Futurism and science fiction have traditionally given comparatively less importance to biotechnology and the biological sciences, preferring instead to focus on other fields such as artificial intelligence and space exploration. In this article, I explore the potential of a "biopunk" world, where the fields that have traditionally constituted the main focus of futurism progress only modestly while the biological sciences and biotechnology progress tremendously. This is not exactly an effort at prediction, but merely an exploration of a distinct set of possibilities. My intent was to explore the limits of what can be achieved relying on life and biological and bio-inspired systems alone. Topics discussed in the article include:

• Biological nanotechnology (using DNA and proteins as biological nanobots), which I believe to be built on a stronger chemical foundation than the classical "Drexlerian" view of nanotechnology.
• Organic electronics and biological information processing systems (DNA computing) and others.
• Potential applications of biotechnologies to architecture and transportation
• "Conventional" uses of biotechnology (for medicine, food production, etc), discussed more briefly because I wanted to focus on less talked-about ideas.