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| Wow. Much goggle. So gears. Amaze. |
I cringe when I hear Verne and Wells described as being steampunk authors when they are, in reality, Victorian science fiction authors (because of when they wrote their novels, not because of the setting of said novels).
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| "ULLA! ULLA! ULLA!" |
Steampunk started as a fashion trend. A subversion of historical Victorian attitudes and fashions. It was broadened to have a larger meaning that really dealt with the mechanical engineering aspects of the late 1800's. The steampunk world takes a step back and asks "what if we had applied steam technology to its fullest capabilities?" Granted, most of what I have seen of steampunk is very unrealistic but it still manages to evoke a very rich world where instead of constantly looking for the next big thing, people are more focused on using what we already have to its fullest extent.
Steampunk is not the only one to do this. There is Cyberpunk, Dieselpunk, Biopunk and many other [insert tech here]-punk genres. In addition to the tech side of these genres there is also the "punk" aspect. This refers to the subversion of traditional views about the particular subject. Steampunk deals with questions of feminism, colonialism and class-ism. Cyberpunk tackles issues like artificial intelligence, electronic communications, identity and modern crime.
After thinking for a long time about what I wanted to write about I came up with the idea of Fissionpunk. This would be a world where nuclear fission is used to its fullest capabilities. Where electric cars are cheap and reliable, where you can go online and print your boarding passes for the passenger flight to the moon onboard an NTR rocket, A world where people have gotten over their nuclear fears and sided with science instead of paranoia.
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| Behold the nuclear wasteland. |
We have had the technology to build nuclear fission reactors for power generation since the 1940s. However there are currently only 61 commercial nuclear power plants operating in the us while there are 572 coal plants. This is insane. That would be like if everyone chose to drive around in steam locomotives today when they could drive a honda civic! The specific energy of coal as a fuel is pitiful at about 24 MJ/kg. Compare this to the specific energy of Uranium at 80,620,000 MJ/kg.
It seems like everyone is looking so far ahead they are ignoring what we could be doing right now. Everyone is looking for aneutronic fusion reactors, interstellar space travel, artificial intelligence, terraforming and the fountain of youth. Fissionpunk takes a step back and says "Let's colonise the solar system! Let's bring reliable power to developing countries! Let's trust engineers and scientists to make nuclear policy instead of career politicians!"
So this is the general world I want to write in. I know it is very broad but over the next couple posts I will start to do some worldbuilding and introduce some of my more specific ideas.
That is all for now! Thanks for reading!
