One of my betas from last semester was listening to some passages from my book (which takes place in the near-ish future). He kept telling me halfway through his analysis that I should turn it into a steampunk novel, to which I often found myself replying "No, because all of this relies on (Modern history events) and if it wasn't like this, then I would be able to allow (character) to (plot element), not to mention that genetic engineering of the type that I'm using in that time period would be next to impossible, as you simply isn't the same science as coal-powered mechs and old-fashiony electric gizmos."