Nanopunk refers to an emerging subgenre of science fiction still very much in its infancy in comparison to its ancestor-genre cyberpunk[1][2] and some of its other derivatives.[3]
The genre is especially similar to biopunk,[4] 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[2] 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.[5][4]
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.[2]
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.[7]
^Sohn, Stephen Hong (2008). "Alien/Asian: Imagining the Racialized Future"(PDF). 33 (4). The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS). Retrieved 19 May 2015. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
