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 Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 12:27 am
I don't mean for this to sound like a burden, but this has been troubling me for some time now. If steampunk is a subgenre in the scifi universe, and it revolves around the "golden age" of machinery, then what of genetic engineering and splicing? Can this being one of the most exploited taboos in sci-fi co-exist in steampunk?
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:04 pm
I think so. I mean, look at Frankenstein. I can definitely see some mad scientist or other taking it one step further and putting a human brain in, say, an orangutan. Or vice versa. Steampunk doesn't really have that many limits concerning mad science.
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High-functioning Shapeshifter
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:08 pm
You haven't read much Girl Genius I take it? There's a little bit of everything in there. If the mimmoths aren't genetically engineered then I don't know how they got created. mrgreen
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 2:23 pm
Well, we have done some degree of genetic manipulation for hundreds of years. It is called breeding. We have bred a lot of odd traits into animals and plants by selective breeding. (toy dogs, various cultivars of plants with bigger fruit etc)
So I would not rule out genetic manipulation at all. Just the means may be a bit different in a steampunk world than our own.
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 4:24 pm
Thank you kindly, everyone. And no, I have yet to read Girl Genius, but it does sound like an interesting find. Now that I have this burden lifted of my shoulders, I will be more than delighted to add the genetic engineering concepts to my art. ^_Q
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 5:07 am
Best answer I can think of is, play or read about Bioshock.
The series takes place in basically a steampunk city where genetic engineering was a big business.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 3:17 pm
Would The Island of Dr Moreau by H.G. Wells count? Not exactly genetic manipulation but the doctor was changing animals into pseudo humans. I think steampunk could handle the theme.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 4:11 pm
Kurisu of the Hellfire Best answer I can think of is, play or read about Bioshock. The series takes place in basically a steampunk city where genetic engineering was a big business. Stop that! BioShock isn't steampunk, and saying "basically" doesn't get the point across. There's no steam-powered machinery, it takes places in the 50s and 60s, the city is powered by the heat from underwater volcanoes, and the focus is on genetic engineering and morals/ethics. It's no more steampunk than a modern nuclear power plant (where the nuclear reaction creates intense heat that makes steam to spin turbines which in turn generate electricity). It's not steampunk, so please don't make more people think it is. BioShock is just a great fictional example of genetic engineering in a low-tech environment. /soapbox I don't see any problem with having genetic engineering in a steampunk world. While it would certainly be difficult to do it efficiently with analog, steam-powered difference engines (as opposed to computers), it wouldn't be all that unusual to find genetic modifications. I'm assuming we're talking about human genetic mods, too? If so, don't forget Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, which is more of an alchemy-based business similar to the Plasmids and Tonics in BioShock.
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Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:26 pm
Jeckyl and Hyde, Ftw. ^^ Yeah, it works. Lol.
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 6:04 am
twisted I dont see why not.
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Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 8:24 am
Much of genetics and bio-science actually requires no electricity or circuits. Hell, unless me science history lessons have failed me utterly, DNA was discovered before the electronic age. A centrifuge and other necessaries can all run on steam, and as someone pointed out, there is no reason why steampunk, which focuses on "advanced forms of technology based on steam powered machines" cannot have its own version of a computer.
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Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:13 pm
As an alchemist, I would like to posit the concept of the homunculus. There seems to be no single, canonical way to create an artificial human, so genetic engineering seems like a very interesting way to go with it. Then again, alchemy has no real set place in history. If anything, genetic engineering would enrich Steampunk. But that's just my opinion.
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:35 am
Positively! I say! Genetic engineering is quite possible in Steamchap.
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:21 pm
There are also the golems created through religious methods as mentioned in the GURPS Steampunk book.
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 10:31 pm
Thank goodness! And to think that genetic engineering may not fight in well with Steampunk. I really did thought it something that's never going to happen due to having limited resources such as incubation devices, and freezers to keep embryos or at least the fertilized sperm and eggs from spoiling. And again, I've always had a fascination with cautionary stories such as Frakenstein or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that dabbles in this subject matter, and shows the consequences.
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