TL;DR: Our biopunk future is becoming real faster than I expected. Techniques which use genetically engineered viruses to insert custom proteins to correct a medical condition are now in clinical trials in China. And I want people to move away from a cyberpunk vision of cutting the body and adding things and move towards a vision of changing the nature of a person's body.
Way back in 2009 I proposed a monograph to the TTRPG publisher Chaosium. This was the start of Rubble and Ruin, my first (and currently only) table top RPG. The original was published by Chaosium (but is now out of print) although I am self publishing an improved edition on Drivethrurpg. Rubble and Ruin is a near future science fiction / post apocalyptic game that tries to recreate the vibe of “cannon fantasy” but in a reasonably hard sci-fi setting.
And one of the things that has been in this setting from the beginning is what I call ART or Adult Recombinant Technology.
What is ART. I make no claim to be the first to think of this, it was obvious to any molecular biologist who thought about the subject at least as far back as twenty years ago; We should be able to alter the expressed genome in adult humans by building targeted viruses that insert the required new genetics only into those cells that need the change. It is just a matter of figuring out what exactly causes the problem of interest, what exact genetic changes are needed, and how to build a “vector” (fancy word of custom virus) to deliver it only where needed.
I have always felt that we will start with medically important problems and then branch out into “desired not required” biological changes. I expect cosmetic changes will be the first “non medical” uses of this technology. Changing your physical shape or skin color seem likely places humanity will start.
ART is becoming Real. I expected that we would start seeing the first medical applications of ART in the 2030s. I was wrong! I read this morning that there are several clinical trials started in China that are what I would call ART. Here is the link to the story I read.
And that makes me think of the differences between biopunk and cyberpunk.
Cyberpunk and Body Images. Most people who think about cyberpunk and sci-fi cybernetics (not what Norbert was talking about), think about cutting off body parts and replacing them with enhanced mechanical equivalents. For many people, the "rule of cool" beats basic neural science.
The main “body image” from the 1980s until today seems to be that “humans have an immutable body” and we can cut it up and add changes across function systems. For example, “we can cut of a hand and add a mechanical hand with a gun in it”. We can remove an eye and add a different eye, maybe one that can see infra red.
For me, cybernetics have two problems, biological rejection and neuronal control. The first is a material science problem and I can imagine someone finding a material that can be connected to the interior of a human body, that is strong and flexible enough to meet specific needs, and is invisible to the immune system. I can imagine that. It is the seconds problem, how will the body control it, that has always fascinated me.
In my games I have always had ideas like, “maybe we can add a lens that hides above the eye and that can be pulled down and allows IR vision”. This is the idea of enhancing existing biological systems by adding a new item that improves its function. But, importantly, this item does not need a lot of direct neurological control.
Aside. Way back in the 1980s I had two different ideas that I used in my Aftermath! games. You could build new neural connections in the correct parts of the peripheral nervous system, or you could interface things to small parts of muscles and train the cyborg to control the machine separate from the body original body part.
A new Body Image. What I want people to do when they think of ART is to think about how we can modify complete, currently functional, biological systems, like your body. For example, I have long imagined that there is a reasonably simple genetic switch that can change human skeletal muscle strength. If such a thing exists, then we should be able to make a form of ART which when injected into an adult human, it will increase their physical strength. Of course, to greatly increase a person’s strength you will need to also improve many other subsystems—bones, ligaments, etc. But one little shot gives someone an athletic edge... a +2 STR for most TTRPGs ... I could see it happening. And apparently, happening soon.
As always, thank you for taking the time to read this and I always welcome comments of questions—let’s be honest, I’m a nerd screaming into the digital void, I love any sort feedback.
