Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios,
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and I heart Radio and I love
Speaker 1: all things tech. And today we're getting a real blast
Speaker 1: from the past as well as a blast from the
Speaker 1: fictional past. It is time for another classic episode of
Speaker 1: tech Stuff, and in this episode, we're going to look
Speaker 1: at the speculative fiction sub category known as steampunk, the
Speaker 1: aesthetic that is based on a history that never was,
Speaker 1: history of brass and copper and steam that ended up
Speaker 1: never evolving beyond that technology, but influenced everything to come
Speaker 1: after it. And this has sort of gone through a
Speaker 1: little bit of a lull, I would say, over the
Speaker 1: last soveral years. For a while, it was very much
Speaker 1: in fashion, at least in the speculative fiction world, in
Speaker 1: science fiction conventions and that kind of thing. You don't
Speaker 1: see it quite as much anymore, but there's still people
Speaker 1: who really cling to this and really enjoy it. I
Speaker 1: happen to be one of them. Just about a pair
Speaker 1: of sunglasses, they kind of fall into that aesthetic. So
Speaker 1: let's listen back on this episode, which originally aired on
Speaker 1: August two thousand and twelve. So we wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about steampunk, and one of our sister podcast, pop Stuff,
Speaker 1: has has addressed steampunk, but we thought we would talk
Speaker 1: about steampunk as well, because we're doing this whole series
Speaker 1: of episodes about technology that you reinvent, you know, in
Speaker 1: some way, so it is different from what it originally was,
Speaker 1: and and steampunk is is sort of an aesthetic approach
Speaker 1: to that it's and it's not confined solely to technology.
Speaker 1: In fact, you would argue, I would argue that it
Speaker 1: originally was a literary genre or sub honra and so
Speaker 1: let's kind of talk about what it is before we
Speaker 1: get into any steampunk hacks that we have seen and
Speaker 1: enjoyed on the interwebs. So you're familiar with some of
Speaker 1: the the forefathers of modern science fiction. We're therefore there's
Speaker 1: many more than that, right, Well, it's f O R E. H.
Speaker 1: So Jules Verne, Jules Verne, very famous author H. H. G.
Speaker 1: Wells another one. Yes, Jules Verne and H. G. Wells
Speaker 1: together produced a lot of work that kind of serves
Speaker 1: as a an inspiration for the steampunk movement. Yes, and
Speaker 1: if they had actually worked together around the world in
Speaker 1: eighty days could have been accomplished with a time machine
Speaker 1: and it wouldn't have taken around the world yesterday. So
Speaker 1: uh sorry, but the time machine didn't only travel in
Speaker 1: time but not in space. Wasn't that its thing? Anyway?
Speaker 1: So the the the Yeah, so you'd have to have
Speaker 1: it on the on the balloon, I guess nothing bad
Speaker 1: could happen from that, right, So so the the the
Speaker 1: aesthetic that Jules Vernon H. G. Wells kind of set
Speaker 1: is sort of what creates the foundation for steampunk. Steam
Speaker 1: Punk in general takes a very Victorian era approach to technology. Yes,
Speaker 1: the idea is, what if during the Victorian era, uh,
Speaker 1: tinkerers who have been able to build some of the
Speaker 1: more complex electronics and machinery that we have at our
Speaker 1: disposal today, but with that Victorian aesthetic and the materials
Speaker 1: that they would have used during that era. So you
Speaker 1: get a lot of stuff with copper and brass and
Speaker 1: uh and and sometimes things like vacuum tubes and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, although that's vacuum tubes earlier post Victorian, but anyway,
Speaker 1: you get you get the lots of wood as well,
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of these materials that you
Speaker 1: would find in Victorian furniture and things like that would
Speaker 1: be incorporated into this sort of technology of this this
Speaker 1: fictional world, this world that could have been but wasn't. So. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Victorian area that we're talking about is the late
Speaker 1: nineteenth century, so you know, around the eighteen eighties. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of different literature that came out around that time,
Speaker 1: eighteen eighties, eighteen nineties. Uh that that that really influences
Speaker 1: the steampunk aesthetics. So some of it is some of
Speaker 1: it is stuff that H. G. Wells and Jules Verne writing.
