Seampunk is not Victorian Science Fiction

Victorian SF is Victorian SF. Steampunk superficially resembles it in a few ways, but the differences are large and fundamental. Victorian Science Fiction is futurist -- the people of the day looking forward. Steampunk is largely informed by retrofuturism: looking forward as if one were living in a prior time, but informed by a modern understanding of what the future can hold. As Steampunks, we also look forward from the modern day informed by those aspects of the past we deem worthwhile.