Cyberpunk Subgenres: Biopunk, Postcyberpunk, Solarpunk, Steampunk and the Rest

What cyberpunk actually is#

Bruce Bethke coined the word cyberpunk for his 1983 short story of that name, and critics soon applied it to William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, John Shirley, Rudy Rucker, Pat Cadigan and others. Lawrence Person described the classic version as marginalized loners on the edge of society, in a dystopian future shaped by fast tech change, a data sphere everywhere and invasive body modification.

Read what is cyberpunk first if you want the full picture. The rest of this page is a map of what grew out of it.

The family at a glance#

A comparison, one line each. 'Core tech' is what the world is built around. 'Mood' is the attitude you can expect.

• Cyberpunk: Core tech: computers and body modification. Mood: bleak, with corporations on top and loners at the bottom. Try: Neuromancer, Cyberpunk 2077.
• Postcyberpunk: Core tech: the same, but people have adapted to it. Mood: no automatic dystopia. Try: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which Lawrence Person called the most interesting, sustained postcyberpunk media work in existence. See Ghost in the Shell.
• Biopunk: Core tech: genetic engineering and biotech, usually through DNA rather than chrome. Mood: individuals fighting governments or corporations that misuse biotech. Emerged in the 1990s. Try: Gattaca (1997). In Night City, think Biotechnica.
• Nanopunk: Core tech: nanotechnology and nanites. Mood: more about the effects than the gadgets. Less common. Try: Linda Nagata's Tech Heaven (1995).
• Cyber noir: Core tech: whatever the cyberpunk setting offers. Mood: a noir story set in that setting.
• Cyberprep: Core tech: all of cyberpunk's advances. Mood: utopian and leisure-driven rather than gritty, with body enhancements used for sport and pleasure.
• Steampunk: Core tech: steam power, set in or around the Victorian era (the term was invented in 1987 as a joke about novels by Tim Powers, James P. Blaylock and K. W. Jeter). Mood: adventurous technological fantasy. Try: The Difference Engine (1990), by Gibson and Sterling.
• Dieselpunk: Core tech: diesel engines, the interwar years to the 1950s. Mood: pulp, noir and art deco. The term was coined in 2001 by Lewis Pollak for his role-playing game Children of the Sun.
• Atompunk: Core tech: the Atomic and Space Age, 1945 to 1969. Mood: Cold War paranoia mixed with Googie optimism.
• Clockpunk: Core tech: clockwork and Da Vincian machinery, the 16th to 18th centuries. Mood: Renaissance science taken too far.
• Solarpunk: Core tech: renewable energy. Mood: optimistic, DIY and post-capitalist. The term dates from 2008, and it is described as the inverse of cyberpunk.

Which ones are really punk?#

The suffix is a trade mark more than a rule. Postcyberpunk and cyber noir keep cyberpunk's mood. Solarpunk keeps the do-it-yourself, countercultural part and drops the dread. Steampunk and its retro cousins mostly borrow the template: take a given era's tech and stretch it to the fantastic.

Opinion: cyberprep is the odd one out. It shares every gadget with cyberpunk and removes the reason anyone read it, which is the people the gadgets leave behind.

Where Night City sits#

Cyberpunk 2020, Cyberpunk RED and Cyberpunk 2077 belong to classic cyberpunk: corporations on top, marginalized edgerunners below, and cyberware that eats your humanity. The megacorporations page shows who holds the leash.

The tabletop game was built by Mike Pondsmith with Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired and Blade Runner as influences. For the people who made the term, see William Gibson.

Fixer's notes: what to read, play or watch next#

If you came from Cyberpunk 2077 and want something adjacent, start with postcyberpunk. It keeps the tech and the humanity and costs you less sleep. If you want the grim stuff, cyberpunk books has the classics.

For a table, mix at your own risk. Biopunk fits Night City easily since Biotechnica already exists. Steampunk and solarpunk need a different setting, and running them in a Night City game feels like a costume party. Still, a solarpunk enclave in the Badlands, run by Nomads, would make a fine contrast for one session.

For the look, see cyberpunk aesthetic. For the screen, cyberpunk movies is the list.