Biopunk

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Biopunk (a portmanteau word combining "biotech" and "punk") is a term used to describe a science fiction genre that focuses on synthetic biology.[1] More recently, the term has also been used to denote a techno-progressive movement advocating open access to genetic information.[2][3]

Contents

[edit] Biopunk as science fiction

Biopunk is a sub-genre of cyberpunk fiction, which describes the underground side of the biotech revolution that is said to have started to have an impact in the last decade of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century. Biopunk stories explore themes of individuals or groups, often belonging to a subculture, and their appropriation of various biotechnologies for subversive ends, against a backdrop of totalitarian governments or megacorporations which abuse these same technologies as means of social control or profiteering. Unlike cyberpunk, it builds not on information technology but on synthetic biology. Like in postcyberpunk fiction, individuals are usually modified and enhanced not with cyberware, but by genetic manipulation of their very chromosomes.[1]

One of the prominent writers in this field is Paul Di Filippo, though he called his collection of such stories ribofunk, with the first element being taken from the full name of RNA, ribonucleic acid.[4][1]

[edit] Books

[edit] Comics and manga

[edit] Films

[edit] Television

[edit] Anime

[edit] Computer and video games

[edit] Biopunk as movement

A growing number of scientists, artists and cultural critics are organizing to create public awareness of how human genomic information, produced by bioinformatics, gets used and misused. On the basis of a presumed parallel between genetic and computational code, science journalist Annalee Newitz has called for open-sourcing of genomic databases.[2][3] Biological Innovation for Open Society is a notable initiative of the biopunk movement.[5]

Self-described "transgenic artist" Eduardo Kac uses biotechnology and genetics to create provocative works that concommitantly revel in scientific techniques and critique them. In what is probably his most famous work, Alba, Kac collaborated with a French laboratory to procure a green-fluorescent rabbit; a rabbit implanted with a green fluorescent protein gene from a type of jellyfish in order for the rabbit to fluoresce green under ultraviolet light.[2] The members of the Critical Art Ensemble have written books and staged multimedia performance interventions around this issue, including The Flesh Machine (focusing on in vitro fertilisation, surveillance of the body, and liberal eugenics) and Cult of the New Eve (analyzing the pseudoreligious discourse around new reproductive technologies).[6] Georgia Tech professor Eugene Thacker leads the Biotech Hobbyist collective, and has written extensively on the field.[7]

Sociologist James Hughes has identified the biopunk movement as a current within the democratic transhumanist ideology and movement.[8]

[edit] Biopunk as biohacker

Biopunk is also a synonym for biohacker, which is a term used to describe hobbyists who experiment with DNA and other aspects of genetics.[9][10] A biohacker is similar to a computer hacker who creates and modifies computer software or computer hardware as a hobby, but should not be confused with a bioterrorist whose sole intent is the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants.[11] Using a laptop computer, published gene sequence information, and mail-order synthetic DNA, some advocates and critics of biohacking argue that just about anyone has the potential to contruct genes or entire genomes from scratch.[12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Quinion, Michael (1997). "World Wide Words: Biopunk". Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
  2. ^ a b c Newitz, Annalee (2001). "Biopunk". Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
  3. ^ a b Newitz, Annalee (2002). "Genome Liberation". Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
  4. ^ Fisher, Jeffrey (1996). "Ribofunk". Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
  5. ^ BiOS.
  6. ^ Critical Art Ensemble.
  7. ^ Biotech Hobbyist Magazine.
  8. ^ Hughes, James (2002). "Democratic Transhumanism 2.0". Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
  9. ^ Katz, J.S.: "Roses are Black, Violets are Green", New Scientist, 6 January, 1990
  10. ^ Katz, J.S.: "That which is not Forbidden is Mandatory", BioTech Educ, 4(1), 1990
  11. ^ Schrage, Michael. "Playing God in Your Basement", The Washington Post, 1988-01-31. Retrieved on February 4, 2007.
  12. ^ ETC Group (2007). "Extreme Genetic Engineering: An Introduction to Synthetic Biology". Retrieved on 2007-02-02.

[edit] External links

Literary sci-fi punk genres
Cyberpunk — Postcyberpunk — Steampunk — Biopunk — Clockpunk
Other themes
Retro-futurism — Cyberprep — Transrealism
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