For those new to the bored, or old lurkers who've recently rejoined...the old indifference engine (aka me# has a habit of coming up with a LOT of random ideas....here is another one.
I was thinking about steampunk the other day, analyzing it as it were. Like cyberpunk, it is a cultural/tech themed Sci-fi genre. It has two main inspirations, Victorian culture and the concepts of a mechanical universe. Ok a lot to digest but stay with me.Steampunk rest more on the latter then former. It is the universe mechanical that stays its main focus, you can add other cultures and still have it be steam punk. I my self have though of what it would look like to change steampunks culture #roman, Mezo-American, etc), but a new slant has hit me. What if we change the Psuto-science.
Three stories of Victorian time come to mind, each deals with similar ideas. Each having to do with the body then cold steel. The Island of Doctor Moreau, Frankenstein, and the strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, each paint a world were the flesh is more adaptable then we now know....so what if Tissue rejection was rare? What is you could bring back fresh dead flesh? What if bio-chemistry could alter and replace?
Sit my friend and welcome to the Nation of Dr. Moreau
Transportation: steam is still the master here, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, and chemistry have only improved it.
Information tech: the computer is present, not in the form of a metal gearbox, but in the form of a machine; part metal and part flesh. The grey matter of simple animals replacing the microchip.
the body: Want to be stronger? graft bull muscles to yours! need to see in the dark? get cat eyes! a dead mans hand can fetch a good price if its fresh enough....
what do you think?