Speaker 1: Some of it is stuff like uh sar Arthur Glendon Doyle,
Speaker 1: the Sherlock Home stories. That that definitely influences a lot
Speaker 1: of the steampunk aesthetic too. It's not just technology. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of different things, but it's it's that feel,
Speaker 1: especially the feel that you would associate with something like
Speaker 1: London during this era. Although steampunk, I would say steampunk
Speaker 1: is kind of very much an English influenced um esthetic
Speaker 1: or movement, or at least Western European. Yeah. And the
Speaker 1: reason why I say English is because a lot of
Speaker 1: the steampunk stuff I see is based off Victorian fashion
Speaker 1: or colonial fashion, the stuff that was done during that
Speaker 1: late UH nineteenth century colonial era, like in in UH
Speaker 1: in India. So you'll see a lot of steampunk that
Speaker 1: takes design elements from that as well. But the the
Speaker 1: idea of creating the sort of science fiction world based
Speaker 1: on the Victorian era of technology is a little more modern.
Speaker 1: I mean, their inspiration comes from writers that we're writing
Speaker 1: around that era, but later writers really kind of brought
Speaker 1: that back up, like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling who
Speaker 1: wrote The Difference Engine, which kind of brought this aesthetic
Speaker 1: into UH, the idea of well, what if we take
Speaker 1: this basic form of technology and then go a different
Speaker 1: evolutionary path than what we actually in reality took. And
Speaker 1: so this created this sort of idea of neo Victorian
Speaker 1: UH technology, and you really think about you would have
Speaker 1: advances in certain areas but not advances in others, and
Speaker 1: it's really arbitrary where those advances are. So, for example,
Speaker 1: in a steampunk world, you might have the equivalent of
Speaker 1: personal computer devices, even handheld computer devices, although they'd probably
Speaker 1: be clunkier and made out of different materials than what
Speaker 1: our current ones are. But you might not have airplanes
Speaker 1: because the blimps in dirigibles are incredibly popular with the
Speaker 1: steampunk crowd. It's this idea of this sort of world
Speaker 1: of of luxury and uh, everything's a lot more. Uh,
Speaker 1: it takes up a lot more space than what we're
Speaker 1: typically used to. But I think the person who really
Speaker 1: kind of nails why the steampunk aesthetic is so compelling
Speaker 1: to certain people is Mark Fraunfelder, who was a He's
Speaker 1: the editor in chief of Make magazine and was the
Speaker 1: co founder of Boing Boing. Yes, and he says the
Speaker 1: Victorian era was the great age of the amateur, where
Speaker 1: non professionals could contribute to the advancement of science. And
Speaker 1: because these amateurs were most often well healed gentleman, great
Speaker 1: emphasis was placed on ornamental beauty in their equipment. So
Speaker 1: the idea here is that the average person with with
Speaker 1: the right education would be able to make advances in
Speaker 1: science and technology, whereas today you're talking about really specialized,
Speaker 1: really advanced fields. Right, it feels like you have to
Speaker 1: be part of a much larger project often in order
Speaker 1: for you to make a big impact in those areas.
Speaker 1: It's not entirely true, but it's more true than not.
Speaker 1: So the Victorian era was a time where you could
Speaker 1: be on the cutting edge. You could be an average
Speaker 1: person with a good education and be on the cutting
Speaker 1: edge of science and technology at that time and thus
Speaker 1: be able to make your own impact on it. So
Speaker 1: that is one of the reasons why it's so compelling.
