Steam power is a development that never caught on; in fact, it's been relegated to "the scrap heap of technological curiosities," which feels like Tregillis' winking dismissal of the subgenre of steampunk, which The Mechanical resembles in many ways. But where steampunk often fetishizes the colonialism of the Victorian Era, Tregillis' vision of a clockpunk world takes the injustices of empire to task.

They basically tried to define what exactly steampunk is — and distinguished it from other faux genres and subgenres including "clockpunk" and "dreampunk" — and then voted on various examples from pop culture as to whether they are steampunk.

[Clockpunk is a] literary combination of history and imagination — a sub-genre of Steampunk that portrays technology based off inventions pre-Industrial Revolution (I.R.), during the Enlightenment era. Whereas Steampunk is based post I.R. in the Victorian era. Typically Clockpunk does not include electricity or steam contraptions (they weren't invented yet). Instead we have sun, water, or spring powered gear devises. (clock)

But Clockpunk is about more than just what the world would be like with only clock technology, it’s a way of life, a philosophy, so to say. It stems from a culture of people who decided to take action/rebel against the societal norm. (punk)

After reading some of what Steampunk has to say about TL(5+1), I'm thinking about what possibilities there are for clockpunk, TL(4+1) (ala Leonardo da Vinci's wilder imaginings, or more reliable inventions of 'tinker gnomes').