An interesting subgroup of the science fiction genre is that of the alternate history. Its basic premise is a change in a historic event that changes the subsequent series of events and consequences. One common "what if" question is what would happen if the North lost the Civil War, and so forth. Another subgroup is that of steampunk, which like cyberpunk extrapolates on a current technology and how it affects the society. The difference is in the fact that this occurs in the Victorian and Edwardian era rather than the current time period of computers. This site is a wonderful hybrid of both in a very imaginative way.