Speaker 1: Also with the emphasis on ornamentation, so um, it's it's
Speaker 1: funny that you would bring that up. Was that, well,
Speaker 1: I mean one of the uh Now, one of the
Speaker 1: things that you'll find if you start looking for uh
Speaker 1: steampunk and search engine on the computer, one of the
Speaker 1: first things you're going to find is uh clothing. There
Speaker 1: are lots and lots of of well, i mean existing
Speaker 1: clothing that you know, I'm sure that people are really
Speaker 1: excited about because they really wanted to make lots of
Speaker 1: bowler hats but couldn't figure out why no one would
Speaker 1: buy them or top hats anymore, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: they're going. Steam has really increased the demand for certain
Speaker 1: articles of clothing and vests and pocket watches. Watches are
Speaker 1: crazy and and some of these pieces of clothing don't
Speaker 1: necessarily have any uh added ornamentation to them. They may
Speaker 1: very well, be essentially a Victorian costume, but then you
Speaker 1: would might have a coutrement which makes that go beyond
Speaker 1: a period costume and turn it more into steampunk. Yes.
Speaker 1: For example, goggles seem extremely popular. Well they must requirement
Speaker 1: with the steampunk costume. Um. Yes, And I'm not making
Speaker 1: fun of anybody who who does steampunk and likes goggles.
Speaker 1: It just seems that they're ubiquitous and it's not. Uh, well,
Speaker 1: you think about the early people who were driving or flying, Um,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have a windscreen necessarily. Yeah, so you you'd
Speaker 1: see that, you know, they'd have their their driving outfit
Speaker 1: where they had the gloves and the hat with the
Speaker 1: goggles to keep the dust out of your eyes. Very necessary.
Speaker 1: But the funny thing, and I I find this amusing,
Speaker 1: but not again not in a making fun way, just
Speaker 1: sort of, um, that's kind of funny sort of way. Um,
Speaker 1: the people who some of the people who do who
Speaker 1: dress in the steampunk fashion embrace the the clothing, will
Speaker 1: you know, use unadorned goggles just sort of the same
Speaker 1: kind of thing. But I've seen others that have really
Speaker 1: modified them with brass fittings, hands, flares and things that
Speaker 1: you know, really make them stand out, and they're they're
Speaker 1: very large, and it's just it's kind of amusing to
Speaker 1: me because I'm going, wow, you're really going out of
Speaker 1: your way to draw attention to the goggles. Well, and
Speaker 1: they might, they might have a fun they might have
Speaker 1: attachments where they have different filters like glass exactly like
Speaker 1: a like a magnifying lens that you can swivel in
Speaker 1: or out of the way. Well, yeah, it's it's and
Speaker 1: again there you have the idea of well, the practicality
Speaker 1: would be if you are a tinkerer, then you would
Speaker 1: have this magnifying glass that you could see the very small,
Speaker 1: intricate parts. You're doing all this work with their hands,
Speaker 1: at least in theory. You know. Now, a lot of
Speaker 1: the people who are into steampunk do not necessarily make
Speaker 1: their own gear. But the folks who do, uh take
Speaker 1: a lot of pride in it, you know, because again,
Speaker 1: these are works not just of of technology or costume,
Speaker 1: their works of art. You know, there's there's artistry that
Speaker 1: goes into this. Although there are those who will say that,
Speaker 1: you know, there are plenty of people out there who
Speaker 1: are into steampunk who what they'll do is they'll get
Speaker 1: a costume to throw on a pair of goggles. They
Speaker 1: might wear a necklace has a gear on it and boom,
Speaker 1: it's steampunk. Uh. Then there are others who will go
Speaker 1: into great detail on their costumes and incorporate these really
Speaker 1: intricate pieces of equipment and even come up with very
Speaker 1: uh whimsical names for for the things, because you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're using that Victorian naming convention where it's almost
Speaker 1: like Louis Carroll has named all of their items, where
Speaker 1: it's it's this odd you know, nothing is nothing is
Speaker 1: a simple device. They're all going to be uh adorned
Speaker 1: with these very elaborate names. Um. Like, for example, instead
Speaker 1: of saying a computer, you might say that it is
Speaker 1: a manipulator of random information or something like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's um, you know, the the or you it's some
Speaker 1: variation on the difference engine. Because they're actually that's a
Speaker 1: good example to say. If you've ever seen an picture
Speaker 1: of the replica of Babbage's difference engine, people have actually
Speaker 1: built the difference engine. Uh. It's a massive device made
Speaker 1: out of brass and other medals, and you see all
Speaker 1: these gears and things that you turn, and that's how
Speaker 1: you work this this difference engine that speaks a lot
Speaker 1: to the aesthetics of that Victorian era where you've got
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't need to look sleek. It can
Speaker 1: look complicated, complicated and even bulky, but it's done in
Speaker 1: such a way that it's uh emphasizing the aesthetic not
Speaker 1: you know, it's not it doesn't look like a big
Speaker 1: clunky piece of equipment ideally unless that was, of course
Speaker 1: the intent from the big get go. But yeah, if
Speaker 1: you if you look up these devices, you'll often come
Speaker 1: across names that are just uh, you know, really tongue
Speaker 1: twisters and and you know there's usually an ether thrown
Speaker 1: in there somewhere, like it uses it uses the ether.
