entirely mechanical geo-thermal powerplant and that's one of the trademarks of steampunk.


Polaris said:
Are these things real?
Computer networks, artificial worlds - check.
Social problems - check.
Brain implants, cybernetic augmentations - check.
Internet criminality, corporate espionage, cyber-terrorism - check.

Clockwork robots, steam airships, popular corsets? Nope.
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Almost, but modern day still does not come close to cyberpunk. Corporations still haven't supersceded democratic governments yet and we still can't actually "jack" ourselves into the internets. Furthermore, last time I checked, the goth style w/sunglasses hasn't been too popular since the 90's.
Not to mention, our prosthetic/cybernetic research is still a donkey's ass.
We still can't re-create articulate movements of the human hands for pete's sake. Pathetic.

Polaris said:
The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed.
William Gibson, father of cyberpunk
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Except it is evenly distributed, that's why we don't notice it. The most brilliant sci-fi writers like Jules Verne knew that his works will one day be read again in the future, that's why ideas like Cyberpunk and Steampunk are so exaggerated. To capture the minds of the readers. We wouldn't even be discussing this if it wasn't interesting to us obviously ammirite? So my theory is, the future will never become as exaggerated as in literature in order to preserve interest for future readers.

These writers are literary geniuses and their families are probably earning huge royalties right now because of geeks like us. :p

EDIT> It just hit me where jverne got his screename. :p
 
I like both alot, don't make me choose :(

Through the complex system of "eenie meenie mynie mo" I picked steampunk :p
 
+1 to everything Polaris and theotherguy said. Cyberpunk is far more a kind of speculative fiction than steampunk, the latter of which involves retro-futurism and focuses on an alternate timeline/reality rather than dealing with hypothetically believable future environments (although is still speculative in a sense, only with different basic setting and not "possible" as a lot of cyberpunk is intended to be). Cyberpunk is also a lot deeper than steampunk, both because it's a much more heavily developed literary genre and because it's more or less a speculative study on the effects of rapidly improving and widely proliferated technology on human life and culture. Usually a pretty depressing one, and I don't mean to define the genre as completely speculative because obviously there are heavy stylistic influences/focuses as well that may override the speculative aspects depending on the context, but regardless I think that's a marked difference between cyberpunk and steampunk. In fact they're really not that alike beyond the fact that both of them are awesome. Cyberpunk is sci-fi, I would probably call steampunk closer to fantasy, although steampunk borrows many elements from cyberpunk (or shares them, neither one is "original gangster" x-punk).

Saturos you are painfully and obnoxiously clueless.
 
kupocake said:
They are not the clockwork droids you are looking for?
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Certainly not.

And I'm sorry I seem to have been mistaken as to what Cyberpunk actually is. Sorry for the confusion. I actually did think the point of Cyberpunk was stuff that was cobbled together. Even so, I want to stick with my Victorian science.

*surfs through a few wikipedia articles*

Maybe I should have a look at this dieselpunk stuff...
 
Beh, Steampunk is retarded. Why make things look like they are back in time but they are really in the future/present. OMG!!!

Nah, gimme CyberPunk.
 
Saturos said:
Steampunk came way before cyberpunk. The term was around since the 20's.
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Ha ha ha ha ha no it wasn't.

Ennui and Otherguy have laid it out pretty well. Cyberpunk is a genre, with observable stylstic features and thematic concerns. Steampunk is primarily an aesthetic. which can be applied a lot more loosely.
 
I'm not particularly enamoured of either, but I prefer the look of Steampunk over Cyberpunk.
 
I am more for Cyberpunk.

See, I really love "old fashioned" styles, Victorian-Esque things, etc. I love old stuff, a lot. If I am ever fortunate enough to have a lot of money, I would spend a good amount of it finding an old home, or... making a modern home look more like an old study.

However, I believe the gap between hit and miss with Steam Punk is so large. So you get some really awesome things with Steam Punk, but more lame things (IMO)

I am not saying Cyberpunk is never lame (It certainly can be). But I personally find that Steam Punk falls into the tacky category more often.
 
I like how as the discussion has shifted more heavily into cyberpunk, it's been going up in the poll and closing the gap. **** yeah.
 
In terms of pure aesthetic, I'll almost always prefer Steampunk. I love ridiculous automatons and the spaghetti western elements and such.
 
Hi, I'm Arcanum, and I'd like to push all you "Cyber" punks aside. Srsly though, for a great example of Steampunk done properly in a game, check it out.

arcanum.gif
 
I remember it being fun, but that doesn't mean it hasn't aged horribly, which I imagine it has. Speaking of games and these sorts of genres, can we consider Syberia to be sort of Steampunk?
 
Ennui said:
Saturos you are painfully and obnoxiously clueless.
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Pioneers of new ideas are never popular.

All of your favorite famous writers, poets, and inventors once got the same exact negative critique.

Take Pablo Picasso for example, his works in artistry were once called garbage, but now are worth more than the lives of the same critic's descendants. Also, people laughed at Alexander Graham Bell right over the telephone.

So....:p

EDIT> BTW, I voted punk-ass bitches, because most of you are.
 
neptuneuk said:
Steampunk, 'nuff said.

steampunk_17.jpg
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the thing that I found bad on this is if steampunk is suposed to represent modern technology made in steam machinery them why this have modern looking turbines?

infact is like a star wars ship whit a spanish galleon as fuselage and a blimp on top

I think syberia looks like a good example of well done steampunk considering is set in modern times,it have the style but dont copy exact stuff of real life or the tipical stuff on it,like the architecture of the buildings
 
Steampunk. Shits just too cool to compare.
 
We need a war between a Cyberpunk culture and a Steampunk culture. I really don't care who wins.
 
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