Nanopunk

An artist's depiction of nanotechnology.

Nanopunk refers to an emerging subgenre of science fiction still very much in its infancy in comparison to its ancestor-genre cyberpunk and some of its other derivatives.

The genre is especially similar to biopunk, but describes a world where nanites are widely in use and nanotechnologies the predominant technological forces in society.

Currently the genre is mainly concerned with the artistic, psychological and especially societal impact of nanotechnology, rather than aspects of the technology which itself is still in its infancy. Unlike the cyberpunk which can be distinguished by a gritty and low-life yet technologically advanced character, nanopunk can have a darker dystopian character that might examine potential risks by nanotechnology as well a more optimistic outlook that might emphasize potential uses of nanotechnology.

Literature

• Kathleen Ann Goonan (Queen City Jazz - 1997) and Linda Nagata were some of the earliest writers to feature nanotech as the primary element in their work.
• Another famous example of this genre is Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. Some novels of Stanislaw Lem, including Weapon System of the Twenty First Century or The Upside-down Evolution, The Invincible and Peace on Earth as well as Greg Bear's Blood Music could also be considered precursors of nanopunk.
• Another example is the Michael Crichton novel Micro (2011). More recently, Nathan McGrath's Nanopunk (2013) is set in an icebound near-future where almost half the world's population has been wiped out. Alister, a child when "The Big Freeze" began is now a teenager in a society slowly finding its feet. Unaware of his nano-infection he sets out to find his lost sister and is joined by Suzie, a militant cyber-activist. Their hacking attracts the attention of Secret Services and a ruthless private military corporation and their search becomes a deadly race for survival.
• Linda Nagata's Tech Heaven (1995) is a futuristic thriller about Katie, a woman whose husband is about to die of injuries sustained in a helicopter crash. Instead of dying, he gets his body cryogenically preserved so that he can be reawakened when med-tech is advanced enough to heal him. The problem is that it winds up taking far more than the estimated few years for this to happen.
• Alastair Reynolds' Chasm City could also be considered nanopunk.

Film and television

• Generator Rex (2010-2013)
• Transcendence (2014)

Video games

• Anarchy Online (2001)
• Crysis (2007–present)
• Deus Ex (2000)
• Metal Gear Solid
• Supreme Ruler 2020 (2008)

See also

• Biopunk
• Cyberpunk derivatives
• Kathleen Ann Goonan
• Posthuman
• Postcyberpunk
• Societal impact of nanotechnology