What biopunk, cyberpunk, geopunk and Indigenous futurism are—and what they are not.

2026-08-22 | Or, the four pillars of our future.

Biopunk.

We are familiar with the biopunk genre from films like Predator, The Fly or Zoo. Either things glow in neon colors, or genetic experiments go wrong.

IRL: mRNA vaccines, CRISPR/Cas9, in-vitro gametogenesis (IVG) utilizing the Yamanaka transcription factors (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, c-Myc) and in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Everything already exists, everything has already been developed and is accepted or used by the general public—just not in Europe.

Cyberpunk.

We are familiar with the cyberpunk genre from films like Tron, Blade Runner 2049 or The Creator. It is always about corporations or the West suppressing something or someone.

IRL: You remember the Master Control Program (MCP) in Tron. In the past, we called it Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)—a company deciding who is good enough to manage their permanently broken Microsoft infrastructure. Today, our political leaders push us into that exact same cloud. We build Europe as a fortress (and the USA a wall) because we are terrified of migration—yet we know we are facing a massive shortage of skilled workers and an aging population. Meanwhile, China showcases the Robotera L7 humanoid robot at their New Year celebration and Eric Hartford pushes the absolute limits of what is possible with the Dolphin LLM series.

Geopunk.

We are familiar with the geopunk genre from films like SeaQuest, Mad Max: Fury Road or Mortal Engines. It always shows us a future version of our world—one that we ourselves have destroyed.

IRL: Planned deep-sea mining; Israel losing the battle against the nomad jellyfish (Rhopilema nomadica) despite possessing the NSO Group; the Gaza Strip; the refugee camps in Chad; Daulatdia; Laylayan ng Lipunan (Tagalog: the hem/edge of society); La periferia social (Spanish: the social periphery) and so on.

Indigenous futurism.

We are familiar with the Indigenous futurism genre from films like Jupiter Ascending (the harvesting of human populations by oppressors), Stargate (the ascension of humans to a higher plane, like the Ancients) or On Deadly Ground (the deliberate exploitation of Indigenous cultures).

IRL: Iceland respects the HuldufĂłlk and their nature spirits, just as the First Nations and other ancient cultures defend their own heritage.

Could it be that only in the European Union, the world has stopped rotating?

Tala Cruz Magellan, a fictional protagonist. A near 20-year-old woman with a dark (morena) complexion in the center of the picture. She wears her long, dark hair loose and is dressed in a woodsman/ranger style. Behind her stands a black horse. The horse's head has a small white spot on its forehead. The horse's head is on the left side of the image (to her right). She holds the reins loosely (indicated but outside the frame). The landscape is rugged but green. In the background, steep mountains rise, partially shrouded in clouds. It is daytime, but the sun is not visible and there is no wind.
Tala Cruz Magellan, a fictional protagonist. A near 20-year-old woman with a dark (morena) complexion, born to a European father and a Filipina mother. She is highly intelligent, independent and fiercely self-confident. To centrist Christian-social and right-wing political parties, she represents the absolute embodiment of evil: as a human being, they do not want her; as a skilled professional, they cannot get her. Created using Juggernaut XL Ragnarok.
Juggernaut XL Ragnarok prompt. 

  -- What we all want—and only some will deserve and get. --
  ./bin/sd-cli -m ./models/juggernautXL_ragnarok.safetensors \
  -p "An epic, cinematic masterpiece portrait of a young \
  woman in her early 20s, mixed race, half European and half \
  Filipina with distinct morena sun-kissed skin tone. She is \
  standing resiliently in a rugged Patagonian wilderness, \
  surrounded by dense, resilient green vegetation, mosses, \
  and wind-swept shrubs. Beside her stands a sturdy, \
  dark-coated horse, its mane moving slightly in the wind. \
  In the background, the dramatic, vast landscapes of Tierra \
  del Fuego stretch toward a heavy, dark, overcast sky. \
  Hyper-realistic, dramatic moody lighting, volumetric fog, \
  high contrast, dark fantasy aesthetic, intricate details \
  on her weathered clothing, photorealistic texture, octane \
  render, 8k resolution, Ragnarok style." -n "modern \
  cities, technology, cars, neon colors, bright blue sky, \
  tropical palms, flawless makeup, glamor, plastic skin, \
  low resolution, blurry, poor quality, watermark, \
  signature, text, duplicate horse, deformed hands, extra \
  limbs" --sampling-method dpm++2m --steps 35 --cfg-scale \
  7.0 --width 1344 --height 768 --vae-on-cpu
  -- © 2026 Christoph R. Winter --
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Media Owner: Christoph R. Winter, Hohentauern, Austria.
Editorial mission: Independent Worldbuilding, where the reader is the co-author to fill the gap. Subversive Storytelling to create Immersive Reality.