Biopunk

>>50723338
Pretty much anything written by Bacigalupi. And the best monster are of course humans in his stories, modded so hard they rarely can still qualify as the same species.

>>50723381
By best monsters I also meant best body mods.

>>50723381
>Bacigalupi
Doesn't he write pretty exclusively politics-motivated anti-corporate manifestos under the thinly veiled guise of fiction?

You're not really reading a book for enjoyment at that point, you're listening to fictional girls recite how much they like Marx upon a backdrop of William Gibson's making.

>>50723405
Still counts then. I mean... surviving on eating sand?

>>50723409
>If you write bad about corporate business, then you are a godless commie mutant traitor
I guess Gibson was a hardcore communist too then.

>>50723539
>I guess Gibson was a hardcore communist too then.
Not at all. Gibson's work was entertaining and a novel setting. Bacigalupi is obvious propaganda built on Gibson's back.

Where Gibson was about the characters' personal struggles in an uncaring mechanized world, leaning on drugs and false personas to cope... Bacigalupi is about "global warming is a comin' to get ya!"

>>50723556
>Bacigalupi is obvious propaganda
[Citation needed]

Because so far it sounds like you never read anything of his. Or miss the point of biopunk and consider it just "cyberpunk with bioaugmentation rather than electronics"

>>50723556
>Almost 2017
>Complains about punk genre no longer being novel
Retarded/10

>>50723568
>[Citation needed]
Have YOU read The Windup Girl and The Doubt Factory?
The latter being almost a literal copy of "Merchants of Doubt", by arch-Marxist Ms. Oreskes.

Now I am certainly not a religious person, but I can identify the religion of leftist dogma suffused within this writing.

I prefer more realistic settings, like The Martian (despite the windspeed glossover), or the purposeful biopunk of 40k. Eversor assassins could fit the OP's request nicely.

>>50723593
>purposeful biopunk
Care to elaborate what the fuck that even suppose to mean?

Not to mention you come off as insufferable 17-year old who learned yesterday about anarcho-capitalism and sniffs commie conspiracy on every step.
No, seriously, blaming ANYTHING in punk genre as being leftist is missing the point so hard it's not even funny. The entire thing was created as a manifesto against big corporate business taking over and nobody worried in-universe, you dumb fuck. Right from Gibson.

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>>50723593
The hell being religious has to do with left-align politics? What? Feeding hungry and helping needed is now evil communism?

Fucking neck yourself

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I have read the windup girl half way and lost interest.

Does it get better after the first half? Or it is the same? Probably got bored of absence of good conflict.

>>50723666
It does. Pick up pace REALLY slow, but finally delivers in the ending.
It helps if you read Pump Six And Other Stories first, since half of the setting is described there and the book is much more digestable with that.

>>50723381
Came in here to recommend this.

Biopunk monsters ideas.

Firefox

Humanoid. Whole body is covered in thick red hair. Hair is not flammable and not burnable. Since many termoprotections are fibrous materials able to create isolated air pockets to stop temperature spread I believ it makes sense.

Have a reserve of flamable oil in a sac near stomach that can be spitted at few meters using a syphon located in its tongue and hands. Tongue is longer then usual. Oil is odorless and can be used to make traps. Its fingernails and teeth are able to create small elctrical sparks to ignite the oil.

Sometimes it licks itself to cover the pelt in oil so while attacking the opponent it can set itself on fire to distract and disorient the opponent. No use of firearms due to risk of explosion, prefers monomaterial (to better survive temperature chnages) metal blades.

Can resist great temperature changes. Uses its tongue in a dog manner to radiate ecces body heat (not able to radiate through skin due to termal isolation). Hence the tongue is big (Thinking about adding radiation via ears/tail for the fox theme but not sure. Opinions?).

Wears googles as its eyes are the least fire resistant part of his body (still ahve an additional pair of flame resistant eyelids it can close in case of necessity).

Not sure if make it male or female.


Comment - nitpick -suply your own

I could never justify biopunk outside of a fantasy or science-fantasy setting. I just can't get it through my head that a society capable of technology that can genetically engineer organisms to function as technology wouldn't just make machines to serve the same functions.

"My airship is actually a flying whale!"

"Why not just make a regular airship that you don't have to feed?"

>>50724455
You are missing the point here anon. It's not "why not make a ship I don't need to feed". It's "make a ship you can just feed rather using oil that run out decades ago"
Because average biopunk setting is post-oil peak and usually post some serious disaster. It also greatly depends from cause to cause, so you can still have a high-tech advanced society that is fully biopunk, because, for example, it's cheaper this way OR avoids the rejection issues a man-machine grafting would have.

>>50723381
I still say his "Alchemist" was the best, even if not being his trademark biopunk at all. Sappy, yes, but with great world-building.

