Biopunk
is a term given to future worlds science
fiction
where genetic
engineering is key to the plot.
Starsplit by Kathryn
Lasky portrays a government with massive
control over society, specifically their biology and reproduction.[18]
Genetic engineering is the norm in the Bio Union. There are still
Originals
around, those whose ancestors couldn’t afford to, or chose
not to
be enhanced through genetic manipulation or umbellation (cloning),
but they are the disenfranchised and
relationships between enhanced and Originals are deeply discouraged.
Genhants
have a 48th chromosome on which genes for superior intellectual or
physical abilities are added. There are strict laws against selecting
for
appearance (the Vanities) and against unauthorized people engaging in
genetic engineering. The society is initially presented as a utopia
where people have accepted bioengineering as
a positive thing which helps people become smarter and more skilled and
eliminates genetic diseases.[19]
The costs of such a society begin to be examined by Darci, the
protagonist, when she
meets a umbula, or copy, of herself. "I have been violated.... I feel
invaded,
taken over,"[20]
she thinks to herself. She wonders who she is and what
the
point is of a life where everything is predetermined. When this
encounter leads her to find out the secret behind her birth, she
discovers both a source of meaning for her life and the seeds of her
individuality.[21]
"I have set this book,
ironically, at a comfortable distance within the fourth millennia....
However, all of which I write has begun to happen. Every single genetic
engineering strategy that I mention in this book is based upon one that
has already been executed or is in a developmental stage right now in
the year 1998." [22]-Kathryn
Lasky
Rhiannon Lassiter's Hex
trilogy follows Raven and other Hexes, who are
outcasts, mutants created by unsuccessful genetic engineering in the
21st century. Raven
and other Hexes escaped the bioengineering labs and live on the fringes
in gangland
London while trying to destabilize the regime.[23]
The Hexes are the
ultimate hackers, whose genetic manipulations have given them powerful
abilities to interact with computers.
In these books, computers are tools for both good and evil, depending
on the motives of the characters employing them. The Hexes aren't
necessarily forces for good, being mainly concerned with
self-preservation, but they are sympathetic in that they have close
group bonds and look out for each other.
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