Steampunk... The new science

Steampunk. Have you ever heard of it? It is a newest subculture that draws on the elaborate aesthetics and romantic worldview of 19th‑century England to envision how things might have looked had a few key technologies been developed further. It conjures a gaslit cityscape filled with steam-powered robots, mechanical computers, ray-gun-toting aeronauts, and monocled mad scientists. Remember the movie Frankenstein? Anyone?

Steampunk is a derivation of the term cyberpunk which was a fad in the 80s. I think the major reason behind the growth of this subculture is the nostalgia of the "golden era" and the frustration at the monotony of the mainstream technological development. This could be the same think that Alternative music and alternative media did to the entertainment industry in the 90s. However it is still not clear whether this will grow into a worldwide phenomenon or not. And most of these steampunks are not serious inventors or anything. They are just playing out the roles of the Victorian inventors.

Still, are there lessons to learn from those Victorian inventors? There most certainly is. Thats why the IEEE magazine, "Spectrum" did a special on this steampunk phenomenon. The ideas and throwbacks from this subculture can certainly help the advancement of mainstream science. And help scientists think 'sideways' rather that gazing narrowly.

The steampunk phenomena is not new actually. A lot of Hollywood movies have drawn on this theme with quite a success. A few prominent ones being,

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  • The Impossible Voyage (1904)
  
  
  • Conquest of the Pole (1912)
  
  
  • Metropolis (1927)
  
  
  • Frankenstein (1931)
  
  
  • Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
  
  
  • The Invisible Man (1933)
  
  
  • The Island of Dr. Moreau (1933 - as Island of Lost Souls, 1977, 1996)
  
  
  • Things to Come (1936)
  
  
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
  
  
  • The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958)
  
  
  • From the Earth to the Moon (1958)
  
  
  • Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
  
  
  • The Time Machine (1960, 2002)
  
  
  • Mysterious Island (1961)
  
  
  • Master of the World (1961)
  
  
  • Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962)
  
  
  • Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964)
  
  
  • First Men in the Moon (1964)
  
  
  • The City Under the Sea (War Gods of the Deep) (1965)
  
  
  • Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969)
  
  
  • Time After Time (1979)
  
  
  • The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985 claymation)
  
  
  • Return To Oz (1985)
  
  
  • Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
  
  
  • Castle in the Sky (1986 anime)
  
  
  • Windaria aka. Once Upon a Time (1987 anime)
  
  
  • The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989)
  
  
  • Back to the Future Part III (1990)
  
  
  • The Rocketeer (1991)
  
  
  • Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
  
  
  • The City of Lost Children (1995)
  
  
  • Wild Wild West (1999)
  
  
  • Sleepy Hollow (1999)
  
  
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
  
  
  • Vidocq (2001)
  
  
  • Le Pacte des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf) (2001)
  
  
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
  
  
  • A Detective Story (2003)
  
  
  • Casshern (2004)
  
  
  • Hellboy (2004)
  
  
  • Steamboy (2004 anime)
  
  
  • Van Helsing (2004)
  
  
  • Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
  
  
  • Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
  
  
  • H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (A proper period version of the tale - 2005)
  
  
  • Howl's Moving Castle (2005 anime)
  
  
  • The Brothers Grimm (2005)
  
  
  • The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005 short film)
  
  
  • The Fall (2006)
  
  
  • The Prestige (2006)
  
  
  • Stardust (2007)
  
  
  • Perfect Creature (2007)
  
  
  • The Golden Compass (2007)
  
  
  • City Of Ember (2008)
  
  
  • Mutant Chronicles (a steam punk universe - steam powered spaceships) (2008)
  
  
  • Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (Steampunk technology and settings) (2008)
  
  
  
  


• To this list I must add Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends (2006) which was one of the latest computer games that I have played based on this genre.

You can see the IEEE spectrum's take on Steampunk here,

http://spectrum.ieee.org/print/6810