On Sci-Fi, SteamPunk, TechnoPunk and the just plain PUNK…

Greetings Pips, I’m here once again. Last time, I shared with you my own idea of what Pinoy CyberPunk is and why I called it as such in the first place.Despite its being a sub genre of Sci-Fi with a lot of things in common, they are still not really the same. 

You may be wondering why I am discussing a variety of topics and what do they have to do with Project Pawai?  All of this,played a specific role directly or indirectly in the creation of the novel. 

Another sub genre would be Sci-Fi Fantasy which unfortunately is known to the young generation of today as DOTA. DOTAA and DOTA 2, but in my time (Ehem…) they called it ULTIMA hehehe…  but I’ll reserve that for another post. So, my apologies once again as I try to assign to this sub genres my own special way of defining things.  

   

 Note: Images are from royalty free sources and photo edited by this Punk.

Sci-Fi/Science Fiction = If it ain’t happened yet or the chances of it ever happening is astronomically high, it’s Sci-Fi. (Of course it’s got something to do with Science, Technology, Information Theory or what ever they’re called today.) 

SteamPunk = It’s got nothing to do with Valve. You don’t go there to connect or download games. These are imaginative Sci-Fi stories that are set in the so called “Victorian Age of the Industrial Revolution”. They called a computer back then an Analytical or Difference Engine. a Computer Scientist  as Charles Babbage and a computer programmer as Ada Lovelace.  A very good example would be the movie “Hugo”. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about this street kid who has this inventor’s price possession stashed in his attic-like hideout. The thing was called an “Automaton” which needed a special key to turn it on so it could write a very special document. (It’s an actual robot made out of old school watch parts with a specific hard wired programming to write down word for word a document). Talk about CyberPunk in the 1800’s.

TechnoPunk =  It’s actually a kind of Punk Rock music. Usually used as the soundtrack for CyberPunk movies, TV series and video games.  TechnoPunk has this kind of electronic synthesizer beat oriented way of creating music that is very catchy and blends well with CyberPunk. The Punk band DEVO of the late 70’s to 1980’s was said to be the originator of this kind of Music. Their hit single “Some things never change” which was used as the soundtrack for Neuromancer  is a good example of this. TechnoPunk has also been used to classify Sci-Fi stories that focus on technology in general and not specifically computers. (Some grey areas here again.) 

And finally, the just plain PUNK.  Punk =  Is a form of Rock Music usually called Punk Rock. Although some of them may really have offensive lyrics and messages of defiance towards established social norms and customs, the music is lively to the point of danceable. An example would be Toni Basil’s “Street Beat” and “Micky” (for those of you who can still remember). And who can forget Juan Dela Cruz band, “Teacher’s Enemy No.1” or “Beh Buti Nga” of Pu3ska. Hehehe…the good old days.  Punk, is also used to describe a good for nothing individual – scum of the Earth if you will. An anti-social non-conformist whose ideas are way beyond the boundaries of normal everyday living.

A good example would be the person writing this blog whose (Good looking?) image appears at the rightmost of the image group for this particular post. What puzzles me is if these people are so bad, how come you see them everywhere ( In the Government, media, business, science, technology and even in the streets.) What about the kid who made this social media site that almost everybody is registered to (if you saw the movie you’ll see why they call him a Punk.)  Punk is Good, Punk is Great, cause sadly, it takes a Punk to write CyberPunk!

Thanks again, see ya next time…