Science fiction is the kind of concept that moves past the description of a genre and into the realm of its own art medium. As a medium, sci-fi is subdivided perhaps more than any other medium thanks to the endless combination and reconnection of countless ideas in incredible new ways.
Cyberpunk was coined by Bruce Bethke in 1980, but the term was given its formal bible in William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer. The term has become enduringly popular for its anarchic aesthetics, liberal application of body horror, and socially relevant themes of societal collapse and corporate technocracy. But, what if fans loved the presentation of cyberpunk, but wanted to see something in the place of all the cool robot arms?
Cyber refers to the combination of organic and technological material, punk refers to the music genre that centers on youthful rebellion. This combination was unique when it was created, but, other creators have taken the concept and applied it to a variety of other traditions. Though the rules are a bit hazy, the central tenants are a gritty lowlife societal outlook applied to a vastly heightened version of scientific achievement. Despite wildly different results, each sub-genre exists thanks to the same simple creative question. Every society has an underbelly, every ruling class has corruption, how do those concepts change when a scientific discipline reaches its apex?
By far the most famous derivative of cyberpunk's example is the steampunk sub-genre. As anyone who has attended a nerd convention can attest, steampunk takes the societal and technological aesthetics and drags them back several hundred years. Where cyberpunk fits mankind with highly advanced prostheses and Wi-Fi-connected neural implants, steampunk pushes boiled water to the brink of creativity. Since the tech is older, the ideals are often older as well. Cyberpunk is a sub-genre for the cities, its default societal presentation is a neon-lit back alley, and its villains are global tech conglomerates. Steampunk deals with more Victorian societies, and the theming typically questions the role of industrialization against the natural world. Steampunk is joined by dieselpunk, atompunk, and steelpunk as retrofuturist takes on the concept. Though steampunk is the most popular, there are countless other derivatives that take much more after their shared parent.
Biopunk is cyberpunk by way of biology, replacing robotic limbs and metallic prosthetics with advanced genetic engineering. It keeps the lowlife heroes, dubiously ethical science, and evil corporations, but with a new central scientific discipline. Biopunk heroes use synthetic hormones rather than robot limbs, and their corporations own eugenics-obsessed human farms, rather than big tech giants. Andrew Niccol's Gattaca is a seminal biopunk work, as it calls reproductive science and genetic tampering into its central question. Alongside biopunk is nanopunk, which centers around nanotechnology and all manner of microscopic machinery. By shifting the hyper-advanced technology behind the dystopian society, these works interrogate different aspects of modern society and scientific advancement. They're small changes that completely rewrite the central concept and deliver radically different stories.
Perhaps the most interesting offspring of the cyberpunk phenomenon are those that take the vicious dystopian nightmare of the average sci-fi tale and flip it on its head. What if the future and advanced technological heights don't lead to a horrific world of wage slavery and profit-driven apocalypse? What if better technology could lead to better times? Solarpunk may be the best of these concepts. In solarpunk fiction, technology gives mankind the keys to finally solve the ongoing environmental crises, eventually resulting in the societal utopia of a culture free from want. Solarpunk is a recent art movement that developed as a direct response to the glut of grim horrific dystopian content in the sci-fi world. Despite the much brighter outlook on the world that solarpunk provides, the punk aspect still shines through. Solarpunk fiction centers on the individual reclaiming the environment from uncaring or malicious corporations. The heroes of solarpunk fiction build their own utopia through guerilla gardening and sustainability as protest. The ingenious twist of solarpunk and its cohorts is imagining a world in which the heroes of cyberpunk fought for nature over machinery and won.
The cyberpunk ethos has evolved in countless different ways, from small shifts with big impacts to completely opposite concepts. At their core, every punk movement takes the individualist counter-culture ethos into whatever fun sci-fi concept they make the center of their world. This isn't even a comprehensive list, there are still more punk movements that further subdivide the concept. Beyond that, there is still endless space around the idea to make yet more sub-genres of this single idea. Cyberpunk bleeds into all the ideas it inspires or codifies, but they manage to develop distinct identities that are informed by their cultural positions. Those authors back in the 80s couldn't have imagined what future creators would do with their ideas, and fans today will have to wait and see what voices of the future come up with.