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>>50724455
Since at the start biopunk was easier then real science a lot of inventions nver came to be and people invested in biopunk tech instead. If you have glwoing mushrooms why would you think of extremely energy inefficent eletrical lamps?

>>50723338
>pic
>dark surreal digital art
...That's a barrel with strawberry and raspberry jam accordingly. I mean, yeah, she probably murdered someone in that barrel, but I fail to see what is dark or surreal about that.

t. Slav

>>50723338
Read The Windup Girl. That's actual biopunk, and it's quite good.

>>50724292
I mean I get the whole firefox joke, but why exactly fur and not just some smooth surface?

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>>50725135
Metroid Fusion. There's your biopunk.

>>50725125
vacuum and air pockets are better to isolate then whole materials. Reason people use foam. So his body grows a structure that features air pockets, hence fur.

>>50724292
Speaking about non-flamable weir-ass creatures

Why not Rus "firebird"? You know, just like Bacigalupi and his Cashire cats, why not have a literal firebird as some sort of pet to have when you are wealthy enough to afford having and keeping one without getting own house torches.

For non-Slavs, that's a peacock-like bird that can spontaneously burst into fire. One of the stock elements of Russian fairy tales.

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Fuck I came here hoping to talk Bio-punk and wax over my mad post-apoc setting where bakelite reefs replaced carbonate ones and the planets become a mad-dash of insane genetically modified organisms gone amok but fuck this shit.

>>50725162
So the "hair" are empty inside? Neat. And makes sense, or at least a semblance of one.

>>50725135
>>50725144
And, in any case, biopunk is just a different way of evolution. Think [PROTOTYPE] franchise and Lamarck's theory of evolution.

Humanity evolved via using tools - technological evolution. It created the tools and shaped the environment with them to fit their bodies.
Another race in another time and place evolved via changing themselves - biological evolution. It changed itself to fit the environment, transforming into numerous different forms, yet still retaining the unity of being one race.

That's what biopunk is in a nutshell - that another race.

So, I don't know much about biopunk as an aesthetic - are there any settings that really embrace it?

>>50725168
Five words for you, my friend
People of sand and slag

Literally everything you described, only ten times more fucked up. I still remember I had to re-read the first page, because I wasn't sure if I didn't miss something or maybe I translated it wrong.

>>50725188
Entire settings or just aspects of it?
Because the "radical" biopunk is never the
"mainstream" element of any setting.

To elaborate - average biopunk is pretty tamed and even if it contains entire factions and races that extensively use bioaugumentation and organic technology, they are on the outskirts and outside the main focus.
Also, for whatever reason, biopunk is favourite technology flavour of villains. Guess comes with the perception of evil as something literally visceral.

>>50725191
By Bacigalupi? I found a 'free' version of it I think ...

>>50725191
Wait is that a short story where they find a dog?

>>50725224
Yep. Read it. Really neat story, but it takes a while to fully graps all the implications of the presented setting. Then it hits you like a tonne of bricks.

>>50725235
Yes, that one.

And with Hawaian beaches covered in barb wire and dark ocean glistering with sometimes burning oil.

>>50725253
Yeah I remember that story christ that was a fucked up mess. I think I described it as disgustingly beautiful to a friend of mine.

>>50725222
The entire setting. I can see bits and pieces of what I think are the flavor, but it seems like going all in with my limited understanding and knowledge leads to some difficultly.

>>50725270
I don't know any setting that goes all in. But then again, I don't know any punk setting that goes all in. They all just stop at certain point, as if the authors were afraid this stuff would end up being too alien to the audiences.

>>50725304
Difference Engine goes all in with the ending. One of the better twist endings pulled off.

>>50725270
Maybe the one from UFO: Afterblank series? Especially first two games were REALLY into unrestricted biotechnology and going all in, with best equipment in the game being pretty much a living organism you don as a battle suit and a gun literally growing out of your arm.
Bonus point of it all being grown out of xeno-organisms, further fuelling the nausea feeling, since it wasn't even Earth-based tissue compatibile with our biology.

>>50725711
>would a lillian
in a few years, anon
>would a helen
why is this even a question? Is there anybody who wouldn't a helen besides ibott at this point?

I love bio, and the self-contained setting and weak experiments working together are fantastic to the point where I've been planning a quest for two weeks already

>>50725767
self-contained is kind of a weird way to put it. the neat boxed episodic mission format.

>Ctrl + F
>"orc stain"
>0 matches
POXA GRONKA!

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>>50725801
>This thread
>Expecting content

But honestly - never heard about it. Care to elaborate?

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>>50725767
and now I will start browing /quest/ waiting for it.

need a hand with designing getting feedback on accademy NPC, nobles, experiements and general worldbuilding?