Speaker 1: This this nebulous source of energy. UM one uh, one
Speaker 1: really cool thing about steampunk and it it could be
Speaker 1: frustrating for somebody who's getting into it, UM who may
Speaker 1: need a little bit more structure. Is that unlike other
Speaker 1: um hobbyists and cost players and and you know, groups
Speaker 1: of of that style, UM, you don't have like a
Speaker 1: Star Trek universe or a Star Wars universe or a
Speaker 1: Lord of the Rings. You don't have something that tells
Speaker 1: you what is and what isn't steampunk. So for example,
Speaker 1: you have somebody who dresses in Victorian garb and they
Speaker 1: are speaking uh, you know, English, with the the verbal
Speaker 1: expressions that they might use in vernacular of the Yes,
Speaker 1: the vernacular of the time. However, Uh, they might have
Speaker 1: a uh, they might use a computer with brass fittings
Speaker 1: and ornamentation on the front. Or they might carry ray
Speaker 1: guns of the buck Rogers, talking like old style buck Rogers,
Speaker 1: you know, with the big bulgy stuff in the big
Speaker 1: um cannab on the on the shooting end. So it
Speaker 1: could be anything could be steampunk because there's not you're
Speaker 1: not having to go, well, that's cannon or that's not cannon.
Speaker 1: So it could be kind of anything you wanted to be.
Speaker 1: If you if you look at um, like you know
Speaker 1: what kind you know, Weather Industries, what the effects companies
Speaker 1: that did fiction effects, They did the they did a
Speaker 1: lot of the props for the Lord of the Rings movies. Um,
Speaker 1: they have a division called Dr groad Boards uh and
Speaker 1: it's uh Dr gord Boards ray guns essentially, and these
Speaker 1: are yes, yes, beautiful devices, but these are all designed
Speaker 1: after that old science fiction aesthetic, which definitely is related
Speaker 1: to steampunk, but it's not necessarily. It isn't isn't yeah,
Speaker 1: because because some of the ideally the steampunk type stuff
Speaker 1: should look like it's technology that runs on Victorian era resources,
Speaker 1: thus the steam the steam power being far more common
Speaker 1: than other forms. Chris and I have more to say
Speaker 1: about steampunk, but first let's take a quick break. There
Speaker 1: are other forms of this punk aesthetic too. There's diesel punk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was gonna mentioned that you had done something on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: diesel punk is is a slightly later era. It's usually
Speaker 1: like World War One era technology aesthetic. So the aesthetic
Speaker 1: is different the you know, and you would argue that
Speaker 1: the whatever is running the technology is a different source
Speaker 1: of energy, but it's the same sort of idea that
Speaker 1: you're taking this aesthetic from a different time period and
Speaker 1: applying it to modern day clothing, electronics, all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 1: I have an example that I wanted to mention something
Speaker 1: that I thought was really clever in the sense that
Speaker 1: a lot of the steampunk projects you'll see are not
Speaker 1: just beautiful but are also equally um impractical. But but
Speaker 1: they're impractical on purpose. They're not you know, it's practicality
Speaker 1: was not part of the design element. So one of
Speaker 1: those is what It's a project that was created by
Speaker 1: John Knight, as in, uh, let's get up on horse
Speaker 1: and have a squire night. He created something that he
Speaker 1: calls the Electromagnetic Geospatial Globe and remote view with obligatory
Speaker 1: goggles and goggles have to be in there. But this
Speaker 1: is uh, this is his version of Google Earth and
Speaker 1: what it is. What what he can do is he
Speaker 1: runs Google Earth on a computer and this globe, this
Speaker 1: it looks like a big brass globe, is hooked up
Speaker 1: to the computer. So as he uh moves a little
Speaker 1: uh indicator on the physical globe, the virtual globe on
Speaker 1: Google Earth will turn and show whatever point is in
Speaker 1: focus on his indicator on the screen. So, in other words,
Speaker 1: it's a way to navigate Google Earth using a physical globe.