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>>50725809
Biopunk fantasy about orc tribes. Most of gear is made of creature parts, some of them still alive. Cities inside huge monsters, still alive and in drugged stupor. Potions are small creatures consumed alive. Many utility tools are actually purpose bred creatures. Culture obsessed with penises. Nymph whores. Poisoner Hag best girl.

>>50725944
So basically yuuzhan vongs, but orcs?

I'm not sold on biopunk. It's too slow. Why wait 9 months for a designer baby and who know how many years for a super-soldier when you can spend a year at most making an attack drone that can cause just as much damage and not run the risk of cancer?

Think about it: unless you have magic baby-growing machines, flawless surgery, in-vitro tissue growing, and vastly more knowledge about the human genome than we do now--all available for pennies on the dollar--"fleshcrafting" or whatever you want to call it is a pipe dream. This isn't "STEEL OVER FLESH" crap, this is basic reasoning. Biopunk is a wash.

Stupidity-wise though, it pales in comparison to "solarpunk". That isn't punk, that's straight-up utopianism. I'm surprised it's even a word.

>>50725968
Speaking of which:
>180 posts in
>Not a single Yuuzhan Vong mention

>>50725978
What kind of shitty biopunk setting doesn't have accelerated gestation?

>>50725978
>Why wait 9 months
Who said you need to wait more than few hours?

>unless you have magic baby-growing machines, flawless surgery, in-vitro tissue growing, and vastly more knowledge about the human genome
... which are all hallmark of even most primitive biopunk fiction...

>Biopunk
>Utopia
No, seriously, do you even biopunk, mate? Because reading your post is like meeting someone who never actually had any contact with biopunk and just assumed a lot of stuff reading most basic description in the net.

>>50725949
But isn't that how all cults work Anon? "You still don't have proofs that ghosts don't exist." It's flatly invalid.

>>50725978
>I'm not sold on biopunk. It's too slow.
They'd want to come up with faster growing stuff to be honest, or magic.

Fullmetal Alchemist had chimeras, the Alien franchise had bioweapons. They could work. But really, omitting cybertech is just asking to lose. Like humans without guns versus with guns against lions.

>>50723338
When I hear the term "biopunk" all I can think of is Wind-Up Girl.

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>>50726055
>When I hear the term "biopunk" all I can think of is Wind-Up Girl.
Daily reminder to be sure and read both Ship Breaker and The Drowned Cities for a better look at what North America is like in that setting.

>>50725812
just putting the finishing touches on Lambs, working on intros, and planning a couple of future missions.

Nobles are going to be fun as hell. Maybe we'll even have a Primordial interlude~

The facility is powered by geothermal energy, far beneath the surface of the earth. It's the work of a genius, written in proteins rather than thread; each individual cell requiring adaptations that its neighbor finds inhospitable; permutations beyond permutations. The creches themselves are sealed in a layer of something like carapace; collapsible at a moment's notice. Each lasts a week at most before the doctors allow the pressure to crush it and the next is seeded.

Nothing enters, nothing leaves. Some of the Crown's most brilliant minds live there by choice. They have access to anything they could require in their central pod and communicate with the surface only by telegram wires.

The creches are observed by crude technology: sophisticated eyes transmit signals through metal in one language to a projector, read by another set in different code entirely to prevent contamination.

You have no name. You know only the drive to live, and in order to do that, you'll need to escape.

>>50726079
Daily reminder Calorie Man was twice as good as those both combined and was only 20 pages long.

Seriously, it all feels like Bacigalupi peaked with his early short stories and then just tried to pull and stretch them to full-blown novels. Reminds me of Sapkowski somewhat - great short-story writer, utterly shitty novel author.

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>>50725164
I will bite.

This specialy designed organism can be afforded only by rich as the continuesly sustained fire requires quit a lof of fuel which costs money.

Maybe the bird burns something at extremely low temperatures so it consumes less. Or the flames get weaker when it sleeps.

Bird physiology requires for a high body temperature. Bring zharptitsu to room temperature will kill her in a hour.

>>50726173
>Bite
And since whan my post was a bait?
No, seriously, what the hell?

On the other hand, nice description why it would be a perfect "status object", since it would require being rich not only to get one, but then feed one and keep it alive.

>>50724455
>"Why not just make a regular airship that you don't have to feed?"

"Why make a regular airship that can't repair itself? Why make a regular airship that requires extensive training to pilot, instead of essentially the skills of a ranch hand? Why make a regular airship that can't make more of itself?

>>50726121
Nice. Will be waiting for it. Probably will miss it.

>>50726008
>>Biopunk
>>Utopia
>No, seriously, do you even biopunk
One man's nightmare can be other man's utopia.

>>50726304
I can't recall a single biopunk setting that wasn't at least a seriously fucked up anarchic dystopia, only going worse from there.
And I'm really trying here.

Not saying there aren't people who would find such setting appealing, hell, there is a sizable chunk of audience that loves any zombie apocalypse setting you can give to them, but biopunk is pretty much by default just horrible.

>>50726335
>not wanting to live in a world where anyone could be a trap
wind-up girl got one thing right.

>>50726345
>Wind-Up Girl
>Not just The Fluted Girl
Shame the guy stopped writing adult stuff and moved to kid friendly territory, but who can blame him, if he makes mad dought on that demographic

>>50726375
>The Fluted Girl
Well shit never heard of this but I know what I'm reading tonight. Thanks anon!

>mods caving in to the whineposters
Jesus Christ.

>>50726345
Well, that still depends. If the only food source is to be soy pelets and everything you can smell the scent of animal dung, then there is no fun in that.

Speaking of which, it always baffles me in Bacigalupi settings (at least those where humanity weathered apocalypse rather than ignoring it due to self-augmentations) about the energy sources. They still can grow plants, they are planting extremely high-efficient GMO breeds, they are fully depending on farming...
... nobody just destills alcohol to use it as a fuel. I mean it's not a rocket science, you can literally turn any carburator-based engine into alcohol powered one in your own garage. This is definitely more efficient than using draft animals to turn some magical screws and even more magical spring-loaded mechanism to power everything.

>>50726533
And let's not forget about methane, too, since they are so relient on animals. Single cow produces enough methane (not just by manure) to provide heat and electricity for entire household

>>50726335
It's not that surprising, Most biopunk stuff is a pretty direct offshoot of cyberpunk, where the dystopia is carried over but the technology is changed.

>>50726533
Biofuels take more resources to produce than they're worth.

>>50726616
Did I said anything about bio-fuel? I'm talking about regular, high-proof alcohol. If you have a carburator-based engine, you can pour in just about anything that burns when sparkles are added.
Hell, ignore alcohol, you can use wood gas, which is just as efficient as car fuel as propane. And I didn't hear anyone complaining about propane.

Plus are you really going to argue it's better to use donkeys instead?

>>50726616
Half of rural 3rd world machines - aka what usually is the setting of average biopunk post-apo setting - are running on ethanol. The other half is using bicycle pedals.
So if it works IRL, why it doesn't work in fiction? Aside of course the writer wanting to add weird elements to the setting, that is.

>>50726676
>>50726651
>Plus are you really going to argue it's better to use donkeys instead?
Not him but I'd argue in a biopunk setting a "donkey" may be more efficient than an engine, can't think of how without the explanation being technobabble or assuming they are REALLY bad at making engines, can't be they never discovered alcohol as I'm pretty sure that's up there with fire and the wheel

>>50726651
Where do you think alcohol comes from

>>50726676
>Half of rural 3rd world machines - aka what usually is the setting of average biopunk post-apo setting - are running on ethanol. The other half is using bicycle pedals.
>So if it works IRL, why it doesn't work in fiction?

I didn't say it doesn't work, I said it takes more to produce than you get out of it. Haiti clearcuts their forests to produce firewood. It works great for cooking, but it's unsustainable because they cut trees down at a faster rate than trees can grow back.

>>50726695
Animals need feed. Even if you argue they are augmented to barely eat and stuff like that, they still need to feed.
Just to point out how ridiculously efficient alcohol production is, you can get 1 liter of 95% ethanol (the highest possible proof you can get without and still being able to store it) from 1.6 kg of grain. In retarded that means you get 1 gallon of alcohol from 13 lbs of grain.
Said alcohol can be used as a fuel with about 18% of efficiency for oil-based fuel. So you our mileage will dicrease to roughtly 1/5, but who fucking cares, if literally nothing stops you from planting just more grain and destile it.

And don't ask me why the fuck we didn't convert all engines to burning alcohol IRL, because I don't fucking understand either.

>>50726702
Ever heard about fast-growing plants being used as bio-fuel for heating?
Like bamboo? Or willows?
They can be harvested on weekly basis.

Seriously, it never cease to amaze me how inept people are when it comes to most basic renevable energy. But then I recall most of people in the net come from States, where the level of green energy is so marginal it's not even funny. No bashing, just pure statistics.

>>50726702
Anon, you can literally use straw to heat your still. Or just about any fiber plant that matures within a month or less.

I've never been interested into the aesthetic before but this thread did get me curious.


Are there any good bio punk systems out there?
And is Twig a good story to get into the genre?

>>50726775
I think it was due to a mix of a higher energy output per pound for oil and lobbying once the auto industry took off

Gasoline was originally a waste product that those who made it really wanted a decent way to get rid of and it working REALLY well as a fuel was a happy accident

>>50726702
As >>50726799 and >>50726821 pointed out there's better shit than wood, it's just often more convenient for some people, also I thought Haiti clear cutted for farmland and just used the wood cause it was left over

>>50726702
>Where do you think alcohol comes from
Preferably grain-based mash, but just about anything with high concentration of starch will do. You can destill alcohol from just about anything that contains starch, really. And you need: starch source, water, source of heat, two containers and few pipes.
If you are going to use grain, then you can use straw for heating. If you are able to live in given area, then it means it has water.
Oh, and watch might be helpful, but is entirely optional with a bit of experience.

>>50726852
Diesel engine was originally using peanut oil. And it still can use just about any form of burnable oil, with NO conversions or changes in the construction. So you can technically run your car on frying oil.
Which is how boats in Brazil are powered. The smaller ones are using gas-engines, but powered by sugar-cane based alcohol as fuel.

I personally think the main reason why this never shows up in fiction is authors ignorance to this stuff going in real world, so they don't try to put that in fictionland.

>>50726901
The only notable exception I can thing of is Thunderdome, where they are using methane as universal source of energy. They even wisely picked pigs that, while much less efficient than cattle in methane production, are capable of living in literal dungeon, eating literal wood scraps and dirt.

>>50726799
>Ever heard about fast-growing plants being used as bio-fuel for heating?
>Like bamboo? Or willows?
>They can be harvested on weekly basis.

Right, but as you guessed, I live in the part of the world where these plants don't grow quickly. Sugar cane biofuel works great in the tropics, but it's too energy-intensive to produce in usable quantities in the parts of the world where it snows. You end up expending more resources creating and transporting fertilizer than you gain from the end product.

>>50727027
>Living in an energy poor zone
Better have resources to trade with the fuel barons

>>50727072
>Better have resources to trade with the fuel barons
Sure, we have blonde women and delicious clean drinking water.

>>50726702
>I said it takes more to produce than you get out of it
Then you are wrong. Really, REALLY wrong. In case of non-mechanised agriculture and without fertiliser, you can still gather between 1 to 1.5 tonnes of grain from hectare. Assuming it's maize, you get another half a tonne.
If it's mechanised and fertilised, you can get from 4 to 5 tonnes, another 1.5 if it's corn.
Using non-grain parts of the plants as fuel, you should have more than enough biomass to fuel your still, since destilation doesn't really demand that much heating.
From each tonne, you will get about 600 litres of ethanol.
That roughtly translates to 450-500 litres of gas.

So you have enough fuel now to plow, tend and power all the farm equipment for another year, while using only single hectare of your entire farmland.
To translate into retarded: 2.5 acres of farmland provide between 120 to 130 galons of gas.

Rings you a bell how absurdly efficient it is?

>>50727116
I get the feeling you're an engineer and not a farmer.

>>50727027
>Willows
>Part of the world they don't grow quickly
Anon, willow is a plant that grows quickly all over the world. It's doing just about fine on equator and on fucking polar capes (assuming it will have soil there).
>Sugar cane biofuel works great in the tropics, but it's too energy-intensive to produce in usable quantities in the parts of the world where it snow
Corn has comparable efficiency when turned into alcohol.
>You end up expending more resources creating and transporting fertilizer than you gain from the end product.
Ok, let's take a look on this with math and shit.
To transport a tonne of cargo by horse over 20 km, a range average pack horse will pull your cart for a day, you need to feed the horse 2.5% of its weight in feed. Which will mean 13-15 kilos of grain.
And then you need to return.
So the horse ate from 25 to 30 kilos of grain.
Now translate it into alcohol.
You would get from 25 kilos of grain about 15 litres of ethanol, which translates to roughtly 12 liters of gas.
Using 12 litres, you can move a 3.5 tonne truck, which can carry 15 tonnes of cargo, over 100 kilometers.

Thus using the exact same amout of grain, you've moved 15 times more cargo over 5 times longer distance.
Assuming this was a diesel truck, you can skip the lost conversion rate, so you have 15 litres of gas, thus managed to travel another 20 kilometers
What are we discussing here, really?

>>50727138
I'm after agriculture school. It means I've got a high school diploma with title of Technician, in field of agriculture. And currently studying agronomy on the university, 2nd year.
My father has a 30 ha large farm. 5 of it is used to produce biomass, used high-energy willow mixed with flax. The entire steading is powered by energy we get ourselves, from heating to electricity.

>>50727182
>>50727207
Well shit guys, I used to think biofuel was a scam perpetrated by the corn lobby, but you're turning me around. I appreciate all the info!

>>50727138
And I also take a personal offense with the suggestion farmers can't have theoretical knowledge about the shit they do for a living and only use some hillbilly wisdom.

>>50727282
>And I also take a personal offense with the suggestion farmers can't have theoretical knowledge about the shit they do for a living and only use some hillbilly wisdom.
That's the exact opposite of what I meant. It was actually a jab at engineers.

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>>50727292
Pic related one?

>>50727277
Anything using corn is a scam perpetuated by gubmint money.
But biofuel itself works. Biofuel isn't the weak link, corn is.

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>>50726901
>>50727116
>>50727182
>mfw reading all of this
>Bacigalupi and his entire stuff about donkeys, megodonts and springs
I kinda lost the respect for the guy

>>50727369
Still, you can't grow sugar cane in central Europe. But you can use maize instead, getting close results when it comes to final product.

>>50727303
That's the one!

>>50727369
>Biofuel isn't the weak link, corn is.
Good to know I wasn't completely wrong about everything.

>>50727401
Why would you ever grow corn with america flooding the market? Surely you can use other crops?

>>50727597
>america flooding the market
Ever heard about protective tarrifs? You should, assuming you are American, since that's how half of your economy can exists at all.
Imported grain has price set high enough you can still profitably plant your own, including corn. It makes a great feed for the animals, too. Especially if you got good grain for planting, rather then buying untested stuff.

>>50727597
And answering the question about other crops - potatoes are the best source of starch, all things considered. But if you plan to use the plant fibres as fire fuel, then potatoes' green parts are almost useless.

>>50727655
>a fucking setting based on biohorror
Link? Was it the one based on Giger works?

>>50729007
You mean Mundis Carnis? There's a google doc here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Po6lNzbyr9KPRsDUedUtU5xKnYLqUUjdaK5IsjKdpM/edit?pli=1

>>50723338
>>50723381
What are the coolest biopunk monsters/modifications?

>>50731655
the kid that can eject phermones and alter human emotions is the most original I have seen so far.

>>50731655
Have you ever saw eXistenZ? The game pods and the entry ports in the spine column for them were the right balance between cool and plausable modifications.

As for the monsters, my head-canon for the Black Ones from the Metro verse is that they are not just random mutants, but purposefully engineered species.

>>50731655
I like wesker.
Wesker is a good ultimate bio weapon.

>>50731655
I really like the Twins from Twig: Two noble ladies whose sisters fold right into their bodies.

How about tokyo gore police for inspiration?
It's over the top and silly but in the right thematic spirit.

>>50726025
The alien franchise pretty much revolves around bioweapons. The xenomorphs are rogue bio weapons and even humans were created by a bio-technologically advanced race that may not care for robots.

>>50726255
Heck, an airship is an example that could make more sense than say a bio-car. It's not that big a stretch to imagine a bio-airship that could make its own gas from a more plentiful/cheap "food".

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>>50723338
>confusing biopunk with body horror

>>50734466
>What's going on
You've missed the real party.

Also, newsflash - biopunk tends to come with hefty helping of body-horror 9 out of 10 cases.

>>50729168
Fucking awesome. I love the 6 armed man short story and the guy in the streets that murders people, his faces on his cloak laugh with him.

>>50734466
What's the difference? Level of discription?

>>50727375
>>Bacigalupi and his entire stuff about donkeys, megodonts and springs
>I kinda lost the respect for the guy

Me too.

Lefitst writers aren't known for their engineering, science or math skills, and it shows.

Thank goodness we have actual engineers and scientists running our energy production and not daft climate hysteria activists.

>>50734871
>bait
I love how edgy it is nowdays to believe there is no man-made climate change. Almost as much as I love the idea of discussing it on this board about games.

>>50734923
>someone disagrees with me!
>what edgy bait!

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>>50734466
They're not mutually exclusive.

>>50734871
>>50734923
>>50735014
Please fuck off to /pol/ with this shit and talk about the topic.

>>50734863
How viscreal it is. The more open, skinless, oozing, pulsing tissue, the more body horror ranks.

>>50734863
Body Horror has more lovecraftian stuff usually, like the stuff in Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Biopunk is usually very much like cyberpunk, but with more gene-modding and the like.
To be honest, you run into the issue that cyberpunk already includes a ton of biopunk elements.
So to differentiate itself, it's usually trying to go more into Body Horror with 'meat everywhere' and the like.

>>50735334
>Please fuck off to /pol/ with this shit and talk about the topic.
Right, so here's the issue, and it's the issue that started it at the beginning of the thread:
We've got people heavily promoting Bacigalupi here, which IS /pol/ posting. It's like if you took X ideology and wrote vaguely genre fiction about it to get it "on topic".
This was going to happen from the moment people brought EXTREMELY political authors into the topic.

And I happen to agree with many of the other assessments. Like >>50727375, it just doesn't add to the genre.

I'd much rather discuss adding the Kingdom Death monsters to a biopunk setting, since all that's missing is some higher tech levels.

>>50735696
>We've got people heavily promoting Bacigalupi here, which IS /pol/ posting.
You can talk about some guy's stories without having to rant about modern politics even if the author themselves has an agenda. I've seen people discuss stuff like atlus shrugged
in the context of fictional game worlds here without it devolving into /pol/ shit.

If I talk about sky-whale bio-airships is it an anti-peta political statement?

I mean it's fucking fiction, imagine it's a different universe with slightly different rules of reality if it triggers you so much.

>I'd much rather discuss adding the Kingdom Death monsters to a biopunk setting, since all that's missing is some higher tech levels.
Then discuss it instead of whining about how liberals or conservatives are dummies who don't understand science and buy into the climate change/denial conspiracy or whatever shit.

>>50735823
>Then discuss it
Well, Kingdom Death is already a vaguely biopunk setting. Like the White Lion, largely lion-like but with humanoid hands. Hunts prey and makes clay sculptures.
You could possibly phrase that setting as if it were the aftermath of a prior biopunk setting, with the lanterns emitting a wavelength certain genemods were made to be fearful of.
Then with the use of the Body Horror-esque stitching together of monster parts, you could have a secondary biopunk evolution from that setting into its future.
It fits decently well with the existing rapid child growth mechanic it already has, and the strange disappearing/aging of 'Saviors' as being potential latent gene compositions.

>without it devolving into /pol/ shit
I'll make one note on this: Certain authors, like this one, have a /pol/ goal ABOVE any fiction crafting.
Starship Troopers has /pol/ stuff for example, but does much more apart from it, like the military tactics descriptions.
That's not happening with this author, hence the /pol/ bleedover. But I'm happy to leave it mostly behind.

>Do you like biopunk?
Yep.

>What is your favorite setting?
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, though the punk aspect of it is lacking. That's the problem with biopunk, there are so few settings where both aspects are represented enough for them to serve as good examples of the genre.

>What do you like in the genre?
If you make use of the heavy modifications tech in a biopunk setting, not just cosmetic shit, you're apparently fearless enough to mutate your brain's function and risk losing your 'humanity', so why the hell would you take baby steps or stop at what's socially acceptable? A biopunk is going to live by the morals he respects and nothing else. Get enough biopunks together and they'll create a society mostly from wholecloth, implementing social policies nobody else has the balls for. And it'll be so, so fucking weird. I like weird.

>What is your favroite biopunk monster?
The planet from Alpha Centauri.

>Would you set a game in it?
If I weren't burnt out from being a Forever GM.

>>50726375
just read the fluted girl
one of the best short stories ive read honestly, thank you anon

link in case anyone else wants to enjoy it
http://windupstories.com/books/pump-six-and-other-stories/the-fluted-girl/

>>50723338
>Do you like biopunk?
yeah, it's pretty good. I prefer it in a blend of other technologies and without the -punk. Nothing good comes from -punk that isn't Cyberpunk, and even that's hard to pull off these days.

>What is your favorite setting? I only know of two both set during WWI: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld and Twig by Wildbow. Do you know more?
Not really. It tends to creep up in the darker corners of stuff sometimes, because for some reason people can't see the difference between a gigeresque nightmare and biotech. It's like they think the first thing society would do with that technology is do anything BUT medical or cosmetic shit. Or that the future would forget features like user-friendliness or 'needing to be marketed'.

Also Leviathan went to shit once the inevitable romance kicked in.

>What do you like in the genres
I like seeing society adapt to solve a problem, and then act like their necessity is the most natural and good thing in the world. Creates good, organic, worldbuildy tension. Nothing creates longer lasting traditions than 'temporary' solutions.

What is your favroite biopunk monster?
Humans are the scariest monster.

But no actually it's the Akkorokamui. Wouldn't really call it a 'monster' though.

>Would you set a game in it?
I am garbage, so no.

The things I love about biopunk is that it doesn't violated the 1st law of thermodynamics.

It make a little bit more sense usualy then other supernatural stuff.

>>50723338
Ever read Fluorescent Black? It's a comic book series set in a future Singapore. The story isn't much to talk about, but I think the setting is alright.

>>50739287
Describe the Fluorescent Black future Singapore setting.

>>50735696
>We've got people heavily promoting Bacigalupi here, which IS /pol/ posting
Funny, because you are the ONLY person who focused on his political agenda, while everyone was discussing the freaky stuff from "People of Sand and Slag" and compared efficiency of his weird spring-loaded machines with real-world biofuels

But hey, let's complain about politics and start looking for commie conspiracy, that's soooo productive and on topic of biopunk!

SPEAKING OF MACHINE EFFICIENCY
I think the main issue that was ommited so far in this thread was WHY they are using this stuff in Calorie Man and all his later stories and books. The springs are somehow breaking the rules of physics, as they allow to store almost 100% of the energy produced by muscles as useful, mechanical power, thus allowing to translate every joule from grain eaten by animals into joule of useful mechanical power. And probably store it for longer period of time
Do I need to point out how this shit is simply impossible, but cool as fuck?

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>>50735965
>Bacigalupi is blatant /pol/
>Heinlein is not

>>50731655
I liked the rebreather in Leviathan

the whole suit seemed like something they'd try in WW1

>>50726008
i think he was refering to solarpunk as a utopia.

>>50726844
Twig is pretty solid, though the general BioPunkness takes a back row seat to the characters. As it should be, but that's not say there aren't some incredibly cool monsters and world building. Overall, I'd highly recommend it.

>>50723338
Does SLA Industries count as biopunk?

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Well, there is Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor.

Japanese manga/anime about a teenager that by accident discovers some living alien weapon system that some evil corporate shadow society wanted to use to take over the world.

The boy tries to become some typical superhero alterego, but the bad guys quickly deduce the boy's identity and start killing his friends and family, and then the plot really starts getting crazy - since the shadow society has pretty much infiltrated every aspect of human society with (sleeper) agents that can transform into bigass hulking monsters with all kinds of crazy biomechanical weapons, like organic missiles or laser cannons.

And for added /pol/ value, one of the villains is pretty much Donald Trump. Except not a useless sack of fat human meat.

>>50739287
I tried reading that, but couldn't get into it.

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surprised this hasn't been posted yet

>>50745723
>And for added /pol/ value, one of the villains is pretty much Donald Trump. Except not a useless sack of fat human meat.
Careful with that edge.

I can't recall the title now, but there was once a short story in a near future, slowly and carefully observing a career of a sociopathic pilot, in his climb from being a regular Joe to eventually getting into the position of planetary president.
In said short story, rather than discovering alien species, humans modded themselves the hard way to get bodies more suited for each planet they've tried to colonise, doing really freaky stuff, like turning entire colony into almost literal ant colony.

I know I really liked the story, because it was one massive fuck you to furfaggotry, without going into HFY territory. And probably someone established wrote it, since it was published in Polish sci-fi magazine and they usually are doing reprintes of old classics.

>>50746849
This isn't biopunk at all though, there's no punk in it.

>>50747072
honestly at this point the punk part no longer means the traditional meaning when people use it for describing genres, it just means that the setting or story has a focus on whatever punk has been attached to(which I'm fine with because the traditional meaning is incredibly limiting and most people suck at writing it anyways)

>>50747434
The punk literary genre revolves around characters that either feel the need to rebel against established power structures or completely ignore them. And they carry a manic, reckless, dismal flavor that results from the characters' willingness to be destructive to not just their enemies, but also themselves. Frankly, this attitude is so manifest in the people I socialize with in real life that I have no idea why it'd be hard to write a book about it. I'm not a punk and neither are my friends.

>>50723338
I've played the vidya game Let It Die recently, and all I can think of is how I can make that shit into a tabletop game. Some sort of dungeon runner that has a biomechanical and splatterhouse aesthetic.

>>50747434
>t. cogfop faggot looking for excuses
Get lost. You've literally killed steampunk with your sperging and now trying to put your cancer in entire punk genre

>>50724455
Efficiency. Logistics. Self repair.

Let me see, I could build a factory that makes car engines. I would have to pay people to work in that factory, I would have to purchase machines which would need constant maintenance to do the work in the factory. Or I could get a handful of seeds genetically engineered to grow into organic car engines and plant them in a field. Then I would just have to wait.

To say nothing of the ecological impact. Genetically engineered technology could produce waste products such as clean oxygen, fresh water, digestible food paste, fast fermented alcohol. No smog, no radioactive waste, no ground water contaminants.

I often say that until we see a major Leap Forward in genetic engineering technology space travel even within our home system will be exceedingly difficult. We need to engineer something that can consume our waste products and produce things that we need in return.

>>50725174
Several species of animal have hollow fur. Kind of a cross between Fur and Feathers. They use this for insulation.

>>50750169
>I could get a handful of seeds genetically engineered to grow into organic car engines and plant them in a field. Then I would just have to wait.
You do know crops typically have to be tended to by actual human beings?

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This is how I Biopunk.

>>50750352
All you need to do is check if it's not withered in dry weather, rotten in wet weather and check for pests. Rarely, a disease can attack, but that's rare and you can do shit about it anyway.
In short, tending boils down to waiting in 90% of cases.

The actual labour is harvest, even in case of heavily mechanised farming.