Speaker 1: And uh it's kind of an interesting um approach. It
Speaker 1: again not necessarily practical, but definitely very visually arresting, very pretty. Uh.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of really well known artists within
Speaker 1: the steampunk world. UH. Two of them I wanted to
Speaker 1: mention in particular, although there are lots and lots of them,
Speaker 1: don't don't think that you know these are like the
Speaker 1: end all be all but one of them in particular,
Speaker 1: is known for his his work as as sort of
Speaker 1: a pioneer in the steampunk physical Let's make stuff space,
Speaker 1: and that's Jake von Slat. Jake von Slat has done
Speaker 1: lots and lots and lots of of projects where he's
Speaker 1: taken either modern day technology and and put new stuff
Speaker 1: on it to make it have a steampunk sort of aesthetic,
Speaker 1: or has actually built steampunk style devices from the ground
Speaker 1: up that do something that a modern device could do
Speaker 1: in a totally different way. So he's he's taking both
Speaker 1: approaches where he's altering something that exists now or building
Speaker 1: based upon the old methods of building. UM. He was
Speaker 1: featured in in Make magazine actually a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: and I have an article on the site how Steampunk Works,
Speaker 1: and I have some of his work on there as well. Uh.
Speaker 1: He has a website called the Steampunk Workshop where he
Speaker 1: actually shows you if you want to build your own
Speaker 1: steampunk devices, he has do it yourself guides on how
Speaker 1: to do them. Now. For people who want to get
Speaker 1: into this, you have to be really comfortable with using
Speaker 1: things that allow you to work with metals like soldering
Speaker 1: is really important. Uh. You might need you might need
Speaker 1: access to special tools to be able to work metals
Speaker 1: in a way so that you can shape them, and
Speaker 1: not just metals, but would as well, you know, all
Speaker 1: sorts of materials. So you're it's for someone who has
Speaker 1: like a workshop space that has uh the ability to
Speaker 1: use or the access to use these sort of tools.
Speaker 1: It's not necessarily something that you can do just you know,
Speaker 1: go home and fire up the website. Well cool, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make my own steampunk laptop now, because a lot
Speaker 1: of this involves uh, finding things and curiosity shops or
Speaker 1: antique shops or or even like you know, there used
Speaker 1: to be a shop near where I live that sells
Speaker 1: all sorts of old cabinet fittings, and you you could
Speaker 1: go to a place like that and sort through and say, oh,
Speaker 1: this has the look that I'm going for, and you
Speaker 1: take that and you might repurpose it for something totally different,
Speaker 1: Like instead of this being a cabinet handle, it's going
Speaker 1: to be the corner the top left corner of a
Speaker 1: computer display. That kind of thing. Well, you have to
Speaker 1: be able to you know, manipulate that metal in whatever
Speaker 1: way you may have to trim stuff off or reshape something.
Speaker 1: So you may need some special tools for a lot
Speaker 1: of these d I y projects, but he he actually
Speaker 1: goes through what he does to to build out these things.
Speaker 1: And another pretty well known artist in fact, I remember
Speaker 1: seeing some of his work, uh in the sci fi
Speaker 1: series Where House thirteen. So Where House thirteen, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got these these interesting pieces of technology that are
Speaker 1: inside artis office where he's got like a computer that
Speaker 1: has these old typewriter keys instead of regular keys. Those
Speaker 1: were built by a guy named Richard doc Nagy also
Speaker 1: known as Data Manser and data Manswer has done some
Speaker 1: really amazing work with custom keyboards, laptops, uh, desktop computers.
Speaker 1: He's really created some neat stuff, and not just in
Speaker 1: the steampunk aesthetic. He's also branched out. He did some
Speaker 1: in a sort of an Art Deco inspired approach as well.
Speaker 1: So he's he's tried a couple of different things. He
Speaker 1: takes commissions um and his work is really really labor intensive,
Speaker 1: so they are expensive things to buy. But on the
Speaker 1: other hand, these are devices that are made by hand
Speaker 1: from materials that are more expensive than plastic. So the
Speaker 1: expense is in not just the labor but also the
Speaker 1: artistry that goes into it. So you know, you might
Speaker 1: sit there and think, oh my gosh, that's a keyboard.
Speaker 1: I can't spend twe buying a keyboard from my computer.
Speaker 1: But then you think, all right, when you factor in
Speaker 1: the materials that went into it, how much time was
Speaker 1: spent for him to track down all the different stuff
Speaker 1: that he used to make it, and also just the
Speaker 1: hours of of work that he puts into it, then
Speaker 1: you start figuring, Okay, now it's it's a work of
Speaker 1: art that I'm buying, not just a functional piece of technology. Yeah. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean there are there are people who actually make
Speaker 1: their living modifying people's living spaces. Um. I went to
Speaker 1: a modern Victorian which is at mad vic dot com,
Speaker 1: and they basically remake people's homes into steampunk like environments.
Speaker 1: Um you know, wood burning stoves and um, you know,
Speaker 1: portholes and things you might see bad of the Nautilus,
Speaker 1: big big gears that you would turn in order to
Speaker 1: open the door instead of a regular door knob. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I mean just that that kind of thing. And if
Speaker 1: you've got the either the ability to do it yourself
Speaker 1: or the wherewithal to pay someone who knows what they're doing. Um,
Speaker 1: you can do that too, but just in the creativity
Speaker 1: that that's involved in doing that, and even even something
Speaker 1: as simple as you know, the keyboards that you see
Speaker 1: with the typewriter keys instead of uh, computer keys. Um,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of fascinating. I saw one computer desk
Speaker 1: that had pipes behind it, or you know, at the
Speaker 1: back where it made it look sort of as the
Speaker 1: as though the computer we're sitting in as part of
Speaker 1: a pipe organ And it was just kind of cool.
Speaker 1: The the idea behind that. We haven't run out steam yet,
Speaker 1: see what I did there. But before we get back
Speaker 1: into the discussion, let's take another quick break. There's no
Speaker 1: large company that I can think of that that makes
Speaker 1: this stuff in in amounts that make it would make
Speaker 1: it cheap for the average person to own one of these.
Speaker 1: You know, this is all done by hand, but you
Speaker 1: know you can also say, uh, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: done custom work. Not everybody is going to own something
Speaker 1: like this. Um, there are a lot of one of
Speaker 1: the kind pieces out there. Yeah, and it's also an
Speaker 1: opportunity for uh, for you know, the casual hacker to
Speaker 1: maybe try his or her hand at something like this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean this is you know, their plans and and
Speaker 1: and things like this, and not all the projects are
Speaker 1: super complex. And that's that's sort of again, that's the
Speaker 1: whole point that uh that was made about the appeal
Speaker 1: of steampunk in the first places, that you are creating
Speaker 1: something that's much more personal to you. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not this mass produced piece of technology that looks exactly
Speaker 1: like every single other version of that particular device, right
Speaker 1: like every iPhone, like every iPhone four looks like every
Speaker 1: other iPhone four until you put like a skin on
Speaker 1: it or put a case around it or whatever. But
Speaker 1: you know, on its own, they all look the same.
Speaker 1: And it's this this approach to mass manufacturer that has
Speaker 1: created sort of a homogenized approach to technology, and this
Speaker 1: is kind of a rejection of that, saying I want
Speaker 1: something that has more personality to it. It's just that
Speaker 1: this is a personality that evokes a very specific feel
Speaker 1: and era. So it's interesting because every year that passes,
Speaker 1: I think, okay, steampunk has gotta like that that fat
Speaker 1: is got to be on the decline by now, because
Speaker 1: there are artists who get into it and they're really
Speaker 1: really active in it. For a couple of years and
Speaker 1: then some of them are saying, you know, I really
Speaker 1: want to do other stuff. I had fun with that,
Speaker 1: it was great, But as an artist, I want to grow,
Speaker 1: so I want to try different things. So I often
Speaker 1: expect to see that kind of trickled down to the
Speaker 1: general uh steampunk niche. Like I was gonna say general public,
Speaker 1: but really steampunk is a very specific niche of people. Um,
Speaker 1: but so far that hasn't really happened. We'll have to
Speaker 1: keep our eyes open because I mean, I find it
Speaker 1: a very compelling aesthetic myself. I really do like the
Speaker 1: look of it and uh and and it does have
Speaker 1: an interesting um impact on me emotionally when I see
Speaker 1: something that's been really well designed and a very clever design.
Speaker 1: Because well designed and clever again doesn't necessarily mean that
Speaker 1: the device is practical. Sometimes the more impractical it is,
Speaker 1: the more enjoyable it is. That's true. That's true. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a it's a human thing, I think.
Speaker 1: Um and yeah, I am fascinated by alternate histories and anachronisms. Um,
Speaker 1: you know it. It's the what IF's if you will
Speaker 1: um and just to imagine the like the what if
Speaker 1: you know, you have a steam steampowered world with the internet.
Speaker 1: You know, how could those things go together? You know,
Speaker 1: handwriting messages and sticking them in pneumatic tubes? Right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, my dad started writing a science fiction novel,
Speaker 1: uh that was based in a steampunk type world, and uh,
Speaker 1: sadly he was one of those projects that never they
Speaker 1: never completed. But it was funny because when he was
Speaker 1: writing it, it was before steampunk had really become a thing.
Speaker 1: Like there were some examples, early examples in the genre,
Speaker 1: and I think had he had he completed, it would
Speaker 1: have been one of them. It certainly would have been
Speaker 1: an interesting addition to the library of literature that supports
Speaker 1: this genre. Uh. Of course, we'll never know because it's
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe one day he'll go back and finish it,
Speaker 1: but by then it's gonna seem like he's following a
Speaker 1: trend as opposed to being on the forefront of it.
Speaker 1: At least it's not another vampire book. You know. It's
Speaker 1: funny you mentioned it's the steam powered vampires. There's sparkle, No,
Speaker 1: not at all, not even a there's a steam powered
Speaker 1: vampire that sparkles in the daylight, but he gets invited
Speaker 1: to go to a wizard college. No with where wolves, right,
Speaker 1: I wonder how many more I can fit in there.
Speaker 1: There's a Chicago detective who's also a magician who shows
Speaker 1: up No, uh, none of this is true. And there's
Speaker 1: a good cop in a bad cop right. And that
Speaker 1: concludes another classic episode of tech Stuff. Hope you guys
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. Obviously, since two thousand twelve, there's been a
Speaker 1: lot more stuff in the steampunk world, although you could
Speaker 1: argue it has been losing steam as of late. I
Speaker 1: don't see quite as much in popular fiction that falls
Speaker 1: into that category as I used to. I still see
Speaker 1: it now and then, just not everywhere. But if you
Speaker 1: guys have any suggestion for future topics, whether they involve
Speaker 1: speculative fiction or not, feel free to send them to
Speaker 1: me the email addresses tech Stuff at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com, or pop on over to our website that's
Speaker 1: tech stuff podcast dot com. There you will find links
Speaker 1: to our social media sites, so you can contact me
Speaker 1: that way, or hey, pop on over to our our
Speaker 1: online store. There's a link there over at tech stuff
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Speaker 1: logo t shirts or coffee mugs or mouse pads or
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff, and we have some fun designs
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Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon. Tex Stuff